Recipe | Chocolate Mint Ice Cream

A lightly flavored ice cream using a fresh garden herb.

While buying some herbs for our garden,  I bought a chocolate mint plant. It sounded good at the time, even for an impulse  buy. After a few weeks, it was doing very well:

So I looked around for something to do with it. Ice cream is always a good idea, so here’s something to try. My brother made a batch. Flytrap rating: 10/10

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole milk
3 1/2 cups fresh chocolate mint

5 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar

1 cup heavy cream

Combine milk and fresh chocolate mint in a medium pan and bring the mixture to a gentle boil, cover and remove pan from heat. Steep this for for 30 minutes or so. Strain the solids out of the mixture, and set it aside.

Have a beer.

Combine the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow, for about 3-5 minutes. Return the milk to a simmer.  Temper the egg yolks by slowly adding half of the warm milk mixture to the egg yolk mixture while whisking constantly until blended. Add the new mixture back to the sauce pan with remaining milk. Stir consistently over low heat until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 170 degrees.

Remove the saucepan from heat and immediately stir in cream and strain again. Chill the mixture for a least three hours in the fridge or overnight.

Have couple more beers.

Break out your favorite ice cream maker and for Buddha’s sake, follow the instructions! When it gets to the soft serve state, have bit to enjoy, put the rest in an airtight container and freeze overnight. Tell me what you think.