By Erin
I hate mint ice cream. HATE. But my sweet husband loves it, so of course I made it for him. The first time I made ice cream from scratch it was truly a pain. But I have to say, its getting easier and easier every time. The creaminess and freshness of homemade ice cream is so worth the wait and time it takes to make it.
Here’s the recipe I used. The store only had Peppermint extract, so that’s what I used. It tasted like a candy cane! If you play around with the food coloring, you could definitely use this recipe and do something cute for Christmas. I think next time I’d likely cut back on the mint extract JUST a bit, but maybe that’s because I think mint tastes like mouthwash? The hubby said that wasn’t necessary and ate it three nights in a row – more than he’s ever eaten any of my other treats before!
What you’ll need:
- 2 cups heavy cream, divided
- 1½ cups whole milk
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ teaspoons mint extract
- 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
- ½ cup chocolate chips or chunks (or more, if you like!)
- Heat the milk over med-low heat. (You’re making your custard here.)
- At the same time, blend the egg yolks and sugar.
- After the milk mixture is heated, add one cup to the eggs/sugar and beat to temper the eggs. (Leave the milk on the stove, still heating)
- Then pour the eggs/sugar into the milk, and continue to heat. Stir, stir, stir until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon. DO NOT BOIL.
- Remove from heat, add the extract and food coloring and chill in the fridge for several hours until very cold. It’s the same color as my bowl!
- Then use the ice cream maker – add the chocolate chips in just before it starts spinning. When its done, freeze the ice cream until ready and enjoy! Here’s what it looks like when its done in your ice cream maker:
