Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

One of my favorite things to make is ice cream.  It's easy, it's doesn't take a lot of time, it is so much better than store bought ice cream and everyone (at least in my family) loves ice cream. If you have mint growing in your garden this a fun one to make with kids - L has a lot of fun helping to make (and taste) this one!  

The base recipe I use for ice cream is always the same.  It's from an article in Fine Cooking by David Lebovitz and it's the best one I have found.

Ingredients:

Ice Cream Base:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

³⁄₄ cup granulated sugar

5 large egg yolks

Pinch of table salt

Mint Chocolate Chip:

2 cups tightly packed, torn mint leaves

¹⁄₃ cup chopped, semisweet, chocolate

In a medium saucepan mix, 1 cup of the cream, the whole milk, granulated sugar and salt.  Warm over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and tiny bubbles start to form around the edge of the pan.  About 3-4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the mint, cover and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavor.

Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with several inches of ice water.  Place a smaller bowl, filled with the remaining cup of cream, into the ice bath.

In a medium bowl whisk together the egg yolks.

Rewarm the cream and mint until tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan.  In a steady stream pour half of the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.

Pour the egg mixture back into the pan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens slightly.  The custard should be thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon and hold a line drawn through it with a finger.  If using an intant-read thermometer the temperature should be between 175-180°F.

Strain the custard into the cold cream pressing the mint with a spoon to extract as much flavor as possible.

Cool the mint to below 70°F by stirring it over the ice bath.

Refrigerate the custard until completely chilled, at least 4 hours to overnight.  Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

Fold the chopped chocolate into the just churned ice cream, transfer to an air-tight container and freeze for until firm.

Adapted from Fine Cooking Issue 99