The mintiest Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream out there! A perfectly smooth and creamy base infused with extra mint flavor and just the right amount of chocolate chips.
We recently received a huge bunch of mint in our CSA share. Three things come to mind when you think of mint: mint juleps, mojitos, and mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Since my husband is in the middle of studying for his boards, I knew he wouldn’t be interested in drinking. Also, mint chocolate chip ice cream is one of my favorite things ever. So really, the choice was pretty obvious: mint chocolate chip ice cream.
As someone who LOVES mint, this is the be-all-end-all recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream. Seriously. I’m kiiiiind of an ice cream connoisseur (or at least someone who really, really loves ice cream and tries a lot of it) and this recipe is the tops.
In a sea of zucchini and kale, “having” to make ice cream to use up a CSA share? Yes, please!
I used apple mint for this recipe since it’s what we received in our CSA share. You can also use chocolate mint (my favorite!) or peppermint – but avoid spearmint if you want a classic mint chocolate chip flavor.
Let’s talk about what makes this so good: real mint, seeped in cream and sugar. Step away from the bottle of mint extract. Back away slowly, and pick up some mint leaves. I promise, you will be blown away.
We’ve talked about needing fresh mint for the best flavor. Now let’s talk about how to get the best texture.
This ice cream base is amazingly smooth and creamy, thanks to a high percentage of heavy cream. Butterfat, which comes from the milk and cream, is responsible for the thick, smooth texture of ice cream.
So why don’t we want to load up our ice cream with as much fat as possible? It’s time for my favorite subject… kitchen chemistry!
Kitchen Chemistry
While responsible for the rich, creamy texture, too much butterfat makes ice cream too hard, making it too challenging to scoop. Too much butterfat also masks the flavor of the ice cream, as it absorbs other flavors and slowly releases them as they melt. A high butterfat mint chocolate chip ice cream won’t taste minty until the ice cream starts to melt.
We want the mintiest chocolate chip ice cream, which means we want to know we’re eating mint chocolate chip from the first bite!
For this ice cream, we’re using 2 cups of whole milk to 1 cup of heavy cream, which results in roughly 12% butterfat – the perfect amount, in my opinion! The ice cream has a rich, thick mouthfeel, but it’s still scoop-able, and doesn’t mask the delicious natural mint flavor.
The mintiest chocolate chip ice cream out there! A perfectly smooth and creamy base infused with extra mint flavor and just the right amount of chocolate chips.
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