Basil Buttermilk Ice Cream Recipe

While looking at the cheese making book I bought, I started thinking about how to use the abundant basil plants I have growing outside my kitchen door. I mean, it’s like I have a little herb garden! Really the pots were mostly butterflyweed, although the basil I planted several years ago has been coming up regularly. But in one pot, the butterflyweed died back, and with all the rain we have, the basil has been flourishing. I don’t even know what kind of basil it is – not just a plain basil, but it smells divine.

As I was considering how I might use it in cheese, a light bulb moment occurred: BASIL ICE CREAM. Immediately I texted my personal trainer, Mandy, who is wise in all things fitness, ice cream, butter and cheese:

Me: IMPORTANT QUESTION: basil ice cream or basil *buttermilk* ice cream?

Mandy: Yes, that IS an important question! I say basil buttermilk!

That was all I needed to start looking for a recipe. First, basil ice cream – how’s it done? I found several sources (Google it) and discovered there was a wide range of how it’s done. All referenced fresh basil, and I found everything from 3 tablespoons chopped to 2 bunches to 1 1/2 ounces to 2 cups packed. Uh, yeah, what? All of them did a variation on add to the base, steep/infuse, and then strain, with some of them using a blender, some blanching it in boiling water first, some using whole leaves, some chopping. Some of them left some of the basil in the ice cream. One of them blended with the sugar, another pureed the leaves with some olive oil. I decided to cut the leaves off and put them in a measuring cup, and sort of pat them down, like so:

I probably should have weighed them as well. It was about 1 1/2 cups. I put them in the milk/sugar base, brought it to a boil, then turned the heat off and steeped for 30 minutes. I threw in the vanilla pod from last week’s vanilla bean mascarpone ice cream, so there’s a subtle vanilla hint.

I removed the vanilla bean and about half of the basil leaves with a slotted spoon, then poured the basil base into the blender. Guess what – the blender sorta chopped it up, but not pureed. It was pretty large pieces. I can see why some recipes blend with the sugar or some olive oil instead, probably using a food processor. I put it back in the saucepan, and continued on with the recipe. I ended up straining it twice – once before adding it to the cream cheese and buttermilk, and once after since some of it ended up going through the strainer. Maybe I should have used cheese cloth in a colander instead? In the end, it had a very light greenish hue and a few dozen minuscule pieces of basil left.

I used a buttermilk recipe I hadn’t noticed before from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts – buttermilk soft-serve. I had seen her roasted strawberry buttermilk ice cream recipe, which only uses 1/4 cup of buttermilk, and so had developed my own – which was too melty every time I used it. Her soft-serve recipe uses 2 1/2 cups of buttermilk, like the one I had been using, so once again I tweaked (like you do) to see if I could avoid the meltiness.

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Basil Buttermilk Ice Cream Recipe

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Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3 ounces (6 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
• pinch salt
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1 1/2 cups buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups basil leaves

Instructions

1

Add some of the milk to the cornstarch in a small bowl, creating a slurry

2

Put the cream cheese in a heat proof bowl, whisk with salt

3

Add the rest of the milk, the basil, cream, sugar and corn syrup to a heavy saucepan; bring to a simmer

4

Remove from heat, cover and steep/infuse for 30 minutes

5

I removed about 1/2 of the basil with a slotted spoon at this point, and threw it away

6

Blend the milk/basil/sugar mixture (in a blender)

7

Return the base to the saucepan, and bring to a boil - boil for 4 minutes

8

Remove from heat and whisk in cornstarch slurry

9

Return to heat, return to boil until thickened, about 1 minute

10

Strain the base into the bowl with the cream cheese, whisking to incorporate

11

Add the buttermilk, whisk again to incorporate

12

I strained it one more time because I felt there were still too many visible pieces of basil

13

Chill - I put it in the fridge overnight instead of an ice bath

14

Churn - I churned for 30 minutes

Notes

This is still a melty recipe, meltier even than soft-serve.

Straining this was pretty difficult – the basil pieces clogged up the strainer, and when I pushed it through, more and larger pieces of basil made it through than I wanted. I might also have gotten them on the spatula and then stirred them in. Plus, the base was thick, so I had this thick gooey green mass – ok, it isn’t very appetizing to think about. Once all strained and churned, this was a truly unique and yummy flavor. I don’t know if I’d want that green-plant taste in ice cream very often, but it is really tasty.