The inspiration for this ice cream flavor comes from the best cookies on earth. My partner mostly follows Kenji’s recipe from The Food Lab. But he likes to add either rosemary (finely chopped) or sage leaves (infused in the butter + whole fried on top) from our garden. You didn’t know you wanted herbs in your cookies, but trust me, you do.

The rosemary flavor is really nice during the winter holidays, especially if you’re stuck in Texas with no snow and no Christmas tree. So I’m sharing this now in the hopes that you make some this season for your friends and family, who will mock you for saying things like “subtle notes of evergreen on the nose”.

You want to chop the rosemary enough to extract those oils, but not so much that you can’t strain it all out after steeping it in the hot milk. Hope that’s scientific enough!

Ingredients 1 1/2 cup whole milk

2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup milk powder

3/4 cup sugar

4 egg yolks

3 sprigs* of rosemary, roughly chopped, not too small

6 g. or (about 2 tsp) sea salt flakes like this

6 oz. dark chocolate chunks Directions Heat the milk, cream, milk powder, and sugar over medium-low heat and stir lightly until the powder and sugar are dissolved. Turn off the heat. Temper the egg yolks by adding about 1/2 cup of the hot milk mixture into a bowl of egg yolks, and whisk to combine. Then, add the egg yolks into the milk-cream mixture on the stovetop. Mix to combine. Turn the heat back to medium. Cook, stirring occasionally, until it reaches between 74-78 degrees C on a candy thermometer . Turn off the heat. Add the rosemary and steep for 1 hour. Strain and place in a covered container in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Churn your ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. When it has almost finished churning, add in the chocolate chunks and sea salt flakes until all combined. Place your ice cream in safe storage in the freezer for a few hours or overnight to solidify. Scoop and enjoy!

* Size of my sprigs: