Honey Lavender Ricotta Ice Cream

Honey Lavender Ricotta Ice Cream is the perfect combination of floral notes, sweet cheese and honey.  Lightly sweet and incredibly creamy, this ice cream is perfect for those who prefer mild and unique pairings!

Yesterday had to be one of the most fun days of my life! I got to record a pilot for a competitive cooking show! And............I won't tell you about it yet! I won't post about it 'til Friday. Butchie was the better half of my cooking team and I need to give her some time to insert her comments so she can tell you all about it too! But for now suffice it so say, we have had a LOT of fun in the kitchen yesterday and now realize that blind taste testing is harder than it appears! 

I have some other great news too! I am a top 10 finalist for the Let's re-Do Lunch Photo Contest!  My entry is the apple raisin quesadillas! Luckily for me I have no pride. I'm not at all above asking for help, and after saying that I'm sure you are not at all surprised to hear that I also have no shame. I'm also not above begging! PLEASE vote for me! I'm really excited about the winner getting $1,000 dollars to donate to their local food bank! It's just so.... so....well.... it's just the entire point of this blog! It's what Cherry Tea Cakes is all about! (For those of you who are a tad bit confused, I take local catering jobs and donate my proceeds to the Capital Area Food Bank!) 

I'm really excited to be a part of this competition! And speaking of catering jobs I need to get back to making ice creams and cakes for a birthday party! My latest ice cream love is this honey lavender ricotta ice cream! I had some at a local ice cream shop and just had to make more! It's lightly sweet and the floral accents of the lavender blend perfectly with the honey! 

Enjoy! 

Honey Lavender Ricotta Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups half and half

7 oz. fresh ricotta cheese

1/3 cup honey

1 tablespoon culinary lavender buds

1 large egg

1/4 cup sugar

pinch of kosher salt

Bring the half and half, honey, lavender and ricotta to a boil in a large heavy saucepan over a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to steep, covered, for half an hour. 

Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl and discard the lavender. 

In a stand mixer combine the egg and sugar.  Beat for one minute until light and fluffy. 

Gently mix in the honey lavender ricotta cream mixture. 

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until finished and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Lavender Honey Caramel Candy Bars

Honey, lavender and caramel flavors gently combine to add a little something extra to this homemade gourmet candy bar. 

What a night we had making these. It’s so tiring to laud one’s own genius for that long. [Too true. –B.] I want to have some humility but this is definitely on my short list of favorites. I’ve been eating then practically nonstop since. Butchie and I both took some into work and got some great reviews back on them, but it was hard to share. Extremely hard to share. [Fine, if you must know we only got like two reviews from anyone other than ourselves. –B.]

Talk about a process, though! The caramel took far longer than we’d imagined, the shortbread dough has to refrigerate twice, and so on and so on. I’m fairly certain it was four hours after we started that I was finally covering the last bar with chocolate! Butchie thought she was so sly chopping the caramel. She made me think I was getting the easy job. Ha. She finished long, long before me, the brute. [In my defense, it was sticky work—just less finicky than the chocolate, apparently. –B.]

But we promise they are worth it. I have eaten two just while typing! It’s my own fault. I really shouldn’t have brought them into work with me. What was I thinking? Oh, right. Sharing. Silly me I should have known I’d end up eating them all myself.

Better go running! 

Lavender Honey Caramel Candy Bars

For the lavender honey caramel

1 cup milk
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons dried lavender buds
¾ cup unsalted butter
¾ cup honey
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt

For the cookie base:

1 large egg, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

10 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/4 sticks), cold and cut into small pieces

For the chocolate coating:

Dark chocolate

Prepare your pan by greasing it with butter then lining the bottom with parchment paper. Do not use wax paper the caramel will stick.

Place the milk, heavy cream and lavender buds in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 30 minutes. Strain out and discard the lavender. Measure 2 cups of the liquid. Discard the excess.

Combine all of the ingredients except the vanilla and salt in a deep saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring. Using a pastry brush dipped in water, brush down any sugar that has crept up the sides of the pan.   When the mixture reads 240 immediately remove from heat, stir in the vanilla and the salt, and pour into the prepared baking pan. Cool the mixture completely until it is firm, at least 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.

To begin to make the shortbread, in a small bowl beat together egg and vanilla extract until yolk is broken up and evenly combined; set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add butter and mix until mixture looks like sand. Add egg mixture and mix just until dough comes together. Form into a flat, rectangular disk, wrap in plastic, and chill at least 1 hour.

Heat oven to 375°F. Place dough on a 14-inch piece of parchment paper, lightly flour, and roll into a 13-by-8-inch oval, about 1/8 inch thick. Transfer parchment paper with dough to a baking sheet, cover in plastic wrap, and refrigerate again for 15 minutes.

Cut each cookien into a 3x.75 inch cookie. Pierce each cookie four or five times with a chopstick or the base of a thermometer.

Place on a baking sheet and cook until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let cool.

Invert the caramel onto a cutting board and turn glossy side up. Cut into bars to place on top of the shortbread.  Set aside and temper the chocolate.

Place two thirds of the chocolate in a double boiler.  Melt slowly to 107 degrees. Remove from heat and stir until it reaches 110 degrees.  Add in remaining third of chocolate and stir to combine until the mixture reaches 90-93 degrees. Use immediately. 

