Steeped with fresh mint leaves and studded with a delicate swirl of stracciatella chocolate chips, this rich and creamy homemade ice cream takes a classic flavor to the next level. With just a handful of ingredients and an at-home ice cream maker, you can create the most decadent mint ice cream you’ve ever tasted. One bite of this fresh mint-chocolate chip ice cream and you'll fall in love with this classic flavor all over again.
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Step aside, fake neon green ice cream. Now that this fresh mint-chocolate chip ice cream has come into our lives, your days are numbered.
OK, in all fairness, maybe that was harsh. I've actually always loved that green-dyed mint chocolate-chip ice cream you get from Baskin Robbins or your favorite store brand. Would I even bother making my own mint-chocolate chip ice cream if I didn't? Doubtful.
But once you try fresh mint ice cream, you'll have a hard time going back. Sure, that store-bought mint-chocolate chip ice cream is tasty, but extract just can't compete with fresh mint. True story.
Ingredients
Let's first gather our ingredients for this homemade mint ice cream. Here's what we'll need.
- Fresh mint leaves
- Whole milk
- Heavy cream
- Sugar
- Egg yolks
- Vanilla extract
- Chopped chocolate
- Canola oil
What Is Stracciatella Ice Cream?
You might have noticed that chocolate chips don't appear in the ingredient list for this fresh mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Weird? Not quite. Instead of chocolate chips, like the kind you'd eat in my favorite brown butter chocolate chip cookies, we're making a stracciatella ice cream.
For a stracciatella ice cream, we melt chopped chocolate with a little canola oil and drizzle it into the custard during the final minutes of churning. The melted chocolate instantly hardens and breaks into these delicate, little chips of chocolate --- or chocolate chips. Whatever you want to call it. These small flecks distribute all throughout the ice cream, adding the perfect crunch and burst of chocolate in each bite.
Sounds delicious, huh? Trust me. Stracciatella ice cream is the way to go when your ice cream recipe calls for chocolate chips. No one wants to bite into hard chunks of frozen chocolate and break a tooth.
No Food Coloring Mint-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
We're also skipping the food coloring in this mint ice cream. Honestly, I'm not one of those people who freak out over food coloring. I'll happily eat a dyed red velvet cake and refuse to be shamed by food coloring haters. That said, I don't feel the need to add green food coloring here.
After all, the point of fresh mint ice cream is to use fresh ingredients. See what I did there? Adding green food coloring seems to go against the theme.
Of course, if you're dying for a green-tinted mint ice cream, by all means, add the food coloring. No judgment here. I just don't find it necessary in this recipe.
Step-by-Step Instructions
All right, I think that was a thorough rundown of the ingredients, so let's jump into it. We start by simmering our whole milk, heavy cream, sugar and fresh mint. For a good punch of mint, I suggest using a whole handful like so.
Once the mixture comes to a simmer, we lightly muddle the mint to help release the oils and then turn off the heat and cover for at least an hour. This gives our mint leaves time to infuse that delicious fresh flavor into our cream mixture.
With our cream mixture steeped, we give it a quick test to see if it's still warm. If so, we then strain and slowly add half of it to our whisked egg yolks and vanilla extract.
We want the mixture to be warm because we're adding part of it to our egg yolks. This is called tempering, and it gently cooks the yolks, so they don't turn into scrambled eggs during the last step. As you can imagine, if you add cold cream to the eggs at this point, it defeats the purpose.
So test the cream and if need be, reheat it on the stove until warm. And I do stress heat just until warm --- not boiling. We never want to boil our ice cream mixture.
Once we temper our eggs, we put everything back on the stove and cook until the custard thickens. We’re now ready to refrigerate our ice cream custard and churn once it’s nice and cold. If possible, I recommend letting the custard refrigerate overnight. Our custard must be cold going into the ice cream maker to set properly, and an overnight chill ensures it’s at the perfect temperature.
With our custard base chilled, we're ready to make ice cream, so grab your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions. As the ice cream churns, we'll prepare our chocolate and drizzle it in at the end.
After churning, we give our ice cream a few hours to freeze and then grab an ice cream scoop and fix ourselves a big bowl of fresh mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Take a moment to close your eyes and enjoy this refreshing bite because it doesn’t get much better than this.
Bonus: Make sure you also try my homemade Oreo ice cream, Baileys ice cream and amaretto ice cream! Those are two other favorites, and I have no doubt you'll love those too.
Perfect Pairing
You need an imperial stout with this mint ice cream. Imperial stouts have a residual sweetness from the high alcohol content, which make them one of my favorite dessert beers. The chocolate presence in the stout obviously matches the stracciatella chips and works nicely as a canvas for other complementary flavors, such as our mint and vanilla.
Feeling wine? Moscato d’asti is a sweet, fortified sparkling white wine that works perfectly here. This wine variety has a light floral profile that blends with the mint as well as stone fruit notes that accent our vanilla custard.
When only a bowl of indulgent, creamy ice cream will do, I hope you try this fresh mint-chocolate chip ice cream. I’m sure you'll fall in love with that fresh mint flavor as much I have.
Cheers!
Love Homemade Ice Cream?
- S'mores ice cream
- Bourbon-pumpkin ice cream
- Honey-lavender ice cream with peach compote
- Strawberry mojito sorbet
- Gingerbread ice cream
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📖 Recipe
Fresh Mint-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Equipment
- Medium saucepan
- Plastic wrap
- Ice cream maker
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 handful fresh mint
- 7 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
- 4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
- 2 teaspoons canola oil see note
Instructions
- Whisk together the heavy cream, milk, sugar and fresh mint in a saucepan on the stove. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to whisk periodically to help dissolve the sugar. Do not bring to a boil. Once it simmers, turn off heat and if desired, lightly muddle the mint leaves to release even more mint oil. Cover and let the mint steep for at least an hour.
- Strain mint. If it’s still warm, proceed to step three. If not, gently reheat on the stove just until warm. Again, don't boil. The mixture only needs to be warm.
- Whisk the egg yolks and vanilla until pale, about three minutes. Temper about one-fourth cup of the warm cream mixture into the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Repeat this step a few times until you incorporate about half of the cream mixture.
- Add tempered egg-cream mixture back to the pot. Whisk constantly over medium heat and bring back to a simmer. Again, do not boil. Cook until mixture thickens and covers the back of a wooden spoon. Turn off heat.
- Pour into a large mixing bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes. Directly cover the top of the custard's surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, at least four hours to ensure proper churning, though I like to chill overnight to really make sure it's cold.
- Pour custard into an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s directions. As the ice cream churns, melt the chopped chocolate with canola oil in the microwave, cooking in 15-second intervals and stirring until smooth. During the last few minutes of churning, slowly stream in the melted chocolate.
- Pour the churned ice cream into an airtight container and freeze for several hours before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use another neutral-tasting oil, but don't use olive oil. The taste is too strong.
- Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Anjali says
I just got an ice cream maker in prep for spring and summer and I can't wait to try this recipe! Mint chocolate chip is one of my favorite ice cream flavors!
Carrie Robinson says
Homemade ice cream is always the best! I love that you used fresh mint in this recipe -- it really made for an even better ice cream. 🙂
Sandra says
My kids' favorite ice cream is mint chip and this one is delicious! Thank you for providing such detail in the recipe. That made it so much easier to follow. Thanks for another great recipe!
Eliza says
What a perfectly timed delectable ice cream recipe! Not only do I love mint chocolate chip, but we have fresh mint just starting to come up in the garden. (I'm in Denver, too!) Thanks for another winner from Burrata and Bubbles.