Matcha and Lavender Ice Cream with an Ice Cream Maker

An ice cream maker starts at around 40 euros for a basic model with a cooling accumulator, and from about 150 euros for one with its own compressor. The advantage: it continuously stirs during freezing, so the ice crystals stay tiny and the ice cream turns out creamy. Without a machine, you’ll have to do this stirring by hand-more on that later.

Matcha Ice Cream with Mint and Dark Chocolate

You’ll need: 350 ml cream, 4 teaspoons matcha powder, 230 ml whole milk, 4 egg yolks, 100 g sugar, a pinch of salt, a bunch of mint, 100 g dark chocolate, and a food processor or immersion blender.

Whisk the egg yolks with sugar and salt until frothy. Heat the milk and slowly stir it into the egg mixture – not the other way around, or the eggs will curdle. Gently warm the mixture over low heat until it thickens to a rose-petal consistency, meaning it coats the back of a wooden spoon. Then mix in the matcha powder and cream and chill the mixture. While it cools, pluck the mint leaves, place them in a sieve, briefly scald them with boiling water, and immediately shock them in cold water to preserve their vibrant green color. Purée the mint with the egg mixture, transfer it to the ice cream maker, and freeze for 40 to 60 minutes. Once done, drizzle melted chocolate over the ice cream and let it freeze completely again.

Always add the milk to the eggs-never the eggs to boiling milk. Follow this rule, and you’ll never end up with scrambled eggs in your ice cream.

Lavender Ice Cream (Vegan)

You’ll need: 200 g soy milk, 250 g soy cuisine (vegan cream alternative), 1 teaspoon dried lavender flowers, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 15 g lemon juice, 125 g inulin, 220 g aquafaba (the liquid from a can of chickpeas), 200 g powdered sugar.

Briefly boil the lavender flowers with the soy milk and soy cuisine, then remove from heat and let steep for ten minutes. Strain through a sieve, stir in the lemon zest, lemon juice, and inulin, and let cool completely. Whip the aquafaba in a stand mixer until stiff-about eight minutes. It behaves just like egg whites and replaces them one-to-one. Once firm, fold in the powdered sugar, then gently combine with the lavender milk. Chill for an hour before freezing in the ice cream maker for about 45 minutes. The inulin acts as a binder and keeps the ice cream smooth despite the lack of fat.

No Ice Cream Maker? Try Honey Ice Cream and Lemon Sorbet

No machine? No problem. For the recipes below, patience replaces the appliance. For the sorbet, stir every 30 minutes, while the honey ice cream relies on whipped cream to prevent large ice crystals from forming in the first place.

Honey Ice Cream with Sea Salt

You’ll need: 450 ml whipped cream, 300 ml sweetened condensed milk, 85 g honey, half a teaspoon of fleur de sel.

Whip the cream with a hand mixer until stiff-about two minutes-gradually increasing the speed. Carefully fold in the condensed milk, honey, and fleur de sel with a spatula to preserve the air in the cream. Pour the mixture into a container, drizzle a little extra honey on top, and seal it airtight. Freeze for at least six hours until firm. This no-churn method works because the sweetened condensed milk disrupts water crystallization, while the air bubbles in the whipped cream keep the texture creamy. Serve in cups or waffle cones.

Lemon Sorbet

You’ll need: 2 lemons (one organic), 3 limes, 6 lemon balm leaves, 90 g fine sugar, 200 ml mineral water, and an immersion blender.

Wash the organic lemon in hot water, dry it, and finely grate the zest. Juice all the lemons and limes. Wash the lemon balm, pat dry, and cut into thin strips. Combine the juice, sugar, zest, and leaves, then purée until smooth. Stir in the mineral water and pour the mixture into a metal bowl-metal conducts cold better than plastic, speeding up freezing. Cover and freeze for about four hours, stirring vigorously every 30 minutes. This manual stirring is the key to replicating the ice cream maker’s effect.

The Secrets Behind Perfect Texture

Three critical factors decide whether your ice cream emerges silky-smooth or brick-hard. First, fat and sugar-both depress the freezing point and keep the scoop gliding. Second, air, whether churned in by an ice-cream maker or folded in from whipped cream. Third, constant motion while freezing, which keeps ice crystals tiny. Master these, and you can tweak any of the four base recipes: swap basil for mint or lavender for rosemary with confidence.

Still hungry for summer indulgence? Our unconventional summer cocktails are the ideal partner for a sorbet scoop, and if you’d rather pre-heat the oven, explore our sweet baking inspirations for your next afternoon break.

Image source: Unsplash / Wesual Click