Food Discoveries

[reesek]

Andrea, thank you for sharing your recipe and allowing me to play with it. 

I had fresh figs, and I used fresh thyme instead of dried mint, so I turned this into Fig-Port Ice Cream with Honey and Thyme.  I did triple the amount of milk and egg, since I have a quart size ice cream maker.

Before I go further I will mention that if anybody is so inclined, it would be great for someone else to make this and make modifications in order to refine this "recipe."  It was too sweet for me.  Russ liked the sweetness, but thought that I should have left it with the mint instead of thyme, and tried using fresh mint.  I think that if I had gotten the sweetness right, and maybe used a smaller amount of figs, the thyme is the way to go.  Another thing is that the honey is so thick, I have no idea how close to the amount I put in.  How in the world do you measure that accurately?  So here's what I did.  Oh, and Andrea, I did properly scold the milk mixture... "Bad Milk!"  LOL...

6 ounces fresh figs

4 tablespoons Port

3 cups whole milk

2 large sprigs fresh thyme

3 to 4 tablespoons thyme honey (or any wildflower honey)

3 egg yolks

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Wash the figs and cut off the steam ends.  Cut into quarters, and place them in a small saucepan.  Add the Port and cook over medium low heat, stirring often, about 20 minutes, until tender.  The figs will absorb the Port.  Cool, and then coarsely chop the figs and Port in a mini food processor.  Set aside.

In a medium saucepan mix the honey into the milk, add the thyme sprigs, and slowly cook the mixture until hot and almost boiling.  Remove from heat, and let it sit for about 10 minutes.  Strain, and return to the saucepan.

Beat together the egg yolks and sugar.  Whisk some of the milk mixture into the egg mixture, and then add the two mixtures together in the saucepan.  Cook gently over medium heat, stirring, until just short of boiling and thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in figs and Port.  Reheat briefly if needed to restore thickness.

Chill for several hours, preferably overnight.  Process in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.

...Suggestions?  Any takers on playing some more with the fresh fig version?

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oh i've been waiting for this photo!! looks luscious.

for suggestions - maybe brown (instead of granulated sugar) and just a bit? i like the idea of using the same herb (thyme) as your honey...is the honey very thymey? this sounds wonderful...tho i'm not a big port fan. can you tell me about the port flavor? wonder if i could use an ice wine instead...

oh - and for honey measuring...you can oil your spoon which helps get the honey off a little easier. i think i might tweak to 4 T of honey and just use 2T of sugar. i usually use 2C whole milk and then stir in a cup of ice cold cream at the end. am i alone, or is there another reason (like health) that you opted not to do that? how was the texture?

edited for more portly questioning and again for the following:

i love to add truffle honey to manchego cheese and serve with dates or fresh figs and marcona almonds. i will look for thyme honey!

Edited February 1, 2005 by reesek (log)

[elion_84]

I was also inspired by the ice cream recipie and made it last night, despite cool weather. (Ok so it's in 40's - but it's Texas )

I didn't have any thyme honey - just regular local honey. Also it was too rainy and generally unpleasant to go outside for some herbs, so I ended up with Fig-Port Honey Ice Cream. I used the same basic method as misstenacity, however, I actually simmered the chopped figs in some port and added a bit of vanilla extract. I really like the combination of fig and vanilla flavors.

Like other posters I had a problem with sweetness. I made 2x the recipe, but only added 1/4c sugar and it was still too sweet for my taste. I think the dried figs are quite sweet (I used 6 dried mission figs for 2c half and half).

The ice cream turned out really well, despite being too sweet. I'm sure I'll be making it again.

[Susan in FL]

Thanks for the input, Reesek and Elion!

Andrea's recipe called for brown sugar and I probably should have left it at that. Maybe brown sugar is less sweet? The thyme honey is not real real thymey, but it is real real sweet. I think the Port was perfect. I would describe it by saying it gave it a sweet red wine flavor, but only slight. Actually it gave it only a hint of Port flavor, like one might not even know it was in there. If I'm not mistaken, when alcohol goes into ice cream recipes, it can't be much because too much would keep the ice cream from freezing properly. Thanks for the tip on measuring the honey! I usually use cream when I make ice cream, but I was trying not to stray too far from Andrea's recipe. The texture was just fine. Please let us know what you try if you make it.

I'm sure the half and half or the use of cream is fine, too. I imagine your addition of vanilla was very good! Elion, when you make it again, please report back about the "revised sweetness."

[Susan in FL]

I had no idea... that herb-infused ice cream is a "trend." I was just looking through my January issue of Bon Appetit, which of course has a number of those what's-hot-what's-not articles in it, and saw a recipe for Honey-Thyme Ice Cream. It is with Caramelized Pears and Caramel Syrup. It doesn't specify what kind of honey to use. However, interestingly, regarding sweetness, it calls for 1/3 cup of sugar along with 2 tablespoons honey, 1 cup milk, 1 cup cream, 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, and 7 large egg yolks.

[Chufi]

Nobody's mentioned chestnut honey, which is one of my all-time favorites.  Look for a nice Italian chestnut honey, which I think is more aromatic than the French version.  That's the stuff to drizzle over cheese, preferably a Gorgonzola dolce.

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I just wanted to say that thanks to your post Abra, I bought some chestnut honey when I was in France last week. It's heavenly.

(ofcourse I did not remember that you said that Italian chestnut hony is even better. Now I want to try that.)

It's hard to describe the taste, it's such a velvety and round flavour. Like eating liquid flowers!

I just had some drizzled over greek joghurt. Your blue cheese recommendation is next!