Basil Ice Cream by @MysteryMacRae

 

We have beautiful basil growing in two pots on our back stoop – the only place that gets enough sun in the backyard. We’ve been using it in salads, sandwiches, pesto, and other savory dishes, and on the next coolish day I plan to make basil lime shortbread. But on these days when it’s a baking 100 degrees outside, baking inside doesn’t sound like much fun. Ice cream does, though.

A few years ago, a friend brought us some basil ice cream she’d made. I’d never heard of it and have to admit I was a bit skeptical. One bite changed that. It was some of the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten. So with our superabundance of basil, we dragged out the ice cream maker and made a batch. It’s basically mint ice cream using basil in place of the mint. In fact, basil chocolate chip ice cream would probably be delicious, too.   

Basil Ice Cream

Makes 1 ½ pints

Ingredients

1 ½ ounces fresh basil leaves, washed and dried

⅔ cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

⅛teaspoon salt

6 egg yolks

Directions

Make herb sugar by pulsing basil and sugar in a food processor until pulverized.

In a small pot, simmer cream, milk, herb sugar, and salt until sugar dissolves – about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Whisk yolks in a bowl. 

Continuing to whisk, mix about a third of the hot cream mixture into the yolks. Then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the rest of the cream mixture.

Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer). Remove from heat, stir in vanilla, and let custard steep for 30 minutes.

Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl.* Let cool to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in a freezer until needed.

*I couldn’t bear to throw out the beautiful, bright green pulverized, slightly sweetened basil bits we strained out of the custard. I saved it in the fridge and  will use it as topping on the next bowl of ice cream. MMmmmm!

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The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Twitter  or Instagram.