This mint chocolate chip ice cream is a classic summer treat, with a minty freshness.
Now that I’ve shared with you guys my classic homemade vanilla ice cream, it’s time to layer that vanilla canvas with some exciting ice cream flavors! So today, I’m going to share with you my recipe for my favorite Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream! Refreshingly minty, creamy, and chock-full of buttery, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chips that are ALSO extra minty. I guarantee this is the best mint chocolate chip ice cream you’ve ever had! 🙂
Why you should make this mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe?
You like mint, you like chocolate, and you like ice cream. So mint chocolate chip ice cream is a no-brainer, correct? Well, here’s why this mint choc chip ice cream recipe is different and better than other recipes. Instead of large chocolate chips being added to the ice cream, this ice cream is full of small pieces of melt-in-your-mouth chocolate. I add the chocolate to the ice cream, Stracciatella-style. This means, here you get small, irregular pieces of buttery chocolate dispersed throughout the ice cream!
And if that wasn’t enough, not only is the chocolate melted with a little butter before being drizzled over the ice cream, the chocolate is also mixed with extra peppermint extract! So you get delicious melt-in-your-mouth peppermint dark chocolate pieces throughout the mint ice cream. Adding that extra bit of peppermint extract to the chocolate really elevates this mint chocolate chip ice cream from all the standard fare out there!
How to make mint chocolate chip ice cream
Just like with my homemade vanilla ice cream recipe, I mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and heat everything together to make the custard base. I don’t “scald” or heat the milk first, or dissolve the sugar first. It’s just easier to heat it all together. The great thing about this technique is that you no longer need to temper the eggs.
But to make the process even easier, here’s a step by step on how to prepare the mint chocolate chip ice cream base.
The first step is to prepare the egg yolks, so that they mix with the milk easily. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, vanilla and salt until thick and creamy. Next, add the milk and cream and whisk until well mixed. When these ingredients are well mixed, heat the mixture to make the custard. It’s important to heat the mixture until it reaches 165 – 170°F, as this is the temperature that pasteurizes the eggs (to ensure you have no raw eggs in your ice cream). If you don’t have a thermometer, then heat the mixture until it’s steaming. But do NOT let the mixture come to a boil. When the custard base is done, you can add the peppermint extract after letting it cool down or chill completely.
Coloring the mint ice cream
Can’t have a mint chocolate chip ice cream without the green coloring right? Having said that, if you do prefer not to use coloring, you’re welcome to skip it. It won’t be green, but will taste every bit as delicious and refreshingly minty.
Alternatively, here’s how you can naturally color your mint chocolate chip ice cream green.
For a natural green color, you can mix your mint chocolate chip ice cream with some spinach. Take a handful of spinach leaves and put ’em in a blender. Add about 1/2 cup of the chilled ice cream base and blend the spinach leaves. This should give you a deep green color. Pass the blended ice cream base through a fine sieve and then mix it with the rest of the base. You can repeat this process with more spinach if you’d like an even darker shade of green.
If you do add food coloring,
You can add either a water-based green food coloring or a gel-based food coloring. Since the gel-based food coloring is more concentrated, I prefer to dissolve 1 or 2 drops in about 1/2 tbsp of water or milk and then add it to the ice cream base to get the desired color.
Preparing the mint chocolate mix
Couldn’t be easier. Prepare the mint chocolate mix while the ice cream is churning. You’ll be drizzling this chocolate sauce during the last few minutes of churning. Melt a delicious dark chocolate (that you like to eat) with some butter. Then stir in the peppermint extract. Pour this chocolate mix into a piping bag or small ziploc bag.
How to create stracciatella-style mint chocolate chip ice cream
When the ice cream is at a soft-serve stage, snip the edge of the chocolate bag and start drizzling the chocolate sauce onto the churning ice cream. The chocolate will set as it makes contact with the cold ice cream, and the churning will break up the set chocolate at the same time, resulting in small, irregular pieces of buttery, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate getting dispersed throughout the ice cream, Stracciatella-style. You can adjust the amount of chocolate you add to your liking.
Once churned, freeze the ice cream for a few hours. The minty freshness of this ice cream is PERFECT for hot summer days. Paired with the creamy ice cream base and extra minty, buttery, bittersweet chocolate – you better believe that this is the BEST mint choc chip ice cream recipe ever! 🙂
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If you like this recipe, you may also like,
No Churn Galaxy Ice Cream (Mixed berry and lemon ice cream) Rainbow Ice Cream Slice Kahlua Cherry Ice Cream Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
EQUIPMENT NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE
ICE CREAM MAKER – An inexpensive freezer bowl ice cream machine will be perfect for the average cook/baker. I have used & recommend this Cuisinart model. If you do constantly make ice cream in summer, then I would recommend investing in an ice cream maker with a built in compressor. These machines do not require to be pre-chilled and you can make many batches of ice cream over and over again. I currently own, and recommend this Cuisinart model. THERMOMETER – An inexpensive Cooking thermometer or a more expensive instant read thermapen.
