CONTENT COLLECTION / FALL 2026

FIG LEAF ICE CREAM

Ficus carica · frozen custard study

A custard-style ice cream infused with toasted fig leaves, which give the cream a delicate fig and coconut-like aroma. Fresh figs and pistachios keep the final dish simple and seasonal.

The leaves flavor the dairy through infusion; the fresh fruit is added at serving. This keeps the leaf aroma and the texture of the figs distinct.

Source
Beyond Sweet & Savory
Yield
8 servings
Timing
15 min prep + 20 min cook, plus steeping / chilling / freezing
Fig leaf ice cream served with fresh figs and pistachios
A finished dish / serving reference

Recipe at a Glance

Plan ahead: this recipe includes several separate waiting stages. Prepare the base the day before serving. Follow your machine’s instructions for freezing its bowl in advance.

Ice cream base

  • 2 oz fresh fig leaves, washed and dried
  • 2½ cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup full-fat milk
  • ½ cup granulated sugar, divided
  • 4 large egg yolks

For serving

  • 1 pint fresh figs, quartered
  • ¼ cup chopped pistachios
  1. Prepare the leaves: wash and dry them thoroughly. Heat the oven to 325°F. Toast the fig leaves directly on the center rack for about 8 minutes, until dry and fragrant but not burned.
  2. Warm the milk, cream, and ¼ cup sugar over low heat. Crumble in the toasted leaves and keep warm for 5 minutes without letting the mixture boil.
  3. Remove from heat, cover, and steep for at least 2 hours. For a stronger infusion, chill and steep overnight, up to 8 hours.
  4. Strain the infused dairy through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean saucepan, remove the leaves, and gently bring the dairy back to a simmer.
  5. Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale. Slowly whisk in hot cream in ¼-cup additions to temper the yolks, then return everything to the saucepan.
  6. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat a spatula, about 15 minutes. Avoid boiling the custard.
  7. Strain the cooked custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean heatproof container.
  8. Cool the base in an ice bath for approximately 30 minutes, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
  9. Churn in an ice cream machine until soft-serve texture, about 25–30 minutes.
  10. Transfer to a freezer container, press parchment against the surface, seal, and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
  11. Serve with quartered fresh figs and chopped pistachios.

Recipe Notes

Ingredient notes

Use young, undamaged fig leaves. The leaves are strained out after infusion. Fresh figs are a serving ingredient, not a direct substitute for the leaves.

The sugar is divided: ¼ cup goes into the dairy and ¼ cup into the yolks. Keep the ice cream base and serving ingredients separate until serving.

Equipment and substitutions

Have a saucepan, heatproof bowl, whisk, spatula, fine-mesh sieve, ice bath, ice cream machine, and lidded freezer container ready. This is a churned custard recipe; a no-churn variation has not been tested for this project.

Pistachios are optional for serving; toasted coconut is another topping suggested by the source. The base contains dairy and eggs, and the original topping contains pistachios.

Storage

Keep in an airtight freezer container, with parchment against the surface. The source recommends eating it within two weeks for best quality and lists up to one month of freezer storage. Add fresh figs and toppings when serving.

The source photography already provides a useful palette: pale cream, dense leaf green, muted fig red, pistachio, and natural stone. I want the final site to treat the leaves almost like specimens rather than decorative food styling.

Fresh green fig leaves
B raw leaf / shape + color
Toasted fig leaves
C toasted leaf / process
Fig leaves steeping in cream
D infusion / texture + transformation

Photography and recipe by Vy Tran, Beyond Sweet & Savory. Images shown here as research references for the class project.

cooking.nytimes.com

NYT Cooking

NYT Cooking separates photography, recipe metadata, ingredients, and method very clearly, so the page stays easy to scan even when the recipe is detailed. I would like to borrow that clarity without making the final page feel like a standard recipe database.

food52.com

Food52

Food52 lets photography carry more of the personality while the recipe information remains straightforward. That balance is useful for this project because the fig leaves are visually distinctive enough to become part of the identity of the page.

seriouseats.com

Serious Eats

Serious Eats is a useful reference for communicating technique and long processes. The recipe has several waiting stages—steeping, chilling, churning, freezing—so I want the instructions to remain practical even if the visual direction is more experimental.

Image Collection Plan

Collected references: finished ice cream, fresh leaves, toasted leaves, and leaves infusing in dairy. The four existing images and their source credits are retained above.

These are image placeholders, not completed photographs. For each final image, record the creator, original source URL, and permission or license information. Existing source photographs are collected as class research references.

are.na

Are.na

I like the way Are.na presents collected images and ideas as individual blocks rather than forcing them into a conventional article layout. That system suggests a research-board approach where process photos, ingredient notes, and recipe information can feel collected and connected.

kew.org

Kew Herbarium

The herbarium treats plants as specimens that are labelled, catalogued, and studied. I want to borrow that informational tone—small labels, botanical naming, and precise image framing—so the fig leaf becomes the central subject rather than just a garnish.

mackbooks.co.uk

MACK

MACK’s site gives images a lot of room while keeping typography and navigation very controlled. Its book-like pacing is a useful reference for making the final recipe feel designed and image-led without relying on the same large-serif editorial treatment as many food sites.

Research Evaluation

Research evaluation Google Doc: View research evaluation

Peer feedback: Add the evaluation comments and a short note explaining the resulting content revisions after reviewing the document.