Ice Cream Recipes

These are two honey vanilla recipes.  One is a custard base while the other is a non-custard base.  They are both great recipes! They both go well with berries, nuts, and chocolate. You can buy all the ingredients year round and all of them are local except vanilla.  We used Oakdell eggs and Winder milk and cream from Harmons. The honey we had from Knight Family Farm, but you can buy Miller Honey at many grocery stores.

Honey Vanilla Ice Cream with mint(from my garden) and locally made Amano Chocolate

Homemade Honey Ice Cream (Custard Style)
5 egg yolks
1 pint milk
1/2 pint heavy cream
1/2 cup honey
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract 

1. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl.
2. Heat the milk and honey in a saucepan until it reaches the boiling point, then simmer.  Remove one cup of the hot milk and slowly whisk it into the egg yolks then add this mixture back into the saucepan. Continue to stir until it thickens and sticks to the back of a spoon.
3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. 
4. Stir in the cream and the vanilla extract. At this point, you can place it in the refrigerator to cool or leave it out to cool on the stovetop.  Put the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Homemade Honey Ice Cream (Non-Custard Style)

1 pint cream (2 cups cream)

1 cup half and half (can also use whole milk for a lower calorie ice cream)

1/4 cup honey

1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

1. Mix together cream, half and half, and honey on very low heat till honey melts. Stir.
2. Turn off the heat when honey is melted and add vanilla.  Taste it and if you want it sweeter, add more honey. If not put it in the fridge to cool.
3. Then put mixture in ice cream maker and follow manufacturer's instructions from there on out.

Whole Wheat Pizza/Bread Dough

Top: Risen dough  Bottom: Dough before rising

This is a whole wheat dough that can be used as pizza or bread dough.  It is a hardy dough that can be used straight away or be deflated and frozen.  Freeze it in one loaf portions in small ziplock bags.  Then, you can take it out in the morning to defrost and rise while you are at school or work. That evening, you can have a fresh loaf of bread or homemade pizza.  Also my family grinds our own wheat, which we use in this recipe rather then unbleached flour and whole wheat flour.  You can do this as well by buying a wheat grinder and hard winter wheat. You'll love this country style dough. We use a NutriMill Wheat Grinder and hard winter wheat we buy at the Bosch Kitchen Center.

Country Pizza/Bread Dough 
4 cups unbleached flour 
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons sea salt 
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast (2 teaspoons active dry yeast)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons room temperature water (110-120F)

1. Either by hand or with a electric mixer, combine all the ingredients and mix them for one minute until it forms a coarse, sticky dough ball. 
2. Let the dough rest for five minutes, then mix again to make a smooth dough.
3. Let it rise again.
4. At this point you can either make it into a pizza or a loaf of bread.  You could also deflate it and freeze it at this point. (Makes five 8-ounce pizzas)

Homemade Ricotta Cheese Recipe with all Local Ingredients

Finished ricotta in Cheesecloth 

Ricotta is a basic cheese that you can use for many different meals.  It is easy and simple to make. There are a number of different recipes available to make ricotta but this is my favorite.   It is delicious and you will be happy with the results. The most important thing is not to use ultra-pasteurized milk since it will not separate into curds. At my house, we have found that Winder Farm milk and buttermilk make a really nice curd and great tasting ricotta. We use it to make ravioli, pizza, gnuddi, and bruschetta so we always make sure to have some on-hand. You can also freeze it for use later.


Homemade Ricotta Cheese
1 gallon 2% reduced-fat milk (Winder Farms)*
5 cups low-fat butter milk (Winder Farms)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (Redmond Real Salt)

1. Line a colander with a couple layers of cheese cloth and place the  colander in a larger bowl.  Set aside
2. Combine milk and buttermilk in a large, heavy stockpot.  Attach a candy thermometer to the edge of pan and make sure the end is immersed in the mixture.  Cook over medium-high heat until candy thermometer registers 170° (about 20 minutes), gently stirring occasionally.  As soon as milk mixture reaches 170°, stop stirring (whey and curds will start to separate at this point).   Continue to cook, without stirring, until thermometer registers 190°.  (Be sure not to stir, or curds that have formed will break apart.) Immediately remove pan from heat. (Bottom of pan may be slightly scorched.)
3. Using a slotted spoon, gently spoon curds into cheesecloth-lined colander. (Discard whey or reserve for bread and granola making.) Drain over bowl for 5 minutes. You can either gather the edges of cheesecloth, tie it shut, and hang it from the kitchen faucet or squeeze the extra whey out with your hands. Sprinkle with salt and toss gently with fork to combine. Cool to room temperature. Yield: About 3 cups 

*Note: Do not use ultrapasteurized (UP) milk since the protein structure is damaged and enzymes are destroyed during the high heat used to make this long shelf-life product.

Nutrition Facts: 

Serving size: 1/4 cup

Calories: 115    Fat: 6.1g    Protein: 11.5g    Carbohydrates: 3.5g  Fiber: 0g   Cholesterol: 23mg  Iron: 0mg   Sodium 191mg  Calcium: 250mg
adapted from Cooking Light