I know I always say this. But it’s true: this is hubby’s fav.
I’ve made so many ice creams– green tea, earl grey, strawberry sour cream, dark chocolate, mocha, salted caramel, coffee, vanilla bean, vanilla bean with roasted berries and streusel (brilliant, Lauren!), vietnamese coffee, honey lavender, blueberry creme fraiche, and… the list goes on. Sometimes, I will spend a whole evening creating a mess in the kitchen and proudly present my creamy creation to my husband: “TRY THIS.”
He obliges.
The house will smell of burnt sugar (when I missed the three millisecond window of perfection on my first batch of caramel for salted caramel ice cream) and the sink will be overflowing with more dishes than two pints should account for, and I will eagerly await his reaction… (DOYOULOVEIT?!?)
Hubby: Mm… it’s not bad.
Me: …
Hubby: I like your mint chip better.
Me: (Deflated.)
But only for a moment, as I consider how this is probably a good thing.
Do I really want my husband to love the ice cream that takes 20 dishes and 2 hours to make, or the one that takes one bowl and three minutes to stir together?
Exactly.
In the town where I grew up, Loard’s Ice Cream was the place to get ice cream. A lot of people love their mango ice cream, but I was crazy about their mint chip ice cream. It was creamy, refreshing, and loaded with tiny specks of chocolate evenly distributed throughout. Ever since then, I have found most varieties of mint chocolate chip ice cream to be very unsatisfying, with the disappointingly sparse scattering of chocolate chips.
Happily, I can now load up my own mint chip ice cream with a dense ratio of lovely little flecks of chocolate. I love the way they collect at the bottom of my nearly-emptied bowl, chilled in the melted minty cream, ready to be scooped for that last mint-chocolate melt on my tongue. Bliss.
A note on ingredients: when you try this, be sure to get peppermint extract, and not mint extract. Mint extract = toothpaste flavor.
You can use mini chocolate chips, as the original recipe calls for, but I like to chop up hunks of dark chocolate (from Trader Joe’s). That way, you get some of the bigger pieces and also the wonderfully tiny flecks scattered all throughout.
My new favorite way to add chocolate is straciatella-style. Have you tried straciatella gelato before? It’s similar to chocolate chip ice cream, but has thin, lacy flakes of chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Basically, instead of mixing in chocolate chips, you drizzle in a thin stream of melted chocolate while the ice cream is in the last phase of churning. The melted chocolate hardens upon contact which produces a lovely delicate crunch of chocolate.
Whatever the method of chocolate-adding, I always find my mint chip ice cream immensely enjoyable on a sugar cone. Sometimes I also like to add a few tablespoons of milk and mosh it up with a spoon to make a thick spoonable shake (a few more tablespoons + moshing = a drinkable shake!). It’s hard to go wrong on this recipe, so I hope you give it a go and enjoy it this hot summer!
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Mint Chip Ice Cream
slightly adapted from this recipe by Darryn at allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 2 cups 2% milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract (NOT the same as mint extract!)
- 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
- 1 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped
Instructions
- In a large bowl, stir together the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and peppermint extract until the sugar has dissolved. Color to your liking with the green food coloring.
- Freeze the mixture according to the manufacturer’s instructions. After about 10 minutes into the churning, add the chocolate chips. For straciatella-style ice cream, melt your chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, then use a fork or spoon to drizzle melted chocolate into ice cream maker during the last minute of churning. If you have a pastry bag, you can also spoon chocolate into the bag and squeeze chocolate from there to get an even drizzle (see photo above).
- After the ice cream has thickened, about 30 minutes later, spoon into a container and freeze for at least two hours.
6 responses to “Easy Mint Chip Ice Cream”
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Mmm, and I’m not sure why I didn’t see this before, but YUM. And timely! I’ve been making ice cream recently and plan to post a coconut milk/strawberry recipe soon… but mint chip is one of my favorites!!!
Same here (mint chip = fav)! I’ll keep an eye out for your coconut milk/strawberry recipe! YAY SUMMER!
Does this recipe absolutely need the vanilla, and can it be mint extract without it tasting like toothpaste?
Nope, does not absolutely need the vanilla. But… I would highly recommend peppermint extract, not mint haha.
This is wonderful….my friends loved it….used it at my summer party and it came out bomb!!!
😀
Yayyy!!! So glad you love it!