Homemade Lavender Ice Cream

Keeping things extra sweet today with this super creamy, extra delicious Homemade Lavender Ice Cream! It’s everyone’s favorite unique ice cream flavor…just made better and easier. The base is made with 6 really simple ingredients, cream, dried lavender, sugar, whole milk, vanilla, and a little dash of salt. Oh, and if you choose to add a little splash of dye, this ice cream becomes a beautiful pastel purple to recreate the color of lavender…But, my favorite part? This perfectly sweet, lightly floral, ice cream takes only minutes to prepare, requires zero eggs, and all you need is an ice cream machine to ensure the smoothest, most delicious treat! You really can’t beat this ice cream, it’s delicious and so super simple.

→ This post is also available as a Web Story: Homemade Lavender Ice Cream

About The Recipe

It’s officially Friday! And, I know it’s still technically winter, but I can’t wait for the spring and summer months. There’s just something so comforting about that time of year. It might just be that there’s more sunshine, but I am an absolute sucker for all those pretty and warmer days ahead.

And, even though we’ve been kinda leading up to summery recipes already, I decided to truly kick things off with this lavender ice cream! Because what screams spring/summer more than flowers and ice cream?

When my mom and I headed into the grocery store the other day, I saw some of the most beautiful lavender. And if there’s one thing you should know about me…it’s that I absolutely love lavender. It’s one of those scents that have always made me happy. It’s honestly something that can almost always bring me comfort. So, naturally, we bought some!

I really was just thinking about keeping it around to keep my room or something smelling good, but then I remembered all the times I was out with friends a few years ago. I had a friend who would always order a lavender flavored drink or sugary treat if there was one.

She would always make me and my other friend try it…and I really wanted to love them. I just didn’t. They either never had any flavor or tasted…soapy?

I know, it sounds weird! But it’s the truth. A lot of the time, it almost tasted like I was trying to eat a bath product.

So, years later, I’m ready to give it another try! I’m just gonna do it my own way this time.

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And I’m so glad I did! This ice cream is everything I ever wanted a lavender flavored treat to be! It’s sweet, floral, and seriously delicious. Oh, and no soapy taste! Which was really important to me when I was developing this.

I was so afraid of the soap flavor, even after I had tried it. I was shocked that it genuinely tasted like what I always imagined lavender should taste like. Sweet, comforting, floral. It’s probably my new favorite ice cream…pretty much ever!

Equipment Needed

• 2 Quart Pot
• Wooden Spoon
• Glass Bowl
• Sieve
• Rubber Spatula
• Ice Cream Machine
• Freezer Safe Container
• Ice Cream Scoop

Ingredients

• Heavy Cream
• Whole Milk
• Culinary Lavender
• Sugar
• Salt
• Vanilla
• (optional) Food Dye

Intructions

In a small pot, combine the heavy cream, whole milk, lavender, and sugar. Place over medium-low heat and bring to a light simmer, stirring frequently to ensure the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and let the mixture stand for 15 minutes.

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Strain out the lavender.

Stir in the vanilla and salt.

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Pour the ice cream base into your ice cream machine. Follow freezing instructions. Mine takes about 30-45 minutes to reach soft serve.

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If you would like the purple swirl, transfer half the ice cream into a glass bowl and add about 1 drop of blue dye and 1 drop of red dye. Adjust the amount as necessary to achieve the color you wish for.

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Spoon the purple ice cream base and the original alternately into a freezer safe container. Swirl together with the back end of a spoon. Freeze until solid.

Different Types of Lavender & Which One To Use

This was something that took a lot of research for me to find out. What I didn’t know was how many different varieties of lavender there are! Each one unique in flavor and taste, but also there are some that are much better than others. For this recipe, I used the variety commonly known as, “Miss Katherine”.

The Miss Katherine variety is much sweeter and more floral in taste compared to some. There are many that have an earthy flavor, cinnamon-y, or even bitter! So, be on the look out on what variety you might be purchasing.

Coloring Options

I don’t often like to use food dye. I just knew I wanted this ice cream to be a beautiful pastel purple with white swirls running through it. It’s what I had in my head the moment I came up with the idea for making this ice cream.

But if you’re like me and don’t love using dye, I highly recommend using something like butterfly pea flower powder. You could also use smashed berries to give this ice cream a very light purple, but it will change the flavor of the ice cream.

How To Store

After freezing, keep this ice cream in a freezer safe container. I highly recommend an ice cream container because they do make scooping out the ice cream so much easier!

Expert Tips

• Double check the lavender and make sure it’s of the culinary variety. There are many different types and you don’t want to buy one that’s not meant for cooking! You should be able to find some at your local grocery store.
• This recipe is gluten-free and vegetarian!
• This recipe could also be served as a soft serve.
• There are a few different ways to go about coloring this ice cream. If you just want the ice cream to purple, add your dye before freezing. If you want to marble it, add the dye to half the ice cream after it frozen. You could also not dye this recipe at all, if you don’t want to!
• Do not boil the milk mixture when you’re cooking it.
• Taste the ice cream base around 10 minutes of steeping. I don’t recommend letting it sit longer than 15 minutes.

When you make this Homemade Lavender Ice Cream, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.