Homemade Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream!

Ice cream is quickly eclipsing cake as my favorite food, in part because of how much I love making it, and how good it always turns out!

Last year, I discussed how easy it is to make ice cream at home - without an ice cream maker - in my guest post on Going Home to Roost. I used the same method this time, but with a different recipe: Mint Chocolate Chunk.

The original non-ice cream maker recipe called for condensed milk and much more whipping. This time, I only used heavy cream and 1% milk, without any whipping. The basis for my recipe came from Delish.com.

So, here are the ingredients and the step-by-step process:

Homemade Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

- 2 cups heavy cream, but set about 1/4 aside for later
- 1 cup milk (I used 1% - Delish.com calls for whole milk)
- 7 egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 12 fresh mint leaves
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1.5 squares of Baker's chocolate, chopped
- optional green food coloring

In a sauce pan, bring cream and milk to a boil. Remove from heat, add mint leaves, and let it steep for 30 minutes. Note: gently mashing the mint leaves before adding to milk/cream mixture will allow the mint oils to be released from the leaves more readily. 

Strain leaves from mixture once cooled.

In a bowl, mix egg yolks and sugar together. Slowly combine egg mixture with the milk/cream mixture, stirring well.

Return to heat. Bring mixture to 175 degrees F, and do not allow it to boil (it will cook the eggs too well). Keep stirring it so the bottom doesn't scald. If you don't have a cooking thermometer, just test it with a spoon periodically - once it coats the spoon without it being runny, it is probably about done.

Next, you can chop some chocolate - dark chocolate is great - I love Baker's squares. You can use whatever chocolate you like though, even candy pieces!

While the mixture is still on heat, I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and just two small drops of green food coloring (though totally not necessary). I just wanted it to be abundantly clear that this was mint, since it was for company.

Now, remove the mixture from heat, and let cool. Then, it's time for the freezing process.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, this can get tricky. You don't want to just put it in the freezer, because large crystals form, and it becomes crunchy. The trick was developed by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt on SeriousEats.com

My process differs from his because I am using a different recipe, but the outcome was the same. Pour the ice cream mixture into ice cube trays. It's important to have little frozen pieces so the large crystals don't form. Freeze the ice cream cubes for four hours.

After four hours, remove the cubes and put them into a food processor. Add the leftover 1/4 cup heavy cream, and process until smooth. Add the chocolate chunks and process again. The resulting mixture should be smooth, without crystals or lumps. Put back into freezer, still in the food processor, and leave for another 4 hours, or preferably overnight.

I served my mint chocolate chunk ice cream directly from the food processor bowl. It was amazing, if I do say so myself :) We ate it so quickly, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product!