Mint Chip Ice Cream has lots of dark chocolate chips and chunks. This ice cream has a custard base, making it super creamy. Fresh mint leaves are steeped in the cream to give a wonderful fresh minty taste. Add this ice cream to an Oreo Cookie Crust to create a Mint Chip Ice Cream Pie.
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There is fresh mint, and then there is FRESH mint. I have the later. Mint that grows outside of my kitchen in a flower bed. Mint that I have to continually remove a crazy amount of the plant to keep it from taking over. This mint is full of fresh mint flavor.
The other mint is the fresh mint that comes in a little bunch or box from the grocery store. Anemic, pale, slightly wilted, with minimal essential mint oils. Make this ice cream with the purchased mint, and you will be reaching for the bottle of mint extract to kick up the minty flavor a notch. Make this ice cream with fresh-picked healthy, vibrant mint, and your mouth will feel like you just sucked in a gulp of icy fresh air on a cold winter day. WOW. Add the ice cream to an Oreo Cookie Crust for a Mint Chip Ice Cream Pie.
Here is the Scoop on What You Need to Make Mint Chip Ice Cream.
This ice cream has a custard base, which I prefer. Homemade Ice cream made without the egg yolks leaves a film in my mouth and on my tongue. A custard base ice cream is still creamy without coating my mouth. For this recipe, you need light cream, egg yolks, and sugar, plus those wake up your mouth mint leaves and the dark chocolate.
Here is the SCOOP on How To Make Mint Chip Ice Cream.
The minty flavor comes from steeping the mint leaves in the light cream for 1 – 2 hours. You may find two hours is too long, so taste the minty cream after one hour.
Steep the mint leaves in the heated cream. First, heat the cream to steaming. Then add the leaves, cover, and let sit for 1 – 2 hours. Strain out the mint leaves and reheat the cream.
Temper the eggs. In a bowl, add the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Temper the eggs by slowly adding several ladles (about 1/3 of the total) of steaming minty cream to the egg yolks while whisking continuously. This heats the egg yolks without fully cooking them. The purpose of tempering is to heat the egg yolks enough to thicken the ice cream without fully cooking or scrambling the yolks.
Add the tempered mixture back into the kettle and whisk to combine. Cook until the mixture thickens enough to stick to and coat the back of a spoon. ( about 170-degrees F). Remove from the heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any bits of cooked egg. Put in a container to cool overnight.
The scoop on Freezing the ice cream:
Don’t try to freeze hot or warm ice cream mix in a freeze that doesn’t have a compressor to keep the freezer bowl cold. If you have a freezer that requires you to freeze the bowl overnight, make sure your mixture is well chilled. Freeze the ice- cream according to the instructions that came with your freezer. (click here) for where to purchase an ice-cream freezer. Melt the chocolate with the Cristco and put the liquid chocolate mixture in a decorating cone with a fine tip. I use a piece of parchment that I make into a cone. This lets me easily control the size of the tip.
As the ice-cream mixture freezes, it thickens. Once the mixture is thick, start drizzling the chocolate into the ice cream. As the freezing cream moves around in the freezer, it freezes the chocolate into small bits and chunks and mixes them into the cream. Don’t wait until the ice cream is firm, or the chocolate won’t mix in very well. It will form large chunks of chocolate instead of the small bits.
Put the frozen Ice cream in an airtight container and freeze for four hours before serving. The ice cream is best eaten within a couple of days. If you want to keep it longer, add 2 or 3 teaspoons of rum to keep it from getting hard.
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Fresh Mint Chip Ice Cream
Equipment
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- ice cream freezer
Ingredients
- 3 cups light cream
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves lightly packed
- 5 large egg yolks
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 drops green food coloring (optional)
- 4 ounces semi-sweet dark chocolate
- 2 tsp Crisco or vegetable oil
Instructions
- Add 3 cups of light cream to a heavy bottom kettle. Heat on medium until just starting to steam. (don't boil) (190-degrees F)
- Remove from heat and add 1 cup of freshly picked mint leaves. Stir to mix in and cover with a lid. Steep the mint leaves for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours remove the mint leaves by straining or scooping them out. For extra mint flavor press the leaves to extract more of the mint oils from them. If the mint is freshly picked, taste the cream after one hour to see if it has enough mint flavor. Two hours of steeping gives a strong mint flavor.
- In a bowl mix the 5 egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Slowly add several cups of the mint-steeped light cream to the eggs. Whisk continuously while adding the hot minty cream. Then add the tempered egg yolks back into the kettle of hot minty cream, Again whisk continuously while adding.
- Heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Remove from the burner and strain through a strainer to remove any chunks or bits of cooked egg yolk. Put the mixture in the refrigerator to chill overnight. Alternately put in a bowl over ice water and stir until thoroughly chilled about 20- 30 minutes.
- Once chilled pour the mixture into your ice cream freezer and freeze according to the manufactures instructions.
- Melt the chocolate with the crisco or oil until it is a pourable consistency. When the ice cream is almost frozen last 5 minutes of freezing, Slowly drizzle the liquid chocolate into the ice cream in a very thin stream. Put the chocolate into a frosting bag with a fine tip. As the chocolate hits the cold ice cream it will freeze into small bits or chips. If you get a large chunk, stop and break it up. Once the chocolate is added, finish freezing to a soft-serve consistency.
- Put the soft-serve ice cream in an air-tight container, cover the top with plastic wrap, and freeze for at least 4 hours to firm it up.
The Fresh mint in this recipe is sooo good. Much better than mint extract.