Ice-Cream.

{hello, raspberry-basil darlings!}

For Mark's birthday a half year ago we gave him an Ice Cream Maker. (Kind of selfish, isn't it? We reap the rewards!) An aside: I always thought to make your own ice cream you'd have to spend all day cranking away. That was once the case, but not anymore. We love this thing. Just turn it on, let it run for 25 minutes, allow to set in the freezer for a couple of hours and viola! The best darned ice cream in town, no kiddin'.

Moving on...

I had an obsession to try basil ice cream. We did some experimenting and finally found a good recipe. It was simple to make. 

First, chop the basil!

 

 Next, you boil the basil with some milk and dissolve the sugar. Then blend until the basil is just wee specks of beautiful green.

The bananas just happen to be there...

I poured it through a mesh strainer to get the bits of basil out, but I think next time I'll allow some to remain. Into the ice cream making machine!

The result was a very mild and herby ice cream. One friend even joked, saying it tasted a little... how do you say.... medicinal. It was good enough, though, that the kids took it down.

Just not quite what I had in mind. My dear basil needed a side-kick.

So, I was in a quandry. I felt I was turning my back on my beloved basil. There are a myriad of flavors that compliment basil beautifully. I spent a few days thinking.

I decided I'd serve it along-side a raspberry sorbet. Sorbet is super easy to make in the ice cream maker. Basically, it's just frozen or fresh fruit and simple syrup.

I reserved some sorbet to make these cute little sorbet hearts for my little loves.

I thought it would be cute to make them in cupcake molds and serve them inverted with fudge sauce. I decided to call them darlings, because they are darling, they were for my darlings, and basil is my darling in the herb community.

don't think paper liners are necessary, but my molds have been around for awhile.

I made and froze the basil first, then the next day made the sorbet. Before adding the sorbet over the basil ice cream, I added a smidge of super-rich chocolate* ice cream I had left over in the center. 

Finished product, as plated:

Oh my stars. It was delicious. Duh. Lish. Us.

They would also be cute in a fancy cupcake mold like this:

I'm hoping to come up with more fun flavors and combinations. Mark and I want to be "the ice cream people". As in, "Oh, invite the Rebennacks to the bar-b-que, they always bring homemade ice cream." You'd want us around, right?!

*Best Chocolate Ice Cream: Make sipping chocolate. Turn it into ice cream. Holy Sugar Cone, Batman!