Sweet Simplicity…
I have been infatuated with honey ice cream since the first time I tasted it at the Montgomery County Beekeeper Association Meeting I attended with my beekeeper sister-in-law Laura and brother Tom back in June! I asked for the recipe and was shocked to find out it was only 3 ingredients, sweet simplicity! Heavy Cream + Whole Milk + Honey = Honey Ice Cream – I jotted those 3 ingredients and their ratios down, not trusting my brain with this all important formula! Of course I have not fully embraced “simplicity” in all my recipes, so I pondered what I might do with this frozen honey confection! Warm summer peach pie came to mind…warm summer peach pie with a perfect scoop of ice cream melting and oozing into the gooey peach pie filling…sigh! An ice cream sundae…made with all the components of peach pie á la mode! Mmm! I wondered if I could make a pie crust sundae cup? I did, it worked and was so easy! You could use these simple pie crust cups for tons of recipes…pumpkin mousse cups, chocolate pudding cups, chicken pot pie cups….endless options, what fun!
Homemade Honey Ice Cream:
I realized I hadn’t made homemade ice cream since I was in the second grade and back then I probably only got a short turn at cranking the handle. But I was determined to try out the recipe I had gotten from the beekeeper meeting. So I borrowed my mom’s new ice cream maker and set to work. I froze the ice cream maker base for 24 hours as the directions said, mixed up my ingredients and dumped them in. Well, a half hour later all I had was a little frozen lump in a sea of my creamy mix. So, I made my own makeshift system with two bowls and layers of ice and table salt and stirred and mixed and swirled for another half hour to no avail. In a last ditch attempt, I shoved the whole mess into the freezer and stirred it every 20 minutes or so until sure enough, many hours later, I had honey ice cream. Whew, that wasn’t as easy as I thought!
The next day had us traveling to Vermont for our summer vacation. We visited the Ben & Jerry’s Factory and I pestered the poor tour guide for ice cream making secrets. I don’t think she had ever made ice cream in her life and she just looked at me like I was a loon! Ha, but I must have picked up some kind of ice cream mojo, for when I got home, I refroze that ice cream maker base for a full 48 hours and sure enough I had ice cream success!! Woo Hoo!!
Note to self: Make sure ice cream maker base is frozen rock solid and make sure your mix is really cold! Once you have that covered, turn on the machine, dump in your mix and let it churn until it’s like soft-serve. Scoop it into a container and pop it in the freezer to firm up!
Disclaimer: This recipe is from before I started working with KitchenAid – My Mom had given me this ice cream maker ( :
Pie Crust Cups:
I decided to take a shortcut with these little creations. I figured I was making my own ice cream, so I could use refrigerated pie crust for this part of my dessert. I measured the bottom and sides of the back of a muffin tin cup. It measured 5 inches. So I found a bowl with a 5-inch diameter and used it to cut out six, 5-inch circles from the two rounds of pie crust. I laid the rounds over the upside down muffin tin cups and molded the crust, making pleats to form the cups. I baked them for 10 minutes, let them cool on the pan and presto….Pie Crust Cups!!
Peach Pie Sundae Topping:
This part of the recipe can be variable depending upon whether you like your peaches peeled or unpeeled and depending upon the ripeness level of your peaches. I love the color the peach skin adds to the topping so I left them unpeeled. My peaches were on the underripe side, so 1 tablespoon of honey to 3 peaches was a good ratio for me. If you have some super sweet, very ripe peaches you may want to adjust the honey amount.
Thank you for spending some time in the cloud with me! I hope you enjoy the recipe! Tina ( :
Bee 101: Honey & Peach Pie Sundae Cups
Ingredients
Honey Ice Cream
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/3 cup honey (can add up to 1/2 cup if you desire more sweetness/honey flavor)
Pie Crust Cups
- 1 package refrigerated pie crust
- flour for dusting work surface
Peach Pie Sundae Topping
- 3 cups sliced fresh peaches
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Honey Ice Cream
- Stir together ice cream ingredients and refrigerate overnight or place in freezer for about 20 minutes.
- Use mix to make ice cream in your ice cream maker. Follow manufacturer’s directions.
- Scoop soft ice cream into a container, cover and freeze for 3 hours or overnight.
