Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Fresh mint is such a versatile herb to have in the garden. We love to have a huge variety of herbs that we can just go pick. Even when we’ve lived in a smaller home, we have been able to grow container herbs. After all, buying those little packs of herbs can be a huge waste of money.
I guess I would say we have an organic garden as we use no pesticides or chemicals at all around the garden. But growing fruits, veggies and herbs in Texas can be quite the challenge! So we feel fortunate with any bounty our garden produces.
This post features another one of our Texas Littles, as he wanted in on the action. At almost 8, he has his own YouTube channel so he’s familiar with social media. But, blogging aside, he loves to help in the kitchen, especially when it’s time to make fresh ice cream with mint from the garden!
My little chef “L,” wanted to be sure the sugar was clearly called out, so he created a label.
Mint grows like wildfire so we have to come up with lots of creative ways to use it throughout the summer. In a mild winter some of our herbs survive in the garden but not this past winter with the storm of the century that hit Texas.
Steep the mint
This is where you can control the amount of mint flavor in the ice cream. Steep the mint for at least 20 minutes. We opt for 30 minutes as we do love that fresh minty flavor.
Another optional step is to actually blend in the mint to the milk. This does give the ice cream a slight mint color without using an artificial coloring. Be sure to strain the remaining mint or everyone will have minty teeth too!
After straining the milk & mint mixture now it’s time to add the cream, vanilla and sugar. Using a hand mixer at this stage makes the ice cream lighter in texture.
Be sure to keep in the fridge for at least 2 hours. This makes the freezing process in the electric ice cream maker go quickly.
Look at that happy face.
This is his favorite part, seeing his work start to churn in the ice cream maker while beginning to freeze. (If we have a lot going on in the kitchen, we will run the ice cream maker in the laundry room.)
Time for the chips!
Since we had mini chocolate chips on hand we used them in the ice cream. Any chocolate chip or semi sweet chocolate broken up into small chunks will work.
Use extra mint for a garnish.
Freezing longer will firm up the ice cream even more.
That’s one happy little chef’s face!
L's Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 1/2 cups packed fresh mint leaves
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 ozs. mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a medium saucepan set over medium-low heat, bring the milk just to a boil. Remove from the heat and add the mint leaves. Let steep 20 to 30 minutes. For a more mild flavor, remove the leaves after 20 minutes. For a full mint flavor, blend the milk and mint mixture with an immersion blender. Strain through a fine sieve to remove mint pieces. This will make the ice cream a little more minty green as well.
- Add the sugar and salt to the steeped (and strained) milk and mint mixture. Using a hand mixer on low speed mix until the sugar is dissolved. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Using an electric ice cream maker (Cuisinart works well); pour the mixture into the frozen freezer bowl. Turn on and let the mixture thicken about 20 minutes. Five minutes before the mixing is completed, add the chocolate chips.
- Once thickened to desired firmness remove from the ice cream maker bowl. For more thickening, place in an air tight container in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
- Serve with a sprig of fresh mint. Enjoy!
