Dairy Free Lavender Honey Ice Cream

A few years ago I made a delicious lavender honey ice cream, but somehow neglected to post it here. Having recently become dairy-free, I wanted to remake this ice cream with almond milk. Not only did it taste exactly like my original recipe, it was so much easier! Omitting eggs from the recipe took out the need for me to heat the mixture at all, and infusing the milk overnight rather than steeping the lavender provided for a light and fresh flavor rather than a strong, tea-like one. This could also be because I used the leaves rather than the flowers, but that was only because my lavender plant has yet to flower and I am impatient. While the ice cream is fine to eat after the first freeze, the almond milk made it freeze a little too hard. By running it through a blender or food processor and refreezing it, the ice crystals broke up and make the ice cream much more creamy.

 Dairy Free Lavender Honey Ice Cream

2c.      almond milk
2T      fresh lavender leaves
1/4c.   honey
1 pinch of salt

With a mortar and pestle, grind lavender leaves until the oils start to release. Add leaves to almond milk- use some of the milk to rinse the oils from the mortar and add to the container. Refrigerate overnight. Strain leaves and discard. Blend together honey and infused milk until the two no longer separate. Churn for 15 minutes and freeze for 8 hours. Remove ice cream from container and blend on high; refreeze overnight.