Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

My wife and I made it to our first real milestone in life, our tenth anniversary. I can’t say that it has felt much like ten years, but after seeing my kids growing up, well, it is an indication that life is just flying by us. I will admit that I have found the love of my life and immediately realized that roughly twenty three years ago when we first met. After all, my wife is part of the reason why I love cooking so much. She is someone who I want to please, and want to be able to present a tasty dish to every time I get the opportunity. So with our tenth anniversary past us, in the spirit of things, we decided to exchange gifts. She presented me with a huge box, a box so big that both of my boys carried it over to me. I had no idea what was inside, but what I did know, is that it was big. So I opened it up only to find a wine cellar! Awesome, and beautiful, and big. After first glance, we immediately realized that it was just too big to fit in our space. As bummed out as we both were, we decided to return it, and have me shop for something else. No big deal.

So the following day, we shopped, and probably at  one of my favorite stores in town, Crate and Barrel. I have only been in there once, but I recall their kitchen area, and I LOVED EVERYTHING. So, we returned the wine cellar and began browsing the store. I already knew what I wanted, an ice cream maker. We cruised through everything, and I began to feel like a kid in a candy store. I was ‘giddyy’ if you will. I got the ice cream maker, which was on sale, and began picking up other items, like a microplane, corn holders, and a butter spreader for corn, I mean, c’mon, a butter spreader!

So as soon as we returned home, I immediately froze the ice cream bowl, anticipating that I would be making ice cream later that night. After all, my nephews were coming over to have me shave their heads, their first real buzz cut, and I chose them as my little helpers.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of whole milk, cold
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 2 tsp peppermint extract
• 2 tbsp fresh mint leaves, diced
• 1/2 cup of mini semisweet chocolate morsels
• 1 tsp green food coloring

Freeze the bowl, it is very important that it is completely frozen. Begin by adding the milk and sugar to a mixing bowl, and do just that, mix with a whisk until all of the sugar dissolves. Add in the extract, food coloring, and the heavy cream. Assemble your ice cream maker, and turn it on, adding in your mixture. The mint leaves and chocolate chips can wait until the very end.

Let the mixer spin for at least 30 minutes. Add in the chocolate chips and mint leaves about 25 minutes into mixing. Place the bowl back in the freezer, in my case, overnight. Scoop and and enjoy. I will admit that this was really great ice cream and we ate it for breakfast the following day. A perfect texture, and the flavor that you would expect from mint chocolate chip ice cream, with the subtle surprise of mint leaves. Looking forward to being creative on my next batch of ice cream!

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?