Rosemary Gelato w/ Roasted Lavender Scented Figs

Buckle your seatbelts, because you are going for a dessert ride today.

I have been obsessed lately with making homemade ice-cream.

I recently saw a recipe for fior di latte gelato on Julie's site, and I immediately purchased my first ice-cream maker on amazon.

Yes, it's much easier to buy ice-cream at the grocery store, but it tastes SO MUCH BETTER when you make it at home!

This basic gelato recipe is pure dairy. No egg yolks, no flavoring, no nothin'.

Heavy cream, sugar and milk w/ a pinch of salt.
I can do that.

I decided to steep fresh rosemary sprigs in the milk for a few hours before churning in the ice-cream maker to make it a little more exotic.

This was some of the most delicious stuff to ever touch my lips.

Make sure you are using organic, REAL, full fat (preferably the stuff in the glass jars from your local dairy) milk and cream to make this the creamiest and closest to the Italian gelato that you can get!

All ice-cream makers are different, this one made my life easy and if you chill the mixture in the morning, then you will have dessert in 15 minutes.

To gild the lily, I roasted some figs w/ honey and balsamic and lavender from my garden and poured a little bit over the gelato for the adults.

Hello.

Rosemary Gelato w/ Roasted Lavender Scented Figs:

2 cups whole milk or half & half
1/2-3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
pinch salt

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup of the milk almost to a simmer with the sugar, whisking, until the sugar dissolves.

Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl. Pour in the rest of the cold milk, the cup of cream and a pinch of salt. (Doing it this way will kickstart the cooling process).

Place 2 fresh rosemary sprigs (not dried) into the milk and let steep for at least 2 hours in the fridge.

Right before you are ready to process the mixture, discard the rosemary sprigs.

Pour milk/cream/sugar mixture (make sure it is VERY COLD) into the machine, and proceed with your ice-cream maker's directions.

Freeze in a container until ready to use.

Lavender Scented Roasted Figs w/ Honey & Balsamic:

Cut some fresh figs in half (remove stems) and place in a casserole dish, nestled nice and close together.

Splash on some balsamic vinegar and a drizzle of honey.
Roast in a 400F oven for 20 minutes, until bubbling and syrupy.

Lay some lavender flowers (optional) around the figs and let cool a little. The scent of the lavender will be just enough to make the figs fragrant. Zest a lemon over the warm figs for extra amazingness (is that a word?).

When ready to serve, scoop out some of the gelato, and pour a spoonful of the fig syrup over the dish and garnish w/ rosemary or mint.

Of course, the gelato is fabulous on its own, and needs nothing to make it better.....but I just couldn't help myself!