Pie Crust Cups
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Unroll piecrusts on a flat surface lightly dusted with flour.
- Cut three 5-inch circles out of each pie crust. I used a small bowl with a 5-inch diameter as my tracer. (Press together the pie crust scraps and reserve in refrigerator for another use.)
- Turn a muffin tin/cupcake pan upside down on your work surface. Drape the circles over the inverted cups of the muffin tin.
- Pleat and press the dough around the cup. Bake for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Place pan on cooling rack until cups are cool.
Peach Pie Sundae Topping
- * I left my peaches unpeeled as I like the color the skin adds to the peaches. You can peel them if you prefer. Also, depending upon the ripeness of the peaches you may need to cook a little less/more. You may also need to vary the honey amount if your peaches are super sweet or really under ripe. Mine were slightly under ripe.
- Combine the peaches, honey, cinnamon and lemon juice in a medium sauté pan.
- Cook and stir over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until soft. Stir in vanilla.
Merry Graham
Lovely Blog ~ Darling Delicious Dish~ Thank you! Keep the SweeTness coming!
Christina Verrelli
Thanks so much Merry!! I appreciate you stopping by "in the cloud!" Happy cooking to you!! ( :
Kristin @ Dizzy Busy and Hungry!
Great recipe! I have never made my own ice cream but this makes me want to try it. I will remember your tips to make sure the base is extremely well-frozen and the mixture very cold. And I love, love, love the pie crust cups…I can think of so many ways to use those! I think they may be showing up in one of my posts one of these days! I will be sure to give you the credit!
Hope you have some fun plans for the upcoming holiday weekend! Enjoy!
Christina Verrelli
Thanks Kristin – They were so easy and could be used tons of ways!! Have fun!! ( :
Sherri
I don’t want to question the master, but you scared me with the ice cream issues. I make ice cream in my electric maker all the time without incident, so I wondered if honey was somehow a problem. The thing I thought to do was mix the milk and honey with electric beaters on low (I suppose you could whisk) for about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, then stop, add the cream, and mix for about 5 to 10 seconds (don’t want butter!) then add to the moving ice cream canister. This is my standard procedure when using sugar instead of honey, and no need for the "flavor step". The canister sits in my freezer, so it is always super-frozen, and I took the milk and cream from the fridge right before mixing each. This is just based on all those manufacturer recipes that come with the machine – I noticed that all ingredients should be as cold as possible, and cream always goes last. And wait for a not-too-humid day! Anyway, it came out beautifully and was DELICIOUS! Thanks as always for your talent and creativity!
Christina Verrelli
Don’t let my mistakes scare you – sounds like you have way more ice cream experience than me!! I know the first time the machine insert wasn’t frozen enough as I could hear the liquid shake, but I was being impatient and figured it had been in the freezer for 24 hours. I think they just need to freeze longer than that, maybe it’s my freezer. Also, I hadn’t chilled the cream mix thoroughly. The second time worked perfectly – and all I changed were freezing the insert longer and chilling the cream mixture ahead of time. Enjoy Sherri!! I just polished off the last bit from the freezer last night, was yummy!!
Karen
I saw your recipe on Facebook, read your "story" and can’t wait to try making this. You sound like fun …. thanks so much for sharing your secrets (for perfect homemade ice cream) and your recipe. 🙂
Christina Verrelli
Hi Karen! Welcome to the cloud! & Nice to meet you! Thanks so much for stopping by! Hope you have a great day ( : Tina
Zhaila McMannis
Hi, just wondering what size ice cream maker you used. We have one that looks much larger than the one you have and I don’t know if it would make such a small amount of ice cream. (It usually takes almost a whole gallon of milk to fill our machine.) This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it!
Christina Verrelli
Hello Zhaila! Welcome to you ( :
I used a 1 quart and a 1.5 quart machine for the times I made it. Love the size of your machine – must make a lot of yummy ice cream!! Lucky you! Maybe you could double the recipe and just keep the extra frozen for later.
Let me know how it works out!! Enjoy!
Rebecca Bishop
such a great idea, cant wait to try. sounds yummy!!!!!
Christina Verrelli
Hi Rebecca! Welcome! Thanks so much – hope you love them! ( :