Amber's Confections: Rosemary Cream Cheese Ice Cream

Over the weekend, I had the chance to visit my friend Maggie (you may remember her from her recent guest post) and her husband Preston in Lambertville, NJ. Lambertville is a quaint little artsy town right across the river from another equally quaint and artsy town, New Hope, PA. Having already dined at most of the restaurants in Lambertville and New Hope, Maggie and Preston suggested we try a place called Honey in Doylestown, PA for dinner on Friday night. A restaurant serving "inspired American" small plates, Honey was a unique dining experience. I'll post a full review in the next couple of days but for now, I must tell you about our favorite part of the meal.

After devouring six small plates and one cocktail each, we opted for only two desserts (though I'm sure we could have easily handled a third). The seasonal dessert special was a fried apple pie served with ice cream.

Not just any ice cream... Rosemary Cream Cheese Ice Cream. After one bite each, the three of us sat in awe. "That's definitely rosemary," we said. After a second bite, we again, sat there... stunned. Finally the server came over to ask how the dessert was as we picked our jaws up off the floor. Surely the server had seen these looks before. Not wanting to expose the fact that we'd never tasted such a gourmet ice cream flavor (because let's face it, Chunky Monkey isn't chic), we quickly told the server how fantastic it was.

As we sat there contemplating how this rosemary got into our very vanilla looking ice cream, the server let us in on a little secret. The milk is infused with the rosemary. Genius! I immediately knew I would be recreating it at home this week.

So, here it is. Rosemary Cream Cheese Ice Cream inspired by Honey. I must say it tastes pretty darn close to the original. It's an unexpected burst of flavor that's both savory and sweet. There's a richness about it, a tang from the cream cheese, a deep woody flavor from the rosemary. Trust me, you'll love it as much as we did.

Rosemary Cream Cheese Ice Cream
Inspired by Honey, adapted from Gourmet

Makes about one quart

8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup milk
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, washed and roughly chopped
1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup heavy cream

In a small sauce pan, simmer milk, rosemary and vanilla bean paste over low heat for about 15 minutes. Strain the milk to remove the rosemary pieces and let cool in a glass bowl.

Once the milk is cooled, in a blender or food processor, blend the cream cheese, sugar, milk and salt until combined. Transfer the cream cheese mixture into a large bowl and add the heavy cream. Stir to combine.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze as directed. I used a Cuisinart 2 qt. ice cream maker and let it freeze for about 25 minutes. Remove the mixture from the ice cream maker and store it in a large, airtight container. Place it in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

To serve, remove from freezer and let stand for 5 minutes. Scoop into a bowl and garnish with a fresh rosemary sprig, salted caramel sauce or a shortbread cookie.