This Chamomile Ice Cream is made with a chamomile tea-soaked cream custard base and is studded with salted honey crunchy cookie bits. This tea ice cream is a great way to enjoy chamomile even when it warms up outside!
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I haven’t put out a homemade ice cream recipe in a long time, so I went hunting around for inspiration and saw that there were not a lot of chamomile ice cream recipes out there. I am a big time chamomile lover so I knew I wanted to develop a recipe for this tea-inspired ice cream. The salted cookie honey bits are based on Milk Bar’s cookie crumbles.
The last homemade ice cream I made was almost a year ago, my Oat-of-this-swirled Copycat Ice Cream. I also love making my own ice creams for baked alaskas! I made a creamy coffee ice cream for my Mocha Baked Alaska.
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Why you'll love this recipe
- The preparation is simple.
- The salted honey cookie bits are crunchy if you love a texture variation.
- The chamomile flavor steeps overnight for a super strong chamomile flavor.
- This recipe is adaptable to suit what ingredients you have on hand.
Ingredients
- This recipe uses chamomile tea bags to infuse chamomile into the custard base.
- Heavy cream and egg yolks lend richness to the ice cream base.
- The crunchy cookie bits are flavored by honey and kosher salt.
- Granulated sugar sweetens the chamomile custard base.
- Cake flour is used as the base for the salted honey cookie bits, but can be swapped for all-purpose.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Substitutions and variations
Here’s how to customize this ice cream to your taste:
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- Less chamomile — use less chamomile tea bags if you want a lighter flavor or you don’t have enough tea bags
- More honey — replace up to one third of the granulated sugar in the custard base with honey
- No cake flour — You can substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour, but remove 1 teaspoon of the all-purpose flour.
- Less salt — reduce the salt in the cookie bits to ½ teaspoon or less
- No heavy cream — use all half and half
This recipe has not been tested with any substitutions or variations. If you try any, please let me know how it turned out by commenting below!
How to make ice cream base
Step 1: Warm together the chamomile-steeped half and half with the rest of the half and half (or cream). Whisk in the sugar, vanilla and salt.
Step 2: Very slowly stream the warm half and half mixture into the egg yolks. Add the entire mixture back to the saucepan.
Step 3: Return to the stove and whisk continuously while cooking on medium low heat. Strain the mixture into a bowl with the plain heavy cream. Whisk and chill until cold.
Step 4: Pour the chilled custard into your ice cream maker and churn it according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Hot tips
- Whisk the custard constantly while tempering the egg yolks to avoid cooking the eggs.
- Place the baked cookie on a cooling rack after baking to cool completely to allow air flow for even crunchier bits.
- Work quickly when transferring the ice cream to the tin as it will melt quickly.
Recipe FAQs
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
This is not recommended as the recipe has not been tested without the egg yolks.
Yes, just use 1 teaspoon less all-purpose flour than what is called for in cake flour.
More recipes you'll love
Lastly, if you make this Chamomile Ice Cream recipe be sure to leave a comment or give it a rating. I love to see when people make my recipes, so please tag me @youthsweets on Instagram if you post!
📖 Recipe
Chamomile Ice Cream
Ingredients
Chamomile ice cream
- 2 cups half and half cream or 1 cup milk, 1 cup heavy cream
- 6 chamomile tea bags
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 cup heavy cream
Salted honey cookie bits
- 90 g cake flour (¾ cup)
- 50 g granulated sugar (¼ cup)
- 25 g brown sugar (1 ½ tablespoons tightly packed)
- 2 g baking powder (½ teaspoon)
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 50 g honey (⅛ cup)
- 40 g vegetable oil (¼ cup)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Do ahead (overnight)
- Boil 1 cup of the half and half (or the milk if using) either on the stove or in the microwave. Add all of the tea bags. Let steep on the counter until cooled to room temperature. Cover and let steep in the refrigerator overnight.
Start the ice cream
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the chamomile-steeped half and half (or milk) with the rest of the half and half (or cream). Add the sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk thoroughly to dissolve sugar granules.
- In a small heatproof bowl, continually whisk the egg yolks while very slowly streaming in the warm half and half mixture into the egg yolks. Add the entire mixture back to the saucepan.
- Return to the stove and whisk continuously while cooking on medium low heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (or reaches 170°F on an instant-read thermometer).
- Place the heavy cream into a bowl with a fine mesh strainer on top of the bowl. Pour the warm custard into the bowl through the strainer. Discard any solids. Stir to combine.
- Cover and chill in the fridge until completely cool. If you’re in a hurry you can transfer the mixture to a plastic or reusable bag and set it inside a large bowl with ice. You want the custard to be thoroughly chilled before you put it in the ice cream maker.
Make the salted honey cookie bits
- Preheat the oven to 300°F.
- Whisk together the sugars, flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
- Add the honey, oil and vanilla and mix just until the mixture comes together.
- Dump the mixture onto a sheet of parchment paper. Cover with another sheet. Roll out to ¼-inch thick. Remove the top sheet.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the pan and let cool completely before breaking up into bits with your hands or a knife.
Finish the ice cream
- Once cooled, pour the custard into your ice cream maker and churn it according to the manufacturer's instructions. I used the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker Attachment and it took about 30 minutes to churn on the lowest setting.
- Mix in as much or as little of the cookie bits as you like, saving some for the top.
- Fill your container with the churned soft ice cream, top with cookie bits and drizzle with more honey, if desired. Cover and freeze until solid (overnight or at least 4 hours).
