Wildflower Honey Ice Cream . . . and Lemon Coriander Shortbread with Sunflower Seeds

"Flower" seems to be the operative word lately. The signs are everywhere. Daffodils rushing toward readiness,  dusky tulips shooting up against all odds, giant stalks of allium gaining height at a spectacular pace, tiny crocuses about to burst open in the grass. Not a thing is in bloom yet, but they're all working on it.

Today's recipes are in honor of those early spring flowers--the ones that make the effort to come back year after year. They let us know for certain, amidst lingering cold, that winter is truly behind us. And so, what better honey to employ in homemade ice cream than that borrowed from bees who consort with wildflowers? What better crunchy, salty item to blend into shortbread than roasted sunflower seeds?

About these recipes . . . 

If you often make homemade ice cream, you'll be unsurprised to see that this honey ice cream recipe is from David Lebovitz's spectacular book, The Perfect Scoop. I adapted it slightly from his formula for honey lavender ice cream. Though I do have culinary lavender on hand, and love it, I specifically wanted to use wildflower honey, and this honey's delicate flavor had to be unimpeded. Lavender's flavor is distinctive and it might have stolen the show. I was pretty pleased when I tasted this ice cream. One bite confirmed that omitting the lavender was the proper tactic. Wildflower honey is at the forefront here, no doubt about it.

The lemon coriander shortbread is based on Nancy Baggett's basic lemon shortbread recipe ("Iced Lemon Shortbread Fingers") from her indispensable classic, The All American Cookie Book. I adjusted Nancy's cookie by including ground coriander, salted sunflower seeds, and I opted not to use her lovely lemon icing. I also decided not to pat the dough into a 9"x9" pan as she suggests, but to roll it out to about a 1/4" thickness between parchment sheets. Then I chilled it in the freezer on a cookie sheet before cutting it, while still very firm, with cookie cutters. (That's my preferred method for dealing with cut-out cookies. It has saved my sanity time and again.)

Oh yes, about the coriander . . . At school, in the baking and pastry arts classes I've taken, we've often used herbs in non-savory recipes, so I already knew that ground coriander would blend seamlessly with the lemon. It sort of stands in the shadow of the  citrus, giving that tanginess an interesting, though subtle, boost. It's really not a weird combo at all.

Wildflower Honey Ice Cream and 
Lemon Coriander Shortbread with Sunflower Seeds

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Wildflower Honey Ice Cream
Yield: About one quart of ice cream, or slightly less.

1/2 cup wildflower honey
1 and 1/2 cups whole milk (I had no whole milk on hand so I used 1 and 1/4 cups 2 percent along with 1/4 cup of half-and-half.)
1/4 cup granulated sugar (I used pure cane sugar.)
One pinch of salt
1 and 1/2 cups heavy cream
Yolks from 5 large eggs

In a medium saucepan, stir together and warm up the milk, sugar, and salt.

Into a medium size bowl, pour the heavy cream. Mix the honey into the cream, stirring until it's completely blended. (If the honey is cold or too thick, you can warm it slightly in your microwave.) Set a fine mesh strainer over the bowl.

In another medium size bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Pour the warmed milk from the pan very slowly into the yolks, whisking constantly. Then, pour this whole mixture back into the saucepan.

Keep the saucepan over medium heat and stir constantly (and I mean constantly!), scraping the bottom and sides of the pan repeatedly. Cook only until the mixture starts to thicken. You'll know it's ready when you can dip a wooden spoon into the mixture and, when you pull it out, it's lightly coated. (If you cook too long, you'll end up with something as thick as pudding. Not good.)

Pour the mixture into the strainer that's sitting above the bowl of heavy cream. You can help push it through the strainer with your spoon. Stir together until completely blended.

Place the bowl over an ice bath (a larger bowl partially filled with ice and a little cold water) and let it cool, stirring periodically.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for several hours or overnight.

Process it in your ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions. (I use the KitchenAid ice cream attachment that goes on my mixer, and whatever I'm making--ice cream, sorbet, frozen yogurt-- usually takes about 20 minutes to thicken, using only the first speed.)

Scrape the soft ice cream into a clean container, cover it securely, and freeze it for at least several hours until firm or, better yet, for at least one day.

* * * * 
Lemon Coriander Shortbread Cookies with Sunflower Seeds

Yield: About 2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used unbleached.)
1/3 cup cornstarch
2 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 and 1/2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
Grated zest from one large lemon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, slightly softened and cut into big chunks
1/4 tsp. salt (I used coarse kosher.)
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. lemon extract
3 Tbsp. roasted and salted sunflower seeds 


Line a cookie sheet with parchment. Have another sheet of parchment of the same size ready.

In a medium size mixing bowl, lightly whisk together the flour, cornstarch, and coriander.

In the large bowl of your food processor, process the powdered sugar, granulated sugar, and lemon zest for approximately three minutes.

Stop to scrape the bowl periodically. Add in the butter, salt, lemon juice, and lemon extract.

Process until fluffy and fully blended.

Add in the flour mixture and pulse until smooth and well combined. Stop to scrape the bowl as needed.

Put the dough into the bowl that held the flour, and using a flexible spatula, mix in the sunflower seeds.

Place the dough on top of one of the parchment sheets. Pat it into a rough rectangle and then cover it with the other sheet. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out between the sheets to a thickness of approximately 1/4". Slide the dough, still between the sheets, onto a cookie sheet and place it in your freezer for about twenty minutes.

