Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

5 from 1 vote

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Chopped chocolate is stirred into freshly churned homemade mint ice cream to make this easy recipe for one of the most popular ice cream flavours, mint chocolate chip ice cream!

Prep Time25

Cook Time20

Chill time12

Total Time12 45

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 457kcal

Author: Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

310 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
440 mL whole milk (3.25 % fat) plus more
30 grams mint leaves
5 large egg yolk(s)
150 grams granulated sugar divided
2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
1.25 mL mint extract
85 grams dark chocolate (70 % cocoa content) grated or chopped into pieces of different sizes, see note below recipe

Metric - US

Instructions

Freeze the ice cream drum in the freezer for at least 24 hours before attempting to make ice cream.
Before you begin to cook the ice cream base, set a strainer over a 1 L (4 cup) measuring cup (or a big bowl preferably with a pouring spout). Set aside
In a medium saucepan, whisk the milk, the cream, and the mint leaves. Heat the mixture until it is very hot and almost comes to a boil.
Take the mixture off the heat and let the mixture infuse for about an hour.
Strain the mixture into the measuring cup. If the volume is less than 750 mL, top it up with more milk. You want 750 mL of combined milk and cream to make this ice cream recipe.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with half the sugar until the mixture is a very pale yellow and very light.
Transfer the strained infused milk back into the medium saucepan. Whisk in the rest of the sugar and the salt. Heat the mixture until it is very hot and almost comes to a boil.
Pour the hot milk mixture over the whisked yolks to temper the eggs. Whisk continuously until the mixture is homogenous, then transfer it back to the saucepan.
Switch to a wooden spoon and, stirring constantly, heat the mixture on the stove over medium—low heat until the custard has thickened and has reached 83 °C (181 °F).
Pour the mixture through the strainer, pressing the custard through gently, if needed. Stir in the mint extract.
Cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate the mint custard base for several hours to cool completely (overnight is best!).
Place the frozen drum on the ice cream maker, and churn the custard according to instructions. It can take over 15 minutes to churn the ice cream.
When the ice cream has reached the desired consistency, add the chopped chocolate (if using) to the ice cream machine to mix it in, just before stopping the machine.
Turn off the machine, disassemble, and transfer the ice cream to a container, layering swirls of melted chocolate as you transfer (if using melted chocolate). Place in freezer for a few hours to harden the ice cream before serving.

Notes

This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
For the chocolate in this recipe, you have options:

add chopped dark chocolate directly to churned ice cream, but the frozen chocolate may seem dry and won't have a melt-in-your-mouth quality that you may want.
melt the chocolate and swirl it into churned ice cream before hardening (melting will undo the tempering of the chocolate, making it more prone to melting after it hardens again).
melt the chocolate and spread it out thin on a parchment-lined sheet, allowing it to set hard before breaking it into shards and adding to churned ice cream.
melt the chocolate with a small amount of a neutral oil (7.5 mL or 1.5 teaspoons of canola oil for every 85 grams of chocolate). Again either swirl the melted mixture in the churned ice cream or let it set and break it up into shards that you can fold into churned ice cream.
For the dark chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Ocoa 70 % dark chocolate

Nutrition