8 November, 2014

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Comments : 3 Posted in : Dessert, Desserts, Easy/Beginner Recipes on November 8, 2014 by : guyfoodguru

What’s your favorite dessert?   I’ve got two that I can’t resist.  First are chocolate chip cookies, and the second thing I can’t pass up is ice cream.

I’ve always been partial to chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream which combines both of my favorites. That is until I learned how to make mint chocolate chip ice cream.  It’s smooth, it’s creamy, it’s minty, it’s chocolatey, and it’s green.  I know, I know green ice cream has never been very appealing to me only because of the color. But now I embrace the green and you will too.

I’ve always been a go to the store  to buy a half gallon of ice cream kinda guy. I mean, why bother making it?   Once I show you just how easy it is to make, and the ingredients are so basic that you’ll most likely ask why would anyone ever buy pre-made ice cream. So let’s get into it.

The first thing you’re going to need is an ice cream maker. This is the one that I bought from Amazon

You can get yours HERE, but they sell this one or others like it at just about every department store.

Keep an eye on the pricing, it always changes. Today when I checked it was $30.  When I bought mine this past August it was $23 with free shipping.

So now we have the Ice Cream Maker, let’s get on with it and off to the kitchen we go.

I find this whole process just goes really easy when I put some forethought to it and pre-freeze the canister the day before.  You’ll also want to work with ingredients that are as cold as you can get them.  Neither of these steps are required but do aid in the conversion into ice cream.

The first thing we’re going to need is a large bowl.  To this bowl we’re going to add 2 cups of milk, 2 cups of heavy cream, and one cup of sugar.

Next we’re going to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract,  1 1/2 teaspoons of peppermint extract, and I’ve added 12 drops of green food dye.  Feel free to add more or less of the dye to get the green color that seems most appealing to you.

And now we need to mix this all together until the sugar is dissolved and everything is uniform and well mixed.  You can use a spoon to mix if you want, I’ve also used the blender before too, this time I used a whisk which works just fine.

Now pour the mix into the freezing canister for your ice cream maker, insert the dasher,  attach the lid and motor and turn it on.

Now that the ice cream maker is running, add a layer of ice onto the bottom of the bucket.  Spread some ice cream salt over the ice then repeat until the canister is completely covered or until you run out of ice, whichever comes first.

Run the ice cream maker for 10-15 minutes. This will give the mixture enough time to start forming into ice cream but it won’t be so solid that the chocolate chips can’t be added.  Stop the machine, take off the motor and the lid being very careful not to get any ice or salt in the open canister.  Now it’s time to add in 8oz of miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips.

We’re going to put the machine back together and run for 30-40 minutes.  If the motor stops turning, you’re done.  Otherwise you can safely go the full 40 additional minutes.

When the ice cream maker is done doing it’s work, you’re ice cream will be about the consistency of melting soft serve so I like to work quick in these next steps.

Remove the motor and then the canister from the bucket.  Use a paper towel, or a kitchen towel  to wipe down the outside of the lid and canister. We don’t want any of that salty ice to touch our delicious ice cream.

Remove the dasher and get as much of the ice cream off it as you transfer all of the contents of the canister into an airtight freezer safe container.

I like to put a layer of plastic wrap over the ice cream and press down to help minimize the ice cream’s contact with air.  This isn’t your store bought ice cream with all of the preservatives that come along with them, this ice cream will form a layer of ice if you skip the plastic wrap step.  It’ll still taste good, but there’ll be a crunchy difference in texture.

Now I put this in the deep freezer.  The minimum for this is 2 hours but I prefer to keep it overnight, patience is a virtue and you will be rewarded.  The next day, this is what mine looked like

After scooping out a serving or two, replace the plastic wrap and press down to minimize air contact.  This ice cream will be good for a week in the freezer, mine has never lasted more than a few days.

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