Mint Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream
A few years ago, my brother gifted an ice cream churner to my mum for Christmas after she was consistently raving about the many successful ice creams that were presented on that particular year of Masterchef Australia. It was the time before the pandemic had hit and for whatever reason, gourmet ice creams were the flavour of the year with just about every flavour imaginable being ‘churned’ out during that season. It was very inspiring regardless of the fact that the most gourmet flavour to ever emerge from mum’s ice cream machine would be Nutella. Not a single poppy-seed or bacon strip to be found! Much to the household’s relief.
What my brother didn’t anticipate was that this ice cream machine would be held captive for the first few months of its life at my house until I could purchase my own. I’m not sure the discovery of the ease of making your own silky-smooth ice cream at home was such a great thing in hindsight. I dread to think of how many litres of it we go through in the summer now.
You see, ice cream for us living out here in the bush is one of those tricky grocery items. Eskys are great but from the moment you take that tub of ice cream out of the Coles freezer, you feel as though you’re on a time limit before it turns back into cream. “Can you pick up a chicken before you head home?” Prompts a reply along the lines of: “I can’t! I’ve got 2 hours before the ice cream’s kaput!”
For those of us lucky enough to own an Engel fridge it’s not too much of a risk to try to get it home. It’s more the space a 4 litre tub of Paul’s creamy vanilla takes up. Do we sacrifice a fridge staple like butter or fritz this month to accommodate room for an ice cream treat? Or do we go without? One could argue that purchasing a smaller amount of ice cream be the answer – and they would be right, but who wants to offer a single scoop of ice cream for one single night to a household of quivering lipped family?
You can imagine just how many times my ice cream machine is brought out throughout the summer. Chocolate mint is a flavour combination I’m entirely fond of and have been since I was a kid so it serves no surprise that this recipe is the most frequent in our freezer. Through trial and error I think I may have found the trick in achieving a beautiful creamy and not the least bit icy consistency in this recipe. It seems to boil down to the degree of temperature you bring the cream base to before chilling. I’ve spent a lot of hours scouring the science behind it but at the end of the day, as long as it’s cold and creamy, it beats that separated, re-frozen and icy 4 litre tub of Paul’s creamy vanilla any day!
Mint Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 500ml heavy cream
- 500ml full-cream milk
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 8 egg yolks
- 200g caster sugar
- 4 tsp peppermint extract – to taste
- 2-4 drops green food colour
- 150g 40% dark chocolate - melted and cooled
Instructions
- Combine cream, milk and vanilla in a medium to large sized saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until it becomes thick, pale and forms a ribbon when falling from the whisk.
- Temper the eggs by gradually pouring the hot milk into the mixture, whisking constantly. Return the cream mixture to the saucepan and warm over medium heat to a temperature of 87℃, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula. The cream should cover the back of a wooden spoon and leave a line when a finger is passed through it.
- Pour the cream mixture into a heatproof container. Allow to cool to room temperature before covering and placing in the refrigerator overnight or until completely chilled.
- Once chilled, stir through the peppermint extract and food colouring before pouring into an ice cream churner. Set machine to desired hardness – Gelato consistency is preferable.
- Meanwhile, place chocolate in a heat-proof glass bowl and melt over a pot of simmering water until just melted. Allow to cool a little before pouring chocolate in a thin stream into the churning ice cream about 5 minutes before the end of the churning process. This will create broken, thin chips of chocolate throughout the mix.
- Smooth finished ice cream into a freezer container of choice and allow to freeze for up to 4 hours or overnight.
Notes
This recipe will make up to 2L of churned ice cream. Most at home ice cream churners will only allow up to 1L of liquid ice cream base to be churned at a time. I like to do two batches, one after the other, to ensure the machine doesn't overflow through expansion. Otherwise, half the recipe for 1L of churned ice cream.
To help with scooping, allow the ice cream to soften a little at room temperature 10-15 minutes before serving.