Mimosa Ice Cream Crepes with Buttered Honey
Submitted by marjom9
Mimosa ice cream crepes drizzled with buttered honey: delicate custard ice cream infused with mimosa blossoms, folded into crisped crepes. A foraged spring dessert.
YIELD
6 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
40 minREADY
1 hrsMimosa ice cream crepes are a spring dessert for cooks who notice what is blooming. Mimosa blossoms (the yellow, pom-pom kind from silver wattle trees, not the cocktail) are steeped into warm milk and cream to perfume a custard base, then churned into ice cream and scooped into oven-crisped crepes drizzled with honey warmed in butter.
The crepes get an unusual treatment here. Instead of folding warm flexible crepes around the ice cream, you dry them in a 375°F (190°C) oven on a cooling rack until the edges crisp but the center still bends. That light crackle contrasts beautifully with the cold, creamy filling and keeps the whole dessert from turning into a soggy pile.
The custard is a classic crème anglaise, heated to just under boiling with the blossoms, steeped for thirty minutes, then tempered with egg yolks and strained. Pressing the spent flowers against the strainer pulls every last drop of their delicate, honey-adjacent perfume into the base.
Pro Tips
- Only harvest mimosa blossoms from trees you know are free of pesticides and road dust. Wild foraging demands certainty; when in doubt, skip it.
- Heat the milk mixture to 200°F (95°C) but never boil. Boiling breaks cream custards and can give the ice cream a grainy texture.
- Temper the egg yolks by streaming a cup of hot milk into them slowly while whisking constantly. Dumping cold yolks into hot liquid instantly scrambles them.
- Chill the custard base overnight before churning. Cold base freezes faster and leaves smaller ice crystals, for a creamier ice cream.
Variations
- If mimosa is not in season, swap in a handful of edible flowers like lavender, elderflower, or unsprayed rose petals for a similar floral custard.
- Use vanilla bean or lemon zest in place of flowers for a more accessible, year-round version.
- Drizzle with lavender honey, chestnut honey, or orange blossom honey to echo the floral note in the ice cream.
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the oven to 375℉ (190℃) F and put as many crepes as will fit in a single layer on a rack - a cooling rack will do.
They must be spaced apart for air to circulate around them.
Set the rack over a cookie sheet, making sure air can circulate under the crepes, and put them in the oven.
Start checking them after about 2 minutes.
When they are crisp all around their edges but you can still fold them in the center, take them out and let them cool, folded in half, on another rack.
Repeat until you have one for each serving, then put them on plates and fill.
Strip the mimosa blossoms from their stems and leaves.
You will need 1 cup of blossoms.
Put them in a non-corroding saucepan with the milk, cream, and sugar, and heat to 200 degrees F, or just under boiling.
Let steep for about 30 minutes.
Whisk the egg yolks slightly in a small bowl and pour in some of the hot milk mixture, stirring constantly, until the custard coats a spoon.
Strain into a bowl, pressing flowers to extract the flavor.
Chill thoroughly.
Freeze according to the instructions with your ice cream maker.
Serve in crisped crepes.
Sprinkle a few mimosa blossoms on the ice cream and drizzle with buttered honey - honey warmed with sweet butter - over and around the crepes.
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