Flowing with Milk and Honey (and Blackberries), an Ice Cream Recipe

I know it's a bit early in the year to be breaking out our ice cream makers, but it's never too early for recipes that are inspired. You see, we're in the middle of the lenten season, the 40 days (+Sundays) from Ash Wednesday to Easter when we prepare for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ.

I like to read Exodus in this season, reflecting on the Israelites and their rescue from slavery from Egypt. They were chosen and promised to be led to "a land flowing with milk and honey." This line has been stuck in my head over the past few weeks of lent, and I wanted to write a recipe, an homage, to the Israelite's salvation from Egypt, and ours, many many years later, soon to be celebrated as Easter nears.

The best food I could think of containing milk and honey was a special ice cream, made specifically for a very dear friend who has been asking me to make her ice cream since the very beginning of her pregnancy. The addition of blackberries to this ice cream adds a bit of necessary tartness to the soft, sweet ice cream made of milk and honey.

"So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey . . ." Exodus 3:8

Honey + Blackberry Ice Cream
makes about one quart
adapted from The Perfect Scoop

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup good-quality honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of pepper
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz fresh blackberries

In a medium saucepan, stir together milk, sugar, honey, salt, and pepper and heat over low, just until warm.

In a separate large bowl, whisk together heavy cream and egg yolks. Continue whisking while you pour warm milk mixture over cream and egg yolks. Whisk until combined. Scrape the mixture back into the saucepan.

Over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly until the mixture is thick and coats the back of a spatula. Pour the custard over a strainer and into a clean bowl. Stir in vanilla. Cover the surface tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold.

When ready, freeze the mixture according to your ice cream maker's directions. While the ice cream is churning, gently smash the blackberries with the back of a fork. Right before mixture is finished churning, add in smashed blackberries.