Maybe it’s all the early-budding trees, or maybe my sweet tooth has gotten out of control but I’ve been in a serious ice cream mood. You know the one, the ‘run to the corner store for ice cream in completely unacceptable clothing hoping you don’t see anyone you know’ kind of mood. I worked on a ricotta ice cream recipe I never got around to posting over the summer and now I know what it was waiting for: spicy honey. I’ve been a little obsessed with making my own ice cream since talking my husband into a machine during the hottest summer on record in Seattle and this is one of my favorites (did I mention one of my top reasons for moving here from Texas is that I hate being hot? Joke’s on me?). I’ll be keeping a supply of this in my freezer well, forever.
- 4 eggs
- 1 c sugar
- ½ tsp citrus zest
- 4 c heavy cream
- 1 c ricotta
- pinch of salt
- 2 tsp ground vanilla beans or half a vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- ¼- 1/2 c Bees Knees Spicy Honey, to taste
- chopped roasted, salted pistachios if desired
- In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and zest together until pale yellow and fluffy. Set aside.
- Combine heavy cream and ricotta in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan and scald it (heat it until steam rises and small bubbles form around edges). Remove from heat.
- Slowly whisk the hot cream into the egg and sugar mixture, add a pinch of salt, and return mixture to double boiler. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture coats the back of a spoon.
- Cool slightly, then pulse in a blender, strain using a fine-mesh sieve, add the ground vanilla beans and refrigerate until cold.
- Once thoroughly chilled, whisk the cream mixture briefly and churn according to your manufacturer's instructions. Just before churning is complete, drizzle ¼ c of the honey into the ice cream, tasting as you go and adding more if you'd like. I used about ½ c, but I wanted it spicy. Put the ice cream in a freezer-safe container, cover, and chill.
- Take the ice cream out of the freezer and allow it to soften for 10 minutes before serving. Drizzle with spicy honey and chopped pistachios.
A big ‘ol thanks to Hatchery for the goodies used in this post! As always, any opinions shared are my own.
These flavors sound so beautiful together! I love the addition of pistachios too, it’s one of my favorite nuts. Beautiful photos too, as usual! <3
Thank you so much, Erica 🙂
I recently tried honeycomb and the purest honey I’ve ever tasted drizzled on a super light soft serve ice cream, and it was so utterly delicious! The textures were so incredible and I never would have imagined one little ingredient to make such a difference. This sounds great~I mean, how much better than ricotta can it get?? 🙂
Yummmm that sounds so good!! And right?! I love ricotta on its own, it’s even better in a creamy ice cream!