Honey & Thyme Ice Cream

Vanilla ice cream with the sweet touch of honey and the most subtle hint of thyme—the perfect, most refreshing dessert. It’s delicious by itself, or serve it with a warm slice of pie a la mode!

I am a thyme fanatic. Really, I love all fresh herbs, but I had been thinking specifically about finding a way to use fresh thyme in a dessert. While that might sound a little weird, just wait because it’s about to sound even more weird, but if you trust me, this recipe will knock your socks off!

My great-grandmother bought an ice cream maker for me as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago. I recently used it to make a super creamy mint chocolate chip ice cream because that’s one of mine & Kendall’s favorite flavors, and it was super yummy. Then, a few days ago, I saw a recipe for rosemary infused ice cream, and I wanted to try making my own with honey and thyme instead.

It’s different, but the difference is so soft and VERY refreshing! I really, really want you to try this recipe because it’s somewhat difficult to explain how good an herb-based dessert can actually be, but this one is perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the honey and the subtlety of the thyme, and if you’re an herb-lover like me, you’ll have a hard time eating only one scoop. I promise!

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream, divided

1/3 cup loosely packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

pinch of salt

10-14 sprigs of thyme

1 cup whole milk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

The process:

Time—the second most important “ingredient” to this recipe…right next to the thyme. See what I did there?! Ha! Okay, okay—the point is you want to allow enough time for the thyme to steep in the milk & cream.

After heating & steeping the ingredients in the refrigerator for a few hours, you just remove the sprigs of thyme, pour it into an ice cream maker to mix for about 15 minutes and then pour it into a loaf pan to finish in the freezer. It doesn’t get any easier than that!