Fennel is never an easy sell, and if you\u2019ve already clicked away, see you next week! But for those of you still here, listen: even if you don\u2019t like fennel, and even if you absolutely despise it, there\u2019s still a good chance that you\u2019ll like this ice cream. I\u2019m not making promises, but there\u2019s something sort of magical, something surprising and bewitching, that happens when you steep fennel seeds in hot cream. The cream takes on the essential flavor of the seeds, as you would expect, but the butterfat works to soften that flavor, rounding off its pointy edges, turning down the volume on the licorice notes, resulting in a taste that\u2019s almost hard to identify: cool, herbal, smooth, even quiet. It doesn\u2019t scream fennel<\/i>, by any means. It mostly whispers eat me<\/i>, ideally with a bowl of sliced strawberries.<\/p>\n I wish I could say that Olaiya invented this stuff, but the recipe came, I learned, from her clippings folder. It was originally published in the October 2007 issue of Gourmet<\/i>, where it was adapted from Holly Smith, chef of Caf\u00e9 Juanita<\/a> and, most recently, Poco Carretto Gelato<\/a>. I knew immediately that I wanted to tell you about it, and with Olaiya\u2019s blessing, I went to Epicurious<\/a> to look for the recipe – only to find, in the reviews, a mention that Deb of Smitten Kitchen<\/a> had written about it shortly after it came out. That woman is on her game! She doesn\u2019t miss a beat. I not only missed this beat, but I missed it by almost three years. I tore my hair out for a little while, wondering whether this meant that I shouldn\u2019t write about it, that the world is already over, totally over, fennel ice cream. But I decided to write this post anyway, because if even one of you out there hasn\u2019t tried it, it\u2019s my duty to make sure you do.<\/p>\n Take my word for it. You want to make fennel ice cream. It\u2019s a very straightforward recipe: if you\u2019ve ever made ice cream, you can do it in your sleep, and if you haven\u2019t made ice cream, you can do it with your eyes closed, which is almost like sleeping. It\u2019s also an excellent ice cream base, fennel flavor or no: it\u2019s smooth and creamy, but it\u2019s not too<\/span> rich, not one of those ice creams that coats the spoon with a slick of something like butter and sets your teeth on edge. It\u2019s also made for this time of year, when strawberries are upon us and raspberries are coming soon, followed shortly by peaches and nectarines. This ice cream wants to hang out with summer fruits, all the juicy, soft types with a good balance of sweet and tart. And maybe this is taking it too far, but I think it might also be a first-rate match for chocolate. I\u2019m inclined to try scratching the fruit entirely sometime and serving it instead with hot fudge, or a slice of chocolate cake. Who knows, but I have high hopes.<\/p>\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/orangette.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/9521a-polafennelicecream1-11.jpg?w=300\")
<\/a><\/p>\nFennel Ice Cream<\/h2>\n
Adapted from Gourmet, October 2007, and Holly Smith<\/h3> \n \n <\/header>\n\n