Got Too Much Mint?

August 10th, 2011 | Rachel

I am straying a little bit from the theme of this blog (whatever it is), but I am so pleased with a batch of homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream I just made that I wanted to share the idea and recipe with you.

My hanging window herb garden is doing great.  The sun is a little too intense for my dill plant, but everything else is growing quickly… especially the mint.  I noticed that the leaves that weren’t getting direct sunlight were turning yellow and falling off, and the plant was getting so big, it was blocking its own sunlight access.  I can only drink so many mojitos, so I needed a project that would use a substantial amount of mint.

I was on the city bus coming home from work when the inspiration hit: mint chocolate chip ice cream!  Fortunately, Steve already had an ice cream maker, so all I really needed was the cream and chocolate.  I read through a lot of recipes, and this is the one I liked the most.  Since mint ice cream is supposed to be refreshing, I stayed away from the recipes with egg (which would make it a custard) and cream cheese.  Having tested the recipe, I can personally attest to its accuracy.  I will note that the amounts of mint and sugar are flexible.  I used about a cup and a half of mint, and my ice cream was plenty minty.  I also cut the sugar a little bit — as I do to most recipes — and I didn’t miss it in the finished product.

Fresh mint from my hanging window herb garden

Nice and clean

Recipes varied on whether you have to remove the stems.  I tasted a stem and did not find the flavor to be pleasant, so I picked the leaves off of the stems.

Infusing the cream with mint… after heating the cream and mint, I left it in the fridge for 24 hours, which was probably too long.  I think a more appropriate length of time would be six to twelve hours.

Mixture is ready for churning.  I love Steve’s ice cream maker… you don’t need salt or ice.

Essential ingredient

Homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream!

This recipe was so simple and delicious that I am already thinking about what kind of ice cream I want to make next.  We’ve been selling a lot of pie at the bakery, and I think I want to try cutting up a slice of pie and mixing it into a batch of vanilla or sweet cream ice cream.

How about you?  Got any good ice cream recipes I should know about?

 

One Response to “Got Too Much Mint?”

  1. Laura says:

    Noms! I should make some of this, we haven’t used our ice cream maker this year. Instead, I’ve been chowing down on Talenti gelato from Harris Teeter, which has this great herbal mint flavor….

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