Honey ice cream and and Autumn kitchen

It feels like the first proper week of Autumn here and I couldn’t be in a better spot to celebrate (hello honey ice cream) Am cooking all week for the students at my Mum, artist and art teacher Annie Herron’s residential art classes which are held at our family home near Rydal (just over the Blue Mountains).

And thanks to oh, 30-odd years of hard work on behalf of Mum and Dad, the orchard and gardens provide much in the way of fruit, vegetables and flowers. There are apples. So. Many. Apples. Plus figs, quinces, tomatoes, zucchini’s, rhubarb and now, via their new flow hive, the most delicious (almost toffee-d) honey. And because I have about a zillion emails and other things to do, I thought I’d spend my downtime this afternoon putting together a blog post with a few of the nice things coming out of the kitchen today.

The best I think, was the honey ice cream I’ll be serving up shortly for dessert (with poached quinces). And even though I shared this recipe on my weekly newsletter recently, thought I’d pop it here too. Far out I love cooking in Autumn. X

Honey ice cream

600mls pouring cream
1/4 cup honey
5 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar

Combine cream and honey in a saucepan on medium heat. Whisk to combine and bring just to simmering point. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, in a small glass bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale. Pour a little of the warm honey cream into the egg and sugar mixture, then gradually add the rest, whisking as you go.

Give the saucepan a quick wash and dry then pour custard back into it and place over a medium-low heat. Cook gently, stirring all the time, for about 6 minutes or until custard thickens and coats the back of your spoon. Transfer to a large jar or jug and place in the fridge to cool completely (overnight is a safe bet!).

Then churn according to your ice cream machine’s instructions. If you don’t have one of those, then maybe just enjoy as a beautiful honey custard. Or you could whip a cup of cream until thick and fold through the custard then place in a lined loaf tin and freeze into a semi-Freddo.

Lunch today was Yotam Ottolenghi’s ever popular mustardy cauliflower cheese (always a winner on a cold wet day) with risoni pasta salad dressed with walnut and green olive pesto (from my new book!) and tossed with cherry tomatoes and greens. Then for pudding we had Tessa Kiros’s simple apple tart (possibly one of my favourite things to make and eat – ever). Recipe for this one is right here on the blog.

For pudding this evening we are having poached quinces with honey ice cream. The quince recipe can be found on one of my very first blog posts here on Local is Lovely – the kids look so little and cute here! And actually, the butter cake with poached quinces and quince jelly recipes on this post are all well worth trying as well. X