Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

The other day, the boys had no school because it was too cold. {Little-known fact: apparently when diesel fuel, which is used in school buses, gets below a certain temperature, it gels, which means that the buses won’t run. Who knew?!? Learn something new every darn day, don’tcha?} We had a super fun FROZEN day, and one of the things we did was make ice cream.

We love making ice cream. The boys think it’s so cool to watch it churn and freeze — and if we’re being honest here, so do I. I gave them the choice of what kind we made, and they picked mint chocolate chip.

I wanted to do things a little differently, so I decided to make it using fresh mint, rather than peppermint extract. I consulted my trusty ice cream bible, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home {seriously, this book is amazing. Her recipes are insanely good.} and found that she had a fresh mint ice cream, but it involved overnight steeping. Yeah, I’m not organized enough to plan that far ahead. So I played around with her recipe and a few I found online, and the result is pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.

Thick, rich, and creamy, with nice big chunks of milk chocolate. Mmmmmm.

I will say, it’s a very different flavor than traditional mint chocolate chip ice cream. The fresh mint gives it more of an earthy, herby flavor. I was concerned at first it might be a bit too different for the boys’ tastes, but all three of them absolutely loved it.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Jennifer Young

Make mint chocolate chip ice cream with fresh mint and high-quality chocolate chunks for an amazingly delicious dessert.

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Prep Time 2 hrs 30 mins

Cook Time 5 mins

Total Time 6 hrs

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups plus 2 T whole milk divided
• 2 cups fresh mint leaves torn into pieces
• 1 T plus 1 t cornstarch
• 1 1/2 oz {3 T} cream cheese softened
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 2 T light corn syrup
• 1 t vanilla bean paste {or seeds from one vanilla bean}
• 1 cup chopped milk chocolate pieces

Instructions

 

• 1. Combine 2 cups whole milk and mint leaves in medium saucepan. Heat over medium-high heat until just steaming. Remove from heat and allow to steep for one to two hours.
• 2. Meanwhile, combine 2 T whole milk with cornstarch in small bowl to make a slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Set both aside.
• 3. Once steeping is finished, add heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup. Bring to rolling boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in cornstarch slurry. Return to heat and boil, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
• 4. Strain hot milk mixture into cream cheese, removing mint leaves, and whisk until smooth. Pour mixture into 1-gallon zip-top freezer bag.
• 5. Fill a large bowl with ice and cold water, and submerge sealed freezer bag in ice bath until cold, approximately 30 minutes.
• 6. Pour mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions until partially frozen. Add chocolate chunks and churn until frozen.
• 7. Pack ice cream in a storage container and place in freezer until hardened.

Notes

Because the strength of fresh mint can vary, you may want to taste the mixture before pouring into the freezer bag to ensure that it is minty enough. If you'd like it to be a bit mintier, you can add a few drops of peppermint extract at this point.
If you can't find vanilla bean paste or vanilla beans, you can substitute 1 t vanilla extract.

Adapted from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home