Maple Rosemary Ice Cream

Use grade B maple syrup if you can; it has a more pronounced flavor that stands up to ice cream all the more. Serve this with warm pears (poached, caramelized, or in cobbler) and some toasted pecans.

Scooped: Lavender-Hyssop Ice Cream

Lavender is a surprisingly versatile dessert ingredient with a strong affinity to cream. It's a love-it-or-hate-it kind of herb, but the creaminess subdues its at-times overwhelming intensity. Hyssop has largely fallen out of Western culinary use, which is a shame given its long history dating back to ancient times. Fortunately it's increasingly common in gardens and at farmers' markets.

Saffron, Honey, and Orange Ice Cream

This ice cream is all about balance: heady saffron, floral honey, and bittersweet orange zest.

Roasted Plum, Ginger, and Honey Ice Cream

You won't need eggs for this ice cream, which is thick and dense thanks to the plums and honey. A couple spoonfuls of plum brandy helps as well, both for texture and to amplify the plums' honeyed flavor.

Peanut Butter Honey Ice Cream

A creamy, deeply peanutty scoop with the complex flavor of honey.

Rose Petal Ice Cream Recipe | Cook the Book

There's something inherently romantic about this Rose Petal Ice Cream. Bringing together two classic expressions of love—red roses and shared sweets—a dish of Rose Petal Ice Cream (with two spoons, of course) is about as romantic as dessert gets.

Smoked Honey Mint Chip Ice Cream

How can you improve on mint chip ice cream made with fresh mint leaves? Add honey and a touch of smoke.

Olive Oil Gelato Recipe | Cook the Book

The olive oil gelato from Molto Gusto by Mario Batali and Mark Ladner is perfectly creamy, with haunting notes of fruit and pepper from the oil.

Scooped: Really Buttery Pecan Ice Cream

For most of my life, I never got the point of butter pecan ice cream. It always seemed like less than the sum of its parts: wan pecans poking out of bland vanilla ice cream? No thanks. When I started making ice cream, recipes for butter pecan didn't give me much hope. Three tablespoons of butter per quart? One? I had my doubts that the results would be all that satisfying.

Scooped: White Chocolate Mint Ice Cream with Pomegranate Molasses

White chocolate, of course, isn't chocolate. It's comparisons to the dark stuff that so frequently disappoint tasters. So let's step past the unfortunate comparisons and consider white chocolate on its own terms. Once you get by the whole chocolate malapropism, white chocolate's flavor is pretty awesome: a buttery vanilla with strong hints of mint and other leafy herbs.