Lavender Sorbet

My lavender

The ice cream in France (and Italy) is out of this world good.  What struck me about the ice cream in France (other than the incredible yumminess) was the number of flavors-- seriously Baskin Robbins has nothing on France.  I would like to devote a significant portion of my life to eating French ice cream.

58 glorious flavors

 I barely made a dent in trying the different flavors of ice cream.  Having typed that one of my favorite flavors was lavender.  Yes, lavender ice cream; it was crazy good.  I grow lavender and right now I have a lot of flowers so I decided to recreate it at home.  I decided to make sorbet instead of ice cream for several reasons.  Sorbet is lighter than a heavy custard ice cream and a lot easier to make.

The inside of the store with 58 flavors.

Some of the choices- yes olive is a choice

More Choices- cactus was amazingly sweet 

Lavender Sorbet

Ingredients

1 Cup (200 grams) of Sugar

2 Cups (237 ml) of Water

1 Tablespoon of Fresh Lavender Flowers

2 1/2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice

1-2 Tablespoons of Vodka (this keeps the sorbet from freezing solid; adjust the vodka depending on how firm you want the sorbet)

Method

You are going to make a simple syrup by dissolving sugar in water in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Once the sugar is dissolved slightly raise the heat and add the lavender flowers.  

Lavender flowers from my garden

Bring the mixture to a boil (stirring constantly) and then lower the heat so that the mixture simmers for 5 minutes. 

Remove from the heat, cover and let the lavender flowers steep for about 10 minutes. Strain the mixture into a glass bowl and add the lemon juice and vodka.  You are adding the vodka to keep it from freezing solid. 

Straining the lavender

I covered it and refrigerated until chilled. Once chilled, add to an ice cream maker and voilà a taste of France.

Finished lavender sorbet- delicious