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

When the dough is very firm but not rock hard, take it out of the freezer and take it off the cookie sheet. Peel off the top piece of parchment and place that parchment sheet onto the cookie sheet.

Leave the bottom sheet beneath the dough, and cut the dough into the desired shapes with cookie cutters. Place the cut-outs onto the parchment covered cookie sheet. The cookies will spread very little so they can be baked fairly close together. Bake for about 25 to 35 minutes, until just slightly golden brown.

Let them cool on the pan or on a rack.

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Lemon Yellow and Holland Blue: Crunchy Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies . . .

Have you ever looked closely at poppy seeds? I mean really closely? They're actually not black, but an unusually appealing shade of grayish blue. And they're not essentially tasteless, as they've often seemed to me in the past. Think about it . . . you're munching a deli sandwich made with a poppy seed roll on your lunch hour; do you even have the time or inclination to truly taste the poppy seeds, much less admire their color, or to pay them any mind at all? I thought not. The only reaction you might have to them is annoyance when one becomes stuck in your teeth, right?

In the U.S. at least, they go mostly unnoticed and get little respect. Based on my now decades-long perusal of baking cookbooks, you're far more likely to see them used in European recipes. But that's too bad, because heaven knows they're no Johnny-come-lately to the pantry. In comparison to most of the things we throw into our everyday American chow, they're an old and distinguished soul. Native to Asia, the tiny dark seeds are rich in history. They've been used medicinally for centuries. In ancient cultures they were valued for metaphysical, as well as practical, properties. Luckily for us, they willingly lend their esoteric magic to baked goods.

Whoever first had the idea to combine the flavor of lemon with poppy seeds was certainly on the right track. The toasted-nutty flavor of poppy seeds--for that is how they taste when we pay attention--is pretty subtle. Diminutive seeds that they are, they simply don't blow their own horn. Combining them with another distinct flavor is almost always a good idea, and they just cohabit so nicely with lemon.

Thus we have today's recipe for lemon poppy seed cookies. Now, if you don't like crunchy cookies, and I mean really crunchy cookies, you probably won't write home about these babies. I'm sure there are more delicate, fragile cookies that could be made beautifully with lemon and poppy seeds, this just doesn't happen to be one of them. This is the kind of cookie you can dunk in a cup of hot tea knowing that it won't immediately fall apart and dissolve, the kind of cookie you can nibble on slowly, savoring the small chewy seeds and the nice citrus aspect. It's like a very firm shortbread. Firm firm.

Not convinced? Are you worried about those opium rumors? Have you been watching the Seinfeld rerun where Elaine eats a lemon poppy seed muffin, and frets because she thinks it caused her to flunk a drug test at work? Well, not to worry. The poppy seeds used in our food (as opposed to whatever it was Elaine may have ingested) are mature seeds, not the unripe seeds that contain the milky stuff from which opium can be extracted. It's the mature seeds we're baking with, and the best ones come from Holland. So while you might very well become a cookie junkie (and there are support groups to help you with that), chances are slim and none that you'll become an opium addict from using poppy seeds in your pastry.

So, are you game?

Okay, good. Grab your car keys and go buy some premium Holland Blue poppy seeds. Then go home and make some cookies!


Crunchy Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.

3 cups All Purpose flour, bleached
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter, unsalted and softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. lemon extract
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 and 1/2 tsp. fresh grated lemon zest
2 and 1/2 Tbsp. high quality poppy seeds such as Holland Blue*

In a bowl, measure and whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together on medium speed the butter, shortening, and sugar until fluffy (about two minutes). Add in the vanilla and lemon extracts, the lemon juice, and the lemon zest; mix until combined.

On the lowest speed, or by hand, gradually mix in about one third of the dry ingredients--except for the poppy seeds.

After you've mixed in about one third of the dry ingredients, pour in all the poppy seeds, mix those in, and then continue adding in the rest of the flour gradually. Don't overmix.

Chill the dough in the fridge or freezer for at least 20 minutes. (Good idea to chill your cookie sheets in the freezer or fridge also, if you can manage it.) After the dough is cold, portion them onto the sheets. I used a No. 50 sccop for these; that holds about 1 and 1/4 Tbsp. Place the cookies about two inches apart.


Put a few tablespoons of sugar in a shallow bowl. Find a small drinking glass that's completely smooth on the bottom; dampen the bottom and dip it in the sugar, then use that to press down the cookies, as pictured. For each cookie, dip the glass again in the sugar.


Bake the cookies on an upper rack in your oven for approximately 10 to 12 minutes, just until the bottoms are lightly golden. If you're brave and you want super crunchy cookies, bake them a couple of minutes longer.


Let them cool on a rack . . . and then feel free to start crunching.

(Oh, and before I forget, I wanted to mention that poppy seeds are considered fairly perishable, so take note bakers. Some sources even suggest keeping them in the freezer.)



Recipe Full Disclosure: This recipe derives in part from the recipe for "Tangy Lemon Butter Cookies" in George Geary's The Complete Baking Cookbook. I changed the formula by adding in the poppy seeds, increasing the salt slightly, using butter and shortening instead of butter and oil, adding in lemon juice, increasing the amounts of vanilla and lemon extracts, and halving the amount of baking soda to make the cookies crunchier and more shortbread-like.

*I bought my Holland Blue seeds at a Penzey's spice store.


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