Honey Ice Cream

In the recently released 'Julie, Julia', a young writer kick starts a food blog to channel her creativity and her love of Julia Child into a hobby that distracts her from her dead-end job.

Watching this sweet film brought me to a new realization: food is a necessity, but it's also a pleasure. And there's no greater pleasure in the food world than dessert!

I felt the gravitational pull to Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert after cross-referencing different recommendations. My micro-quest for books began with searches under keyword 'baking,' browsing through several food blogs, and came to a conclusion at a local bookstore after flipping through different books.

Thanks to a search that began online, it wasn't long before I knew which book I wanted.

This past weekend I put my new book to work (purchased from ValoreBooks at 45% off retail price), and re-created Medrich's heavenly honey ice cream.

It's definitely a keeper, and here's the simple recipe:

½ cup milk
½ cup honey
Slightly rounded 1/8 teaspoon salt
2¼ cup heavy cream
Equipment: Ice cream machine

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan.
2. Pour milk into a medium bowl and allow to cool completely.
3. Add honey and salt, stirring to dissolve the honey.
4. Stir in the cream.
5. Chill the mixture for 4-12 hours.
6. Freeze according to instructions for your ice cream maker.
7. Serve soft or transfer to an airtight container and freeze until hard enough to scoop, at least 3 to 4 hours, but preferably 12.

Our ice cream machine is the Cuisinart 1-1/2-Quart Automatic. Producing more than four cups of ice cream, the recipe's done wonders for the last couple of balmy nights in New York. Alice Medrich, I salute you!