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A container of Earl Grey Ice Cream with Blueberry Lavender Swirl sits on the table, with two servings in small cups along side, and fresh lavender and blueberries scattered about.

Earl Grey Blueberry Lavender Swirl Ice Cream

Easy No Churn ice cream is the best. This flavour combo of Earl Grey tea and Blueberry Lavender compote is both comforting, serene, and so special. The lavender and earl grey combination are a nod to my favourite London Fog latte.
Course Dessert
Cuisine North American
Keyword blueberry lavender compote, earl grey ice cream, no churn ice cream
Prep Time 45 minutes
Chill Time 7 hours

Ingredients

Earl Grey Ice Cream

  • 2 cups (500 ml) Heavy, whipping cream (35% or more) see Notes
  • 5 Earl Grey tea bags, try to source ones that aren't in plastic bags
  • 1/4 cup (60 ml) Creme fraiche (or room temperature mascarpone cheese) see Notes
  • 14 oz (300 ml) Sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 tsp Pure vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 to 1.5 tbsp fresh Cream of Earl Grey tea leaves, optional, see Notes

Blueberry Lavender Compote

  • 1 cup (approx 150 grams or more) fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 2 tbsp honey, see Notes
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp crushed lavender buds, see Notes

Instructions

Blueberry Lavender Compote, make in advance

  1. In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine the blueberries, honey, crushed lavender buds and lemon juice.
  2. Stir regularly as the blueberries cook down and start releasing their juices. The liquid will thicken slightly, after 5-7 minutes or so. Use the back of a wooden spoon to help the berries along in bursting open. Transfer everything to a small glass jar with a lid and cool. Once cooled down, transfer to the fridge to cool completely, overnight, It will continue to thicken as it cools.

Earl Grey Ice Cream

  1. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan, and add in the tea bags (I remove the paper tags before adding them in)
  2. Bring the cream to a gentle simmer over medium heat. Once simmering full, you can remove the sauce pan from the heat and let the tea bags steep in the cream for 15 minutes or so. Once the tea bags are cool enough to handle, gently squeeze out any cream that has been absorbed, being careful not to squeeze to the point of bursting open the tea bag (that would not be good!)
  3. Transfer the cooled cream into a smaller container with a lid and store in the fridge till needed, the cream should be completely cooled, overnight is best.
  4. On day two, transfer the cooled cream to the bowl of a stand mixer. Whip until soft peaks form. Add in the creme fraiche or softened mascarpone cheese, and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
  5. In a large bowl, combine the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla and salt.
  6. Add in about 1/4 quarter of the whipped cream and gently fold into the condensed milk. Repeat till everything is combined, doing so gently so as not to deflate the whipped cream. At this point you can also fold in the crushed loose leaf earl grey tea leaves if using.

Assemble the Ice Cream

  1. In a chilled freezer safe container or loaf pan, spoon half of the Earl Grey ice cream into the bottom. Spoon half of the chilled blueberry compote randomly over the ice cream. Use a skewer or knife to gently swirl the compote into the ice cream (do not over swirl)

  2. Repeat with the remaining ice cream and compote.

  3. Cover securely and chill for at least eight hours, overnight is best.

  4. Remove the chilled ice cream to warm up 10-15 minutes before spooning out.

  5. See blog post for more details.

Recipe Notes

Don't worry if the amount of whipping cream you are using isn't the full 500 ml (these days, with shrinkflation, our containers here in Canada only hold 473 ml) it won't affect the final outcome of the ice cream, it will still be great.
You can either make creme fraiche, or you can purchase it. If using mascarpone cheese, make sure it has come to room temperature for easy blending in with the cream.
If using the loose Earl Grey tea leaves at the end, crush them first in a small bowl or with a mortar and pestle. This will ensure that any large dried leaves etc are reduced to a pleasant texture that won't overwhelm the final flavour.  Using Cream of Earl Grey tea leaves means that there are also dried vanilla leaves in the blend, which will be even better than plain Earl Grey! But if you can only find plain Earl Grey leaves, that will fine.
You can replace the 2 tbsp of honey with up to 1/4 cup granulated sugar in the blueberry sauce. If you have Lavender Honey (as I happened to have this time around, it just makes sense to use it!)
If you want to use this compote for other applications, I would double the recipe. Instead of using lavender buds, feel free to use 1/4 tsp cardamom, and 1/8 tsp allspice. Taste and see if you want to add more. You can also use a five or so good dashes of angustura bitters. These will all add a lovely depth of flavour to the blueberries, which tend to be a bit flat on their own.  But for the ice cream above, use the lavender buds.