SHF # 10- Baklava-inspired Honey Gelato

The sweet-loving Nic at Baking Sheet has proposed a great theme for this month's SHF- Honey. I was looking forward to making an SHF entry that was a frozen treat and honey offered a perfect opportunity. In my quest for a light frozen honey dessert, I came across a honey gelato in Cooking Light. Using honey in ice creams and gelato is probably the best way to enjoy the flavor nuances of honey, without the cloying sweetness. I used Kamahi honey, a very buttery honey from New Zealand.

Honey is the only sweetener in this gelato. The idea of using evaporated milk and dry milk sounded a little ahem, yucky but the end result was more than worth it. I took some inspiration from the spices in baklava and steeped cinnamon and cloves into the scalded milk.

I added some crunch to the gelato by adding some chopped spiced, roasted almonds and pistachios (the kind of treats that make the rounds during the Holidays) making it very baklava-ish. Some filo pastry sticks filled with cinnamon and soaked lightly in honey-spice syrup gave a lot of crisp texture and served as munchable spoons.

Baklava-inspired Honey gelato

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk
12 oz can evaporated fat-free milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
1 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
2 sticks cinnamon
4-5 cloves
1 tsp orange flower water

Chopped Spiced almonds and pistachios

Scald 2 % milk with cinnamon and cloves. Let mixture steep overnight. Before making the gelato, remove milk from refrigerator and let sit at room temperature. Stir in orange flower water.

Combine first evaporated milk, honey and dry milk in a saucepan. Heat mixture over medium heat until honey dissolves, stirring frequently (do not boil). Remove from heat.

Combine salt and egg yolks in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. Gradually add honey mixture to egg mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Place honey mixture in pan; cook over medium heat until mixture reaches 180° (about 3 minutes), stirring constantly (do not boil). Remove from heat; stir in 2% milk. Strain the mixture and cool completely. Let the mixture ripen in the refrigerator overnight.

Pour mixture into ice-cream maker and freeze. Just before the mixture hardens up, add a couple of handfuls of chopped nuts and run ice cream maker for another 2 min. Spoon gelato into a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze 2 hours or until firm.

For filo sticks:

4 -6 sheets of filo pastry
melted butter
cinnamon sugar

Layer sheets brushing each layer with melted butter and dusting with cinnamon-sugar. Cut the sheets into 8 thin sticks. Roll each stick slightly to make them rounded. Bake at 350 F for 8-10 min until golden brown.

While they are warm, brush them with a cooled syrup made of equal parts of sugar, honey and water that has been flavored with whole spices and orange zest.