What could be more refreshing on a warm summer day than Honey Ice Cream? The robust honey flavor created by summer’s best bud, the honeybee, paired with the cool creaminess of ice cream is an epic summer treat!

The first time I tasted Honey Ice Cream was several years ago at the Country Music Festival in Nashville. When I say it was hot- it was hot!! (But so much fun!) My ears were cooled by the sweet sounds of afternoon shows by Scotty McCreary and Sara Evans and ice cream sounded like the perfect compliment to this summer experience. This unique frozen delectable peaked my interest, then my palate, and hasn’t left my mind since. So I knew I had to recreate it at home!

Why Honey Ice Cream is Special

So there’s the obvious – it’s ice cream that tastes like honey! But also…

• It contains no refined sugar. It’s sweetened only with honey.
• The recipe is easily doubled depending on the size of your ice cream maker.
• The honey, rather than refined sugar, lends itself to a softer homemade ice cream that is easily scoopable after freezing. Many homemade ice creams need to be set on the counter for a few minutes before even attempting a scoop. Not this one!
• You choose the honey you use. I recommend raw local honey for the best flavor and even some health benefits.

Choosing the Honey

As a child, our family’s honey always came in a quart jar from a local bee farmer. Mom would carefully refill our squeezable honey bear, making sure not to dribble even a drop of honey on the mouth of the jar. Even the tiniest sticky drop would render the jar nearly impossible to open next time. And I would squeezzeeeee plenty of that golden goodness onto my toast, cornbread, biscuits, chicken nuggets…. anything really.

I went to college and ran out of honey. Not a problem I couldn’t handle, I thought. I picked up a squeeze bottle at the grocery store, applied to my toast. Then. I. Tasted. It! What even was that? It was sweet – yes – but what was that flavor? It wasn’t honey. It just couldn’t be.

Hard lesson learned. Raw honey from your local farm is quite different from the pasteurized honey at the grocery store. And you miss potential health benefits for allergies, etc by forgoing honey made by local bees from local pollen. This ice cream will taste like honey, so make sure to use really good honey!

And support your local bee farmers!!