If dandelion wine captures the essence of summer for adults, then dandelion ice cream sums it up for kids. This flower-infused treat is sweetened with honey. All you need is one cup of dandelion petals, which should be available on any respectable pesticide-free lawn.
Making dandelions into ice cream isn’t a new idea, but rather than blossoms, most recipes use roasted dandelion roots. The book Pacific Feast: A Foragers Guide to West Coast Cooking and Cuisine has a recipe for roasted dandelion root ice cream. I’d imagine that it tastes a bit like coffee, given that roasted dandelion roots are used as a wild coffee substitute.
The blossoms have an entirely different character, and they taste like honey when made into a summertime dandelion jelly. I’m playing up their honey notes by sweetening this ice cream with a light clover honey.
Many ice cream recipes use a full cup of sugar to make this amount of ice cream. I think 1/2 a cup of honey is more than sweet enough, but adjust to your own tastes. If you find that you’re craving more sweetness, feel free to top your ice cream bowl with a bit of extra honey.
For the best flavor, remove the green leaves and stem from the dandelion flowers. The green portions have a milky sap that will give ice cream a bitter taste. Reserve just the yellow flower petals to infuse in the cream.
Start by mixing cream, half and half, honey and a pinch of salt in a saucepan. Add in the dandelion petals and bring the mixture to a simmer on the stovetop. Turn off the heat and allow the dandelion petals to infuse in the cream for at least a half an hour.
Strain the dandelion petals, and now you can proceed with making ice cream from the flower-infused cream.
Dandelion & Honey Ice Cream
This floral ice cream infuses dandelion petals into ice cream before sweetening it with honey for the perfect summer treat.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 cup dandelion petals
- 1 pinch sea salt
- 6 egg yolks
Instructions
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Add heavy cream, half and half, honey, salt and dandelion petals to a saucepan. Slowly bring to a simmer without scorching and then remove from heat. Allow dandelions to infuse in the cream for at least 30 minutes.
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Strain the dandelion blossoms from the cream. Pour the cream into another container and rinse out the saucepan to cool it. This is important because egg yolks will scramble if added to a hot pan.
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Add 6 egg yolks to a clean, cooled saucepan. Whisking constantly, slowly add the cream mixture. If the cream is warm enough, the egg mixture will thicken to form a custard.
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Once all the cream mixture is added, continue whisking for another few minutes. If the mixture doesn't thicken to coat the back of a spoon, turn the heat on low and whisk until it thickens. If you have an instant-read thermometer, cook until 175 degrees f.
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Remove from heat and pour into a bowl to chill. Chill the custard mixture in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before processing in an ice cream maker.
SUSAN GODDEN
I was so THRILLED to find this article. I can’t wait till Spring.
BJ
Sounds delicious! Does anyone know if there a way to make this type of ice cream without an ice cream maker? Can we freeze the mixture in the bowl and call it good? I’d rather not go out and buy an ice cream maker – it’s just my husband and I and we don’t eat that much ice cream.
Thanks in advance for suggestions.
Ashley Adamant
Yes! I’ve made this ice cream using just a kitchenaid mixer. Take it out of the freezer every 2 hours and beat it with the paddle blade (or just stir it really good by hand). Then it won’t freeze into a rock and stays light like ice cream.
Sarah
Hi There,
If you don’t have an ice cream maker you take it out and use a kitchen aid to mix it every two hours for how long? How many cycles? Every time I’ve made ice cream it’s rock hard and not scoopable. This looks so good. I want to get it right!
Administrator
You can just keep doing that until it is the correct consistency and then freeze it. I have had several recipes do just like you described but I made this recipe for Easter and there is actually still a little bit left in the freezer and is still incredibly soft and scoopable.
Kelia
Hi Ashley, I am in Australia and I do not know what “half & half” is. Could you please tell me what that product is? The ice-cream sounds divine, but we cannot have dairy, so I normally substitute the milk for coconut cream. If the “half & half” is a dairy product of some kind, could you please recommend a non-dairy alternative? Thanks, Kelia xxx
Ashley Adamant
Sure! Half and half is a common dairy preparation here in the US, it’s just basically half milk and half cream together and it’s mostly used for either creaming coffee or making ice cream. A simpler version of this recipe would be 2 cups heavy cream and 1 cup milk for all the dairy in this recipe. You can use whatever non-dairy substitute you usually use in making dairy-free ice cream. Really, you can use whatever ice cream recipe you want, just infuse the dandelion petals into it at the start. So if you have a recipe that works for you as a non-dairy version, make that and just add a dandelion infusing step. Good luck, I hope it’s delicious!
Kelia Keogh
Thanks Ashley for explaining that. Yes I will definitely make this ice-cream, using coconut cream instead of dairy cream & milk. I have been adding Dandelion to so many of my recipes, & had not thought to try it in my homemade ice-cream. Thanks for the inspiration. Kelia xxx
Sinan ozkaraaslan
THANKS YOU FOR ALL
Astrid
Great ice cream! My husband bought 18% cream instead of full cream and half & half. I see now that we could have used the full cream/milk combo. Really flavourful. Nice yellow colour!