This twist on a classic French vanilla bean ice cream is a revelation—the addition of fresh bay leaf makes for a unique and unexpected ice cream flavor that is anything but plain vanilla.

Unlike their dried compatriots, fresh bay leaves are full of nuanced flavor, as this twist on a classic vanilla bean ice cream proves: the fresh bay leaf imparts a truly unique flavor to a rich and creamy, but otherwise basic, custard-based vanilla ice cream.

This is certainly one of the more unusual ice cream flavors I’ve made, but it’s also one of the simplest, with little more than vanilla beans and fresh bay leaves flavoring the frozen custard.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, bay leaves? Those dusty old leaves from a jar in the back of your cupboard taste like, well, dusty old leaves, if anything at all.

But fresh bay leaves? Fresh bay leaves are a revelation.

Once you taste this ice cream, which is basically just a simple vanilla bean ice cream with the addition of bay leaf, you will be amazed and just how much extra flavor comes from a few little leaves. It’s quite extraordinary, really!

It will give you a profound new appreciation for these humble leaves.

Fresh bay leaf is a flavor that’s hard to describe other than to say there’s nothing else quite like it.

When mixed with the sweetened custard and vanilla bean, there’s a hint of something familiar there, though it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what. It almost takes on an eggnog-like character, the bay leaf giving off subtle notes of nutmeg and spiced rum when paired with the sweetened cream and vanilla bean. The subtle spice reminds me a lot of the sakura/cherry blossom leaf flavor that I so adore.

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