Honey Vanilla Ice Cream

There's not much to say about this recipe except that I adore honey and I love creamy vanilla ice cream. So here's my effort at combining the two. I decided if I was going to do this right I was going to use 100% honey (no sugar in sight). Here I learned that the flavor and intensity of particular types of honey vary depending on the flower source of the nectar that the bees collect. There are over 300 varieties of honey found in the US alone, with wildflower, clover, tulepo, and orange blossom being a few of the more common ones. Certain types of honey are much stronger than others. Generally, the the lighter the color the milder the flavor and the darker the color the bolder it is. Since you don't want to be overpowered with each bite, it's best to choose a mild honey for this purpose. While I desire the richness that adding egg yolks lends to ice cream, I suspect you could make this Philadelphia-style and leave them out. If you do- let me know how it goes!

Honey Vanilla Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup mild honey
pinch salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
5 egg yolks

DIRECTIONS
1. With a knife scrape the seeds of the halved vanilla bean into a large heavy saucepan and stir in pods, milk, salt, honey and 1 cup cream. Bring mixture just to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and remove pan from heat.

2. In a large bowl lightly beat eggs. Add hot cream mixture to eggs in a slow stream, whisking (this process is called tempering, if you add the hot cream too fast the eggs will scramble), and pour into pan. Cook custard over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until a thermometer registers 170 F (or the custard coats the back of a spoon). (Do not let boil.) Pour custard through a sieve into a clean bowl, stir in the remaining cup of cream, and cool. Chill custard until cold (preferably overnight).

3. Freeze custard according to ice-cream maker instructions.Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Makes about 1 quart.

(Adapted from French-style Vanilla Bean Ice Cream)