Look at me, being amazing! See that beautiful new recipe format below? Yeah, that’s inspiration from my dear friend Nicole at Heat Oven to 350. Nicole regularly suggests what I should be doing to improve my blog. God bless her because clearly I’m clueless. This Ziplist thing is pretty cool! You can set up a ZipList account and then save any recipes that strike your fancy to your list. Certainly beats my I-clearly-grew-up-in-the-90s method of printing every single recipe that appeals to me and then sorting them into binders. One day I’ll grow up and get all techy. Until then, pen and paper for me!
Back to the recipe….. My husband’s favorite ice cream is mint chip. But he’s particular about his mint chip. It has to be mint chip with chocolate shavings. No chips or chunks or cookies or anything else for him. Shavings. Only shavings. You want to know who makes mint chocolate chip with shavings? Thrifty. Rite Aid. Drug stores. You want to know what else is true about their brand of ice cream? It’s weird. I mean that. It has a weird color and the ice cream itself has a very distinctly cheap-drug-store taste. (Kind of like how I feel about their make up…) I don’t know if I have words to describe how their ice cream is weird. I just know that I don’t like it. I could see that if Brant and I were going to agree about ice cream and ensure our wedded bliss, we were going to need to find a happy medium. And here’s that medium: I make the ice cream at home and sometimes put shavings in it. Other times I put chunks in it. After all, if I have to choose between shaving a bar of chocolate into mounds of chocolate bits and just melting a bar of chocolate and drizzling it into the batter, you can bet which one I am going to choose 9 times out of 10. Drizzle it is!
Note the type of mint you’re using. Unless you already own a prolific mint plant, go with the peppermint oil to ensure that your ice cream turns out as you had expected! If you do so, you may want to add some green food coloring if you believe that mint ice cream should be green! 
from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop The best part of this mint chip ice cream is that you can add in whatever chocolate bits you want! Chocolate chips? Sure! Melted chocolate ribbons? Sure! Oreos? You bet! Girl scout cookies? Be my guest!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Place an 8x8-inch metal baking pan in the freezer.
- In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) heavy cream, salt, and mint.
- Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, cover, and let stand for an hour to infuse the mint flavor.
- Remove the mint with a strainer, then press down with a spatula firmly to extract as much mint flavor and color as possible. (You can also use well-washed hands to do this, making sure the mixture isn’t too hot to safely handle.) Once the flavor is squeezed out, discard the mint.
- Pour the remaining heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer over the top.
- Rewarm the infused milk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then slowly pour some of the warm mint mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed yolks back into the saucepan.
- Cook the custard, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. If using an instant read thermometer, it should read around 170ºF (77ºC).
- Immediately strain the mixture into the cream, then stir the mixture over an ice bath until cool.
- Refrigerate the mixture thoroughly, preferably overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
- While the mixture is freezing, melt the chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of simmering water, or in a microwave oven on low power, stirring until smooth.
- When the ice cream in the machine is ready, scribble some of the chocolate into the frozen metal container, then add a layer of the just-churned ice cream to the container. Scribble melted chocolate over the top of the ice cream, then quickly stir it in, breaking up the chocolate into irregular pieces. Continue layering the ice cream, lacing more chocolate and stirring as you go.
- Let freeze for 1 hour or until the edges begin to harden. Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 4 hours or until firm. Best if eaten within one week.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Amy // Sep 11, 2011 at 12:41 pm
I’ve made a different recipe using fresh mint and it is just amazing! The flavor of using fresh mint just beats any other mint flavored ice cream you’ve ever had!!!! I’ll have to try this one as well. Thanks!
2 Nicole@HeatOvenTo350 // Sep 12, 2011 at 8:31 am
I’m so glad Ziplist worked for you! I love sharing cool things that I find for food blogs, especially when they make it easier for me to print and save recipes from you.
If only my husband was as good at listening to my ideas . . .
I love mint chocolate chip ice cream. I think I would be a shavings person, too, but I know what you mean about weird ice cream. This is the best of all worlds.
3 natalie (the sweets life) // Sep 12, 2011 at 1:24 pm
mmm we made mint choc chip ice cream at the beginning of summer and now you have me craving it again!
4 Paula // Sep 12, 2011 at 1:26 pm
natalie – no rules against making it twice in one season! Or three times! Or four! Am I giving myself away?
5 Hillary // Sep 13, 2011 at 8:51 am
I’m also very picky about the chocolate in my mint! It must be good chocolate that tastes like cocoa, not sugar or wax. And it can’t be too frozen otherwise you can’t taste it at all. ha thank goodness I can make my own now!
6 Debi // Sep 15, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Your mint & chip ice cream looks delish! I like that you made it with fresh mint. Awesome. Here’s my version of mint choc chip ice cream: http://lifecurrents.dw2.net/?p=3703
7 Liel // Jul 30, 2013 at 2:26 pm
Not everyone likes Peppermint based Mint Chocolate Chip since it is too strong of a mint… I only eat Spearmint Based Mint Chocolate Chip… Don’t assume everyone likes peppermint in their ice cream!
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