Place a candy bar on a fork and proceed to spoon the tempered chocolate over it, covering completely. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Set completed candy bar on the sheet. Repeat with the remaining candy bars.  Set the cookie sheet in the refrigerator to set the chocolate.

Enjoy!

Making Your Own Extracts

clockise: lavender, hazelnut, chocolate mint, vanilla, cinnamon

Last week I was sitting at Trivia Night and my friend Jimmy did a dangerous thing: he mentioned that a person could make her own cooking extracts.

It had honestly not occurred to me to make my own! And after searching in vain for lychee extract a few weeks ago I couldn’t let go of the idea. I talked it over with Butchie and we decided that instead of our usual baking night, we’d spend a night making the ingredients to bake with! (For anyone with a religious reason for not cooking with alcohol I advise using imitation extracts: hopefully you already knew your average vanilla flavoring is 35% alcohol and lemon flavoring close to 60%. In fact, I believe there is more alcohol in rum flavoring than there is in actual rum!!!)

After spending the better part of an afternoon researching what alcohol I would want to use, I stumbled upon a web post about using Everclear straight grain alcohol only to learn that I can’t buy Everclear in DC! Or Virginia! [Damn liquor laws. –B.] So after a little jaunt into Maryland, I had my brown bag in hand and was ready for making extracts!

Despite the copious amount of alcohol in the kitchen we were actually less clumsy than usual. No flying spoons, no mishaps with a kitchen knife. Stephen did an excellent job at preparing the mint, and Butchie didn’t even burn herself roasting the hazelnuts! …But I guess since we weren’t drinking any of the alcohol that doesn’t make this much of an accomplishment. [There are many reasons for our sobriety. But for the record, we do not advise that a person drink Everclear straight. At all. Ever. –B.]

Butchie and I followed the same process for each of our extracts, except that she made hers with Smirnoff vodka [didn’t manage to get up to Maryland in time –B.] and I made mine with straight grain alcohol.  In the future I’ll be updating this post with results, but I wanted to put this up now in case you would like to experiment with us and leave your own notes in the comments!

clockwise: cassia cinnamon shards, vanilla extract,  hazelnuts, vanilla beans, hazelnut nut extract, chocolate mint extract, culinary lavender buds

Cinnamon Extract

Ready In: 2 weeks

2 1/2 tablespoon cassia cinnamon shards

4 oz. Everclear or Vodka

Combine ingredients in a jar. Shake daily for two weeks.

Hazelnut Extract

Ready In: 1 month

1/4 Cup Hazelnuts, skinless, toasted
1/2 Cup Everclear

Pour hazelnuts into a skillet to toast. This should take about 5-7 minutes on a medium heat. If any hazelnuts looked burned do not use them.

Once cooled, chop the nuts coarsely.

Place chopped hazelnuts and alcohol in a jar and close tightly. Allow at least one month before using.

Lavender Extract

Ready In: 1 week

1 tablespoon lavender buds

4 oz Vodka

Combine the ingredients in a jar and twist the lid on, shake, and place out of direct sunlight.

Shake daily for at least one week.

Strain through a sieve lined with a coffee filter. Repeat as necessary.

Vanilla Extract

Ready In: 2 months

3 vanilla beans

8 oz. Vodka or Bourbon

Use kitchen scissors or a sharp paring knife to cut lengthwise down each vanilla bean, splitting them in half, leaving an inch at the end connected.

Put vanilla beans in a glass jar or bottle with a tight fitting lid Cover completely with the alcohol.

Give the bottle a good shake every once in a while. Store in a dark, cool place for 2 months or longer.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Lavender Chantilly

Dutch cocoa and lavender pair excellent in this exotic little cupcake! And the additional Lavender buds are the perfect touch! The aromatic flavor of the lavender is an excellent addition to the lightness of the whipped cream. If you’re never baked with lavender I highly recommend it! As seen on Photograzing. 

chocolate cupcake with lavender chantilly

Graduation season is upon us! This week I was very privileged to fill an order for a very thoughtful woman to give to a newly sworn in attorney! Let’s hope he’ll be the good kind! He must be, since when she and I talked, she told me his tastes run towards finer foods. How could they not? It turns out he used to live in France! It took me only one minute to decide that lavender chantilly would be just the thing!

As always, with all my orders the proceeds were donated to charity. The proceeds from these lovely cupcakes were donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.

culinary lavender, chocolate lavender chantilly cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

adapted from Chocolate Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

3 cups white sugar

5 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Line a cupcake pan with cupcake wrappers.

Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk. Pour batter into lined cupcake tins.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes minimum, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Lavender Syrup

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3  cup water

1 tablespoon lavender

In a medium saucepan combine sugar and water. Bring to a boil, stirring, until sugar has dissolved. Add lavender flowers and all to seep as the syrup cools. Allow to seep for at least one hour.  

Lavender Chantilly

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons lavender syrup

Whip the cold cream and add the lavender syrup. Whip until it reaches your desired consistency.

To assemble pipe the lavender chantilly onto the tops of cooled lavender cupcakes. Sprinkle with additional lavender flowers.

Enjoy!