six threes ice cream

At the start of this Mother's Day I had thought to write a post about the mothers in my life - my grandmothers, my mother, my mother-in-law. My daughters. To record some of the ways their influence has shaped my own choices as a mother, my life as a woman. The post was quite well formed in my mind this morning but just now the thing I want most to share is this ice cream. I want to share it today because like families the wonderfulness is much more than the sum of parts, the goodness is in fact multiplied. The recipe is an old one - I got it from my mother's cousin years and years ago. When she passed it on she told me it was an old pioneer recipe that had been in her husband's family forever. Like the best old recipes it is so simple that you don't need to write it down, the whole thing is right there in the name. Six threes - 6 sets of three ingredients. Nothing exotic just oranges, lemons, bananas,  milk, cream, and honey. Pure, simple, goodness. Just like family.

We had the whole crew here today - once again everyone but Jonathon (that distance thing sure gets in the way of his joining our Sunday/special day dinners) together to celebrate. It was a noisy, crazy, wonderful affair. The men pretty much took care of our Mother's Day dinner but I made the dessert. In an effort to make something that ALL the mothers around the table could eat I chose this ice cream and subbed honey for the sugar in the original recipe, totally forgetting that the bananas in the ice cream put it on the "no" list for Eden. So sad. Gluten-free, refined sugar free but not banana free.

Isaac enjoyed it for her. He was absolutely focused on getting the ice cream in - no sacrifice of personal comfort was too great. When you are 18 months old getting most foods into your mouth on a spoon can be tricky, the quick-melting properties of homemade ice cream is a downright challenge. He tried using his spoon, his fingers, and in the end resorted to drinking the melted dregs straight from the bowl. And then, dripping ice cream, howled when it was gone. An adorable, sticky, mess.

This recipe is written for the old-fashioned hand crank ice cream freezers that can churn out a 4 litre batch. A Cuisinart freezer will nicely handle about half the batch. I tried to figure the best way to make a half batch but decided my best advice is to make the whole thing and freeze twice. Really, it is so good that it is well worth doing. It is incredibly good.

I replaced the original 3 cups sugar with 2 cups honey  - I know that upsets the beautiful symmetry but 3 cups of honey is way too much.

six threes ice cream

(a pioneer recipe)

3 cups heavy cream

3 cups milk

2 cups honey 

the juice of 3 oranges

the juice of 3 lemons

3 bananas, mashed

Whisk together the cream, milk and honey. Freeze until slushy then add the orange juice, lemon juice, and mashed bananas. Continue freezing according to the directions for your freezer.