MINT CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM || a classic summer treat

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Summer time means home made ice cream time at our home! I’ve gotten pretty lazy with my vanilla recipe….milk, cream, vanilla beans and sugar, mix together and pour into the ice cream maker. But sometimes I like kicking things up a notch ;)

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Note that if you do not have fresh mint, you can make this mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe with peppermint extract. Skip steps 1 and 2, instead heating 1 cup of milk with 1 cup of cream and the sugar and salt until steaming. Continue with step 3. Add 2 teaspoons of peppermint extract in with the chilled custard mixture in step 6.

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 cups of fresh spearmint leaves, rinsed, drained, packed

  • 1 cup milk

  • 2 cups heavy cream

  • 2/3 cup sugar

  • A pinch of salt

  • 6 egg yolks

  • 6 ounces semisweet chocolate or dark chocolate, chopped fine, keep in the freezer until used

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Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with the 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of the cream. Heat until just steaming, don’t let it boil, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30-45 minutes. Meanwhile, keep the other 1 cup of cream in the refrigerator.

Strain the milk cream mixture into a separate bowl, pressing against the mint leaves to get the most liquid out of them. Return the milk cream mixture to the saucepan. Add sugar and salt to the mixture. Heat until just steaming again, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm mixture, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Return the saucepan to the stove, stirring the mixture constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon. This can take about 10 minutes.

Pour the custard through the strainer (used for the mint leaves) and stir into the cold cream (that has been in the refrigerator) to stop the cooking.

 Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (at least a couple of hours) or stir the mixture in the bowl placed over the ice bath until thoroughly chilled (20 minutes or so).

Once the ice cream has been made in the ice cream maker it should be pretty soft. Gently fold in the finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours. If it has been frozen for more than a day, you may need to let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften it before serving.

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This ice cream is so good! I will say that it tastes even better sandwiched in between two chocolate chip cookies! If you are making ice cream sandwiches, just make sure the ice cream is soft enough to spread and spread it between two cookies! Wrap the cookies in parchment paper or Saran Wrap and pop them in the freezer for at least 30 minutes. Enjoy!!!!