Lavender Honey Ice Cream: Provence and Disney Feels

As you can see, the lavender theme of this food blog continues! I am excited to announce that my small 1 oz bag of lavender is now maybe only 1/4 full now! I'm even starting to get anxious that I'll run out soon, and then order MORE, and then we can continue this happy romance with lavender. It's mildly amusing that I love lavender-flavored desserts (and floral flavors in general) so much because most people I imagine associate florals with perfumes, and if there's one thing I hate unequivocally in this world, its an excess of perfumes. So instead of smelling them, I choose to eat them instead. But seriously, what is wrong with the smell of soap.

I wrote the subtitle for this post a while back, so I got really confused about why I was feeling Disney feels. But then, I started thinking about the gorgeous lavender fields in Provence, France and then inevitably that scene in Beauty and Beast where Belle is running through the grass fields belting out her dreams of adventure after avoiding the unflattering advances of Gaston came to mind. Which, based on my iTunes library/Youtube is from Belle (Reprise).

Gotta love reprises. Though, do they have dandelions in France? Probably. I don't have an excessive amount of that ~wanderlust~ that seemingly every middle to high income 20 year old has, but going to a lavender field would 100% make it on my travel list if I bothered to ever make one. Not that I'll have much time for backpacking trips from the next decade....#academiaorbust.

The great thing about this ice cream is that its a fairly simple flavor- honey and lavender, both of which are detectable and well-balanced in this ice cream (gosh, doesn't that sound SO pretentious? well-balanced). You could probably be extra extra fancy and find an interesting tasting honey, and pair it with fresh farmers market lavender (or idk, take a jet to France if you're into that kind of thing) and have that extra effort actually come out in the flavor of the ice cream. A lot of times you can get away with using generics just because so many flavors are being mixed together in recipes. But I think the extra effort put into finding good ingredients would be worth it here. That being said, cheap honey and dried lavender makes for a great ice cream as well, as I and some tipsy medical students can attest to. I need to stop using ice cream as a crutch for social events.

Recipe via The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, a book I seriously recommend, but you can also find the recipe reposted on other food blog sites, such as this one if you wanted to try before you buy or something.

Also, cool side note, but I'm basically internet famous! Jk, not actually, but a photo from my last post about Asian Glazed Drumsticks was successfully submitted to foodgawker! My battle with natural lighting has finally given me one small victory!

Chocolate Lavender Ice Cream: Flower Power

I've slowly become increasingly resentful of my dedication to the world of food blogging. The part where you take pictures that is. The thing about working in research is that 5 PM is not a set in stone end of the work day hour. So sometimes its a bit later, which combined with fall/winter means darkness by the time I get around to actually taking pictures. The great thing about research is that I could theoretically just leave whenever, like at 3 PM. But I don't like the thought of myself with that much power.

That being said, even with questionable lighting, its not like I'm trying to make it onto foodgawker or get named one of Saveur's top food blogs of the year, so even with unpleasant shadows and bright yellow lights, its still fun. Though its so easy to get carried away into wanting to be ~food blog famous~. But I have other goals and aspirations I can aim to excel in. Food photography? Not so much.

As you can tell, my obsession with incorporating lavender into literally everything continues. I swear I'm going to have enough lavender to last for the next 20 years even if I do add lavender to every single recipe. If you're wondering, those flecks of green are pistachios, but chocolate lavender pistachio ice cream seems like a mouthful, but the pistachios are definitely a nice touch and a nice distraction if you're honestly getting sick of lavender like a certain someone typing this.

Even with my waning interest in lavender though, this was still a really great ice cream. Especially if you're looking to serve something esoteric. If you're not, this chocolate ice cream itself is super rich. It tasted more like fudge ice cream than chocolate ice cream. I'm personally very picky about chocolate in that the richer it is the better. So this chocolate ice cream was right up my alley. If you're not so into rich, dense, dark chocolate, I would suggest another recipe.

Chocolate lavender ice cream recipe from The Wholesome Pursuit, with ~1/4 cup of chopped, lightly roasted pistachios mixed in. Original chocolate ice cream recipe from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. Also, if anyone wants to buy me a present at some point, hint hint.