Goat cheese and honey ice cream
A tangy ice cream made with fresh goat cheese blended into a cream base and sweetened with honey.
Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home. What the badge means
Goat cheese and honey ice cream is a cream base with fresh goat cheese blended in and honey standing in for part of the sugar. It is rare in stores, so you will most likely make it at home.
This page covers how it tastes, how to make goat cheese and honey ice cream from a base formula, what to serve with it, how common it is and what the nutrition figures show.
What goat cheese and honey tastes like
The first thing you taste is the tang of fresh goat cheese. Honey follows and softens that sharp edge with a rounder, floral sweetness. Because the cheese is blended into the base until smooth, the texture stays creamy instead of crumbly. The base is a plain cream base, so the color is pale, close to white. Some versions add a berry swirl, which brings a streak of color and a bright, fruity note against the tang. The ingredient list is short: fresh goat cheese, honey and a cream base, plus the berry swirl if you use one. It sits in our modern and unusual section because it tastes more like a cheese course than a classic scoop.
Where goat cheese and honey comes from
The sources we use do not record who first made goat cheese and honey ice cream, or when.
What they do record is a naming rule. The Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, under 21 CFR 135.115, defines “goat’s milk ice cream” as ice cream whose only dairy ingredients are goat’s skim milk, goat’s milk and goat’s cream. Most goat cheese and honey ice cream is made by stirring goat cheese into a cow’s-milk base, and that does not make it goat’s milk ice cream.
So the name on this page describes the flavor, not the milk. If you see a pint labeled goat’s milk ice cream, all of its dairy came from goats. A goat cheese and honey scoop made at home with cream and cow’s milk is a different thing, even though the tang may taste similar.
How to make goat cheese and honey at home
Start with a Philadelphia base, the style made without eggs. The Base Builder sets up that style for you and sizes it to your machine in grams and cups. It gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.
Blend soft fresh goat cheese into the warm base until it is smooth. Replace part of the sugar with honey. Chill the base, then churn it as you normally would.
If you want a swirl, spread a berry or fig jam between layers as you pack the ice cream into its container. Pieces and swirls go in at the end because, in factory ice cream, they are added as the ice cream leaves the freezer, when about half of its water is frozen and it is about as soft as soft serve. If you already have a goat cheese and honey recipe you like, the Recipe Scaler resizes it to your machine and converts cups to grams.
Base formula
Open the Base Builder: Philadelphia (no eggs)
The Base Builder gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.
What to serve with goat cheese and honey
Goat cheese and honey sits well next to fruit and nuts, the same things you might put on a cheese board. Serve a scoop with fresh or roasted figs, or with a handful of blackberries for color and tartness. For crunch, scatter toasted walnuts over the top. A spoonful of extra honey over the walnuts ties the plate back to the ice cream. A berry or fig jam swirl inside the scoop echoes the same pairings.
- figs
- blackberries
- toasted walnuts
How common goat cheese and honey is
On our moon-phase scale, goat cheese and honey gets a new moon badge, 1 of 5, labeled "Rare": rare enough that you would most likely make it at home. The badge says how easy the flavor is to find, not how much people like it. No survey we use lists this flavor by name. That means the badge is our editorial judgement alone, based on how hard the flavor is to find. If you want to try it, plan on making it in your own kitchen.
No survey we use lists this flavor by name, so its badge is our own judgement of how easy it is to find.
- Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home.
- Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs.
- Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers.
- Easy to find Common in most grocery freezers.
- Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere.
Nutrition, roughly
FoodData Central has no record for goat cheese and honey itself. The figures shown are for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich, not for this flavor. Regular vanilla has 207 kcal, 11 g fat and 21.2 g sugars per 100 grams, or about 137 kcal in a 1/2 cup (66 g) portion. Rich vanilla has 249 kcal and 16.2 g fat per 100 grams. Goat cheese, honey and any jam swirl change these numbers.
Nutrition per 100 grams
| FoodData Central record | Calories | Fat | Saturated fat | Sugars | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice creams, vanilla FDC 167575 1/2 cup (66 g): about 137 kcal, 7.3 g fat | 207 kcal | 11 g | 6.79 g | 21.2 g | 3.5 g |
| Ice creams, vanilla, rich FDC 167573 | 249 kcal | 16.2 g | 10.30 g | 20.6 g | 3.5 g |
FoodData Central has no record for goat cheese and honey itself: these are the figures for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich. Mix-ins and sweeteners change them.
Questions people ask
What does goat cheese and honey ice cream taste like?
It tastes tangy and sweet at once. Fresh goat cheese gives a sharp, creamy tang, and honey softens it with floral sweetness. A berry swirl, if you add one, brings a bright fruity note.
Which base style should I use for goat cheese and honey?
Use a Philadelphia base, the style made without eggs. The Base Builder sets up that style and sizes it to your machine. It gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.
When do I add the goat cheese and the jam swirl?
Blend soft fresh goat cheese into the warm base until smooth, before chilling and churning. Add a berry or fig jam swirl at the end, as you pack the ice cream into its container.
Is goat cheese ice cream the same as goat's milk ice cream?
No. Under federal rules, goat's milk ice cream uses only goat's skim milk, goat's milk and goat's cream as its dairy. Goat cheese stirred into a cow's-milk base does not make it goat's milk ice cream.
More flavors to try
-
Modern and unusual
Sweet corn ice cream
Pale yellow custard that tastes like fresh summer corn
-
Modern and unusual
Black sesame ice cream
Toasty, nutty and charcoal gray, made from toasted sesame paste
-
Modern and unusual
Olive oil ice cream
Rich, fruity, peppery ice cream made with extra virgin olive oil
-
Modern and unusual
Basil ice cream
Pale green, herbal ice cream with basil's sweet, peppery scent
Plan and make it with these
-
Dondurma
Dondurma: what makes Turkish ice cream stretch
Stretchy Turkish ice cream from goat's milk, salep and sugar
-
Recipe Scaler and Converter
Ice cream recipe converter: cups to grams
Scale an ice cream recipe by a factor, a batch volume or your machine, and see every line in grams and cups.
-
Scoop size chart
Ice cream scoop sizes and the disher number chart
The number stamped on an ice cream scoop tells you how many level scoopfuls fill one quart, so a #8 holds 4 fluid ounces (1/2 cup) and a #16 holds 2.
Sources
- 21 CFR 135.115, Goat's milk ice cream Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR)
- Ice Cream Technology e-Book: Freezing/Whipping of Ice Cream H. Douglas Goff, University of Guelph
- Ice creams, vanilla (FDC 167575) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
- Ice creams, vanilla, rich (FDC 167573) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Every data source the site uses is on the Sources page.