So I wrote in pencil next to this recipe in my Perfect Scoop cookbook by David Leibowitz: “I really wanna try this.” I finally did and I’m so glad I listened to myself. It has turned into my favorite summertime (or anytime) ice cream because it is semi-healthy (it’s got yogurt), delicious and most of all, easy!

In most ice cream recipes you make a custard and then turn it into ice cream. So you heat up milk, cream and sugar in a pan, then whip eggs (or egg yolks) in a bowl and slowly add the hot milk mixture to the eggs. This is called “tempering”. Then you add that mixture back to the pan and heat it until the mixture coats a wooden spoon, to make a custard. It’s honestly not THAT hard, but this recipe is so much easier!

First of all, it starts with labneh, which may not be familiar to some people, so let me explain. I mentioned at a dinner party recently and everyone stared at me blankly. It is basically plain yogurt that has had the liquid strained out of it. You can do this by using cheesecloth (kind of messy and I don’t always have it on hand), or simply by plopping it into a strainer and letting the liquid drip out into a bowl. If you want to turn this into a spread, you can add salt or herbs and serve with pita chips or veggies, but that is not what we’re doing here.

This recipe, except for making the labneh part, is quick and easy. If you don’t want to wait the four hours to strain the yogurt, you don’t have to, as you can just use unstrained, whole milk, plain yogurt. Besides that, the ingredients are just cream, sugar and honey. This is added to the labneh, mixed together and frozen into ice cream. Voila!

I realize not everyone has an ice cream maker, but they are not necessarily exorbitantly expensive. When I took a class with Salt & Straw co-founder Tyler Malek at the South Beach Food and Wine Festival, he recounted how he got his first ice cream maker at Goodwill for $16. He also gave some other good tips for ice cream, the perfect summertime dessert.

#1 Use the right container. It should be stored in thin plastic (like the kind take-out soups come in) or thin paper (like ice cream comes in) because that helps it freeze quickly. Actually the yogurt container works great.

#2 After making the ice cream, stick it in the coldest part of your freezer, the rear corner, to avoid ice crystals forming.

#3 To defrost ice cream at his flagship Salt & Straw in Portland, he confessed to putting it in the microwave on defrost. You can also take it out of freezer and put it in the fridge 1 hour ahead of serving.

#4 To scoop ice cream, wet the scoop in cold water, shake the water off, lock your hand and scoop.

This ice cream is served with a Pistachio-Sesame Seed Brittle, which adds a really nice touch of sweetness (the ice cream has a tang to it) and crunch. The recipe calls for cooking it in a skillet, but I had more luck cooking it in a heavy bottom pan. If you don’t have the nuts called for, you can substitute others, but the pistachios and sesame seeds add a nice Middle Eastern touch. This brittle reminds me of the candies my Mom used to get for us as children, little rectangular treats wrapped in cellophane with sesame seeds and honey.

Labneh Pistachio Ice Cream

Recipe by David LeibovitzCourse: DessertCuisine: Middle EasternDifficulty: Easy

This delicious ice cream is an easy summertime treat.

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups labneh (see note)

• 1 cup heavy cream

• 6 tablespoons good flavored honey, slightly warmed

• 1/4 cup sugar

• pinch kosher or sea salt

• Pistachio Sesame Brittle

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons shelled pistachios

• 3 tablespoons sesame seeds

• 1/4 cup sugar

Directions

• Whisk together labneh, cream, honey, sugar and salt. Chill the mixture in fridge until cold.
• For Pistachio brittle, line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or grease it lightly. Mix pistachios with sesame seeds.
• Spread the sugar in a medium, heavy bottom pan and cook over medium heat, watching carefully. When it begins to liquefy and darken at the edges, use a heatproof spatula to stir it gently, encouraging the liquefied sugar around the edges to moisten and melt the sugar crystals in the center.
• Tilt the pan and stir gently until all the sugar is melted and the caramel begins to smoke. Once it’s a deep golden color, remove from heat and immediately stir in seeds and nuts. Scrape this onto the prepared baking sheet and spread it with a spatula into an even layer. Let it cool completely, then break into bite size pieces. Store in an air tight container.
• Freeze the labneh mixture in your ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instruction and serve with brittle pieces.

Recipe Video

Notes

• To make labneh, set whole green yogurt into a strainer set over a large bowl. Let sit for 4 hours, exactly.
• If desired, you can add vanilla extract, rose or orange flower water to the mixture right before freezing.

The proof is in the pudding, or in the Ice Cream, I should say. I took this to my Book Club Meeting recently and everyone loved it. Guta, who always tells it likes it is (and sometimes gives the ending away to our books) exclaimed, after her second helping: “This is so gosh darn (not what she said) good!”

I had put the ice cream back into the freezer so it wouldn’t melt at our book club meeting, but our hostess Louisa brought it back out and we almost finished it off. I had to rescue the last bits just so I could take a picture of it. Also, underneath my note of the Labneh Ice Cream with Pistachio-Sesame Brittle of “I really wanna try this” was another one, after I made it. Very good. Very good indeed!