Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Warm Summer days have finally arrived here in the northeast and that means ice cream season has officially begun! Last year we bought this little, electric ice cream maker and we love it! It's got the gel style bowl that's kept in the freezer until you're ready to use it. Then you just dump in your ingredients and turn it on. About half an hour later you have perfect ice cream -- no ice or messy rock salt necessary.


Another thing we love about this ice cream maker is that it only makes around 1.5-2 quarts of ice cream at a time, so we can make a lot of different varieties in small batches. Hint, hint... expect to see more ice cream and gelato here in the future.

The first ice cream we made this year was mint chocolate chip in honor of my father-in-law who loves the stuff. Unfortunately though, I forgot the part of our conversation where he asked to leave out the chocolate chips. Oops! Honestly though, mint chocolate chip ice cream minus the chocolate chips is as weird as my husband ordering chicken and broccoli minus the broccoli (and yes, that's how he orders it -- embarrassing, yes I know..) Anyway, this ice cream really surprised us all at how good it was. The recipe is so simple that we weren't expecting too much, but it's really good!

The second batch of ice cream we made was this same recipe, but without the chips. I have no photos as my father-in-law made quick work of it and it disappeared before I had a chance to get my camera out. One other change I made in the second batch was to use half whole milk and half 2% milk, rather than all 2%. The difference in creaminess was definitely noticeable and I think this may be a real winner for a basic ice cream recipe to customize with different flavorings.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
from Allrecipes.com
Makes 2 quarts (8 one-cup servings)

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups 2% milk (or 1 cup whole, 1 cup 2%)
* 2 cups heavy cream
* 1 cup sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
* 3 drops green food coloring (optional)
* 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and peppermint extract until the sugar has dissolved. Color to your liking with the green food coloring.

2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. After about 10 minutes into the freezing, add the chocolate chips. After the ice cream has thickened, about 30 minutes later. You can eat it soft this way or spoon into a container, and freeze for 2 hours.


Nutritional Info (Courtesy of Allrecipes.com)
**So, the calories and fat are really high, but this is for eight 1-cup servings, which is a pretty generous amount of ice cream! Most store bought ice cream is labeled in 1/2 cup servings**

Servings Per Recipe: 8
Amount Per Serving

Calories: 455
Total Fat: 30.7g
Cholesterol: 86mg
Sodium: 196mg
Total Carbs: 45.4g
Dietary Fiber: 1.5g
Protein: 4.3g