Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

After a successful first attempt at homemade ice-cream, which can be found here, I was straight into the kitchen again working out recipes to try something new. I love Mint Chocolate Chip, and loved Jane’s (from Jane’s Patisserie) “No Churn” recipe here. With the summer months fast approaching, ice cream is going to be the top of all my desserts! I absolutely love ice cream and feel it’s definitely an appropriate dessert to be enjoyed all year round (in fact we like it so much we want our entire wedding cake made of the stuff – pure ice cream bliss!)

I didn’t realise there were so many ways to make ice cream! Not only was this ice cream a huge experiment with flavour and texture, it was also something completely new for me with some added pressures, but totally worth the end results!

To make a batch of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream which serves approximately 16-20:

Ingredients:

• 8 egg yolks
• 600ml whole milk
• 230g sugar
• 600ml whipping cream
• 4-6 tsp peppermilk extract
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g chocolate chunks
• 1/2 tsp green food colouring

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan over a medium heat, heat the milk until it becomes very hot but not boiling. Remember to stir continuously as to not burn, then remove from the heat and set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, place the egg yolks and sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk until well blended, approximately 30 seconds. The mixture should become slightly thickened.
3. Slowly whisk in the warmed milk, being careful not to scramble the eggs! Once blended, return the mixture to the saucepan and heat gradually until the outer edges start to bubble. Again, stir continuously as to not scramble the eggs!
4. Transfer the hot mixture back into the whisking bowl and slowly add the whipping cream , vanilla, peppermint extract, food colouring and salt.
5. Chill for at least 8 hours.
6. Assemble and engage the freezer bowl, dasher and drive assembly as per the instructions of the KitchenAid Ice Cream attachment. Turn to Speed 1 and slowly add the mixture.
7. Continue to stir for 20 minutes until the mixture has thickened, adding the chocolate chunks in the last minute of churning.
8. Immediately transfer into an air tight container and freeze overnight until hardened.

It was difficult not to turn the “custard like” mixture into scrambled eggs, you definitely need to take your time with this one and make sure not to boil the mixture. But don’t be put off by the waiting game. As long as you have patience and plenty of time, it’s not too difficult to get right. If you have ever made homemade custard before, I can imagine you’d be a pro!

Again, I found that you don’t have to wait the full 8 hours for the mixture to cool, although this time is wasn’t far off, (even with our fridge being quite cold to begin with), as the mixture is warm once combined, it will take longer to chill.

The ice cream formed beautifully, although it didn’t grow up the bowl and into the mixer paddle as much as the Caramel and Pecan, but you can certainly tell the mixture thickened. The nice thing about homemade Ice Cream is that once all ingredients are circling in the frozen bowl, you can leave it happily for 20 minutes to churn.

This ice cream once frozen overnight was incredibly smooth and creamy, although a slightly different texture to the batch before. Adding extra peppermint gave a strong taste, and the added crunch of the frozen chocolate chunks gave the traditional flavour and texture you’d expect. I think there is still  few tweaks here and there to be made like most first time recipes, but I’m excited to try new recipes over the summer, and even have a crack at some Sorbets!

Have you ever tired to make home made ice cream?

What have been your experiences and what are your favourite flavours?

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