Rose Geranium Ice Cream

Despite the partial destruction of my porch garden by the landlord's evil minions, the little group of scented geraniums I bought to celebrate the first anniversary of the blog are doing fine, and are ready for playing with. I have certainly come some distance since the days when I said firmly, "I don't eat flowers." This ice cream tastes very definitely of the roses and rose geranium leaves flavoring it, so if you are dubious about floral tastes, I'd skip it. I think it is yummy,though, both rich tasting and refreshing, and I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself for making it without a recipe.

There were two silver-lining type results to the big mess that was the demise of my apartment refrigerator. One was that I got a pristine (though not new) refrigerator without having to clean it. (My daughter remarked on this benefit on the phone before I realized it myself, and it is No Small Thing.) The other is that unlike the defunct original, the replacement fridge is capable of actually freezing the cannister of my little ice cream maker. When I made the discovery, there was a little victory dance in the kitchen. I intend to take full advantage of this piece of luck this summer.

This is what I used to make the ice cream: (I included the rose preserve mostly in an effort to get a bit of pink color. It didn't work all that well for color, but it has a lovely rosy flavor.)

2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups rose-geranium infused white sugar*
1 cup water
2 tsps rosewater
1 Tbsp rose preserve (opt)

Make a syrup with the water and the sugar. Cool, and combine about 1/2 cup of the syrup with the other ingredients.(Add slowly, and taste for the desired degree of sweetness; it will depend on how much you concentrated the syrup.) Mix with an immersion blender, making sure the preserve if used is fully blended. Strain and chill. Freeze according to your ice cream maker directions. Save extra syrup to use to make lemonade and/or sweetened iced tea. These herbal drinks are really refreshing, and very picnic-y. The Shakers made a number of similar and interesting summer drinks, about which, more later. (I've been having a good time with my new/old Shaker cookbook. More about that later, too.)

*I made this sugar about a week ago, by putting 5 scented geranium leaves ("old rose" variety) into a sealed jar of white sugar. If you don't want to wait a week, you could mix the sugar and water, bring it to a boil with the geranium leaves in it, and let it sit for a hour, remove the leaves, and continue.

Comments

[mzn]

Wow. I love the colors and textures in your picture. And although I am one of those floral taste skeptics I would really love a few spoonfuls of that.

[Suzanne Vancil]

My best friend, Tanna, recommended your site and I am enjoying it very much!! The rose touch to your ice creanm seems so subtly sensuous. This past week was my Dad's 86th birthday and it reminded me of the days when we made homemade vanilla ice cream with red cake! Both he and Mom are in a nursing home with Alzheimer's /dementia. But Tanna and I had a great road trip and visited them recentlty! It was pure magic. I will visit often.

[Jennifer]

What a lovely, lovely idea!

[ann]

Lindy
I'm glad you're liking the book. I find it endlessly inspiring! Yum to the ice cream!

[Julie]

On my monitor the ice cream is showing up as the palest of pinks which is just beautiful. I also like the cup and saucer you're serving it in.

All in all, it makes a very pretty picture, and the very name Rose Geranium Ice Cream is wonderfully exotic and old-fashioned.

[lindy]

mzn; thank you. I'm not sure how much of my fondness for this is due to the cream, but I do really like it.
suzanne: is the red cake a sort of devil's food?
jennifer:thank you. I'm getting to be a regular flower-eater!
ann-love the book-thanks for the recommendation
julie: actually, it is a very pale pink. I didn't want to make the rose jam taste over-powering, so I left it at that. I think I like it not too pink

[Noel Smith]

That ice cream looks great, something like that is what I've been wanting to try next. A couple weeks ago I made Lemon Verbena and Lavender ice cream, it didn't have such a nice color, but it tasted absolutely wonderful!