Basil Ice Cream
Today is my birthday (the big 2-7), and all I feel like doing is sleeping in and eating basil ice cream. Instead, I will be getting up at the crack of dawn to board a plane to the West Coast for a week (yay!), so I’ll keep today’s post short and sweet.
I first tried and made basil ice cream back in culinary school. It was my chef instructor’s favorite dessert, and he even went as far as to say that if he were on his deathbed, this ice cream would be his last dying wish.
I totally get it.
If you’ve never had basil in a sweet application before, you’re in for a treat–and don’t worry, this ice cream does not taste like pesto. I’m pretty sure that was my biggest concern when I first heard the words ‘basil’ and ‘ice cream’ used in the same sentence.
But it totally works.
And it is really, really good.
If you’re a fan of mint ice cream, I can almost guarantee that you will like this. Basil is related to the mint family, so it has a similar cooling effect in ice cream.
The trick to making this is to prepare a classic ice cream base, and infuse this with blanched, pureed basil leaves. Once the ice cream has infused, you simply strain the mixture (to remove any larger basil leave chunks) and churn it away in your ice cream machine.
For some reason, my basil leaves wilted and browned fairly quickly once I got them from the market, which is why my ice cream is a duller, dark green color…but this should yield a relatively light colored, green ice cream. The flavor will be the same regardless, so don’t worry if your ice cream is a slightly different hue.
Hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll be back soon with California pictures!
Basil Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 5 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- 2 cups (480 mL) whole milk
- 1 cup (240 mL) heavy cream
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch of kosher salt
- 1½ ounces fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar aggressively until the mixture is thick and pale yellow in color. It should fall from the whisk in thick ribbons.
- Combine the milk, cream, and vanilla in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat immediately, and temper it slowly into the egg mixture, whisking with your other hand.
- Return mixture to the saucepan and cook slowly over low heat until custard base thickens slightly, and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from heat and place over an ice bath. Continue to stir every few minutes until the mixture is cold.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil (the salt will keep the basil leaves very green). Blanch the basil leaves, drain in a fine-meshed sieve over an ice bath, and squeeze out any excess moisture. Puree the basil leaves in a small food processor, and stir into the cooled ice cream base. Allow the mixture to infuse for several hours or overnight.
- Strain the ice cream base through a fine-meshed sieve to remove any larger pieces of basil leaves. Freeze the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s manufacturer’s directions. Place the ice cream in an airtight container and cover the surface with plastic wrap. Freeze for 4 to 6 hours or until firm. Allow ice cream to soften just slightly before serving.
46 Comments on “Basil Ice Cream”
This is a storied dish in my family, a brother ate it in St. Tropez, France, and hasn’t stopped talking about it since! I can’t wait to try it.
Question: I made some basil cookies tonight (the dough is chilling, so I haven’t yet baked), and the way to add the basil was to process fresh leaves in with the sugar, and then continue on as for a normal cookie. The color is smashing! Very uplifting! I wonder if there is a difference in taste? Or storage duration?
Anyway, thanks for sharing this unusual recipe. Looking forward.
Tastes like vanilla ice cream. Thanks for making me waste all my basil though
I have no idea what could have happened where this recipe could result in bland vanilla tasting ice cream – did you make substitutions or changes? I’ve had other people make this recipe, it was a recipe I learned in culinary school, and the method is not unusual. Please enlighten me, but in the future, maybe be a bit less rude – I don’t like food waste as much as the next person, but there were many ways to test or taste the ice cream and modify it to be stronger in flavor along the way if that was called for.
For those in the US without a kitchen scale it would help to know approximately how many cups of basil are in 1.5 ounces. Sentence “drain in fine meshed sieve over an ice bath” is not helpful for those not accustomed to blanching. It might be clearer to place the blanched basil in a sieve that is then briefly immersed in an ice bath and removed to drain the basil.
Just measured my basil with a scale. My 1.5 oz of basil leaves came to about 1.5 gently packed cups, or half a cup when firmly packed.
First off, in an odd strike of coincidence, we have the same birthday! Secondly, what flavor do you think this would pair well with? I noticed that the basil doesn’t stick around on my taste buds for very long and am looking for a companion flavor to add a little oomph.
I had made a basil ice cream in the past and wanted to try a different base. I thoroughly enjoyed this base for the final product but next time I may substitute honey or cut the sugar by a quarter cup. It also pairs amazingly with walnuts.
Hello, nice recipe! Looks yummy!
I just want to know, what machine do you use to make this ice cream?
Thank you.
Hi Michael! Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I used the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment (for my stand mixer). I hope this helps!
I just finished making the ice cream this morning (following letting the base sit in the fridge over night). The little bit I had was delicious. I even took some of the remaining bits of basil from the base and caramelized them per the suggestion of one of the other commenters.
I can’t wait to give this a try for real later today. The little bit I had and this may replace my favorite of chocolate (which is hard to imagine).
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe.
This recipe was amazing! I took the strained out basil bits and caramelized them in a bit of oil then sprinkled the crumbles on top of the ice cream – it was divine! Thanks for sharing this recipe!
Yay! So happy to hear that, and loved your tip of caramelizing the leftover basil–brilliant!
I hope you had the most fabulous birthday, lady! Love the west coast!!! So I’m just a little jelly you got a whole week there 😉 I just turned the big 2-7, too. A great age me thinks. Hope it’s a wonderfully successful year for you! Now, I need to go make some basil ice cream!
Thank you friend!! I love the West Coast too–makes me wonder why I don’t live there every time I visit, haha. YAY for similar b-days! 🙂 Thank you so much!