Farewell Summer, Hello Fall! {Recipe: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream}

One quick last ice cream post to mark the official end of summer. This is the kids' absolute favorite ice cream. It is hard to beat a good homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. The following recipe is the best one we have made to date.  

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

This ice cream has the same base as the Frosted Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream posted 9/19/17. It is a really good base for adding different flavorings and stir-ins. 

Ice Cream Base:

2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 heavy cream

1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Flavoring for Mint Chocolate Chip:

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 teaspoon(s) peppermint extract, depending on taste*

6 drops green food coloring, optional

1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips or finely chopped semi-sweet chocolate bar (I used a food processor to chop up the chocolate for the ice cream in the photo above and garnished with mini chocolate chips.)

In a medium bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in milk. Once dissolved, stir in heavy cream, vanilla, peppermint, and food coloring (if using) until well combined. Pour mixture into a one quart ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions. When the ice cream is just about finished processing in the ice cream maker, add chocolate. For example, my ice cream maker takes about 25 minutes to process, after 20 minutes I add the stir-ins-in this case, chocolate. Once ice cream is processed, place it in an air tight container(s) and freeze until firm-at least 2 hours.** 

Makes about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream

*Add peppermint to taste, but keep in mind that flavorings can dissipate a bit in the freezer. My family likes it made with 2 teaspoons. Also, we find that using a good quality flavoring makes big a difference. Once we had to throw out a batch of mint chocolate chip ice cream because the flavoring we used tasted bad-such a waste of otherwise good ingredients!

**Freezing ice cream until firm is what a recipe means if it says to "ripen" ice cream.

Happy summer's end everyone, now bring on fall!

One Is Never Too Old for Circus Animal Cookies! {Recipe: Frosted Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream}

There are few store-bought cookies that will make there way into our house. My daughter and I both love to bake cookies so there is rarely a reason to buy them. But there is one store-bought cookie that the whole family is loves, and that is Frosted Circus Animal Cookies. There is probably a bit of nostalgia in the reason my husband and I like them so much, we both had them growing up. But, my kids devour them anytime they are around!

The first time I ever bought them for the kids was for Lili's first birthday party. I think these bright cheery cookies are perfect for kids parties. At the party, I soon noticed that my then 2 1/2 year old son kept going back to the bowl of them and grabbing a hand full at a time. I don't think he even bothered with the birthday cake. So ever since Lili's first birthday, both kids have been fans of this colorful little frosted treat.

Both kids are teens now and may claim that they are too old for circus animal cookies, but neither one objected when I made this ice cream. They also wanted to know if there were any cookies left over. I say one is never too old for circus animal cookies!

Frosted Circus Animal Cookie Ice Cream

2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract*
1 1/2 cup roughly chopped frosted circus animal cookies
1/4 cup rainbow jimmies

In a medium bowl, dissolve sugar and salt in milk. Once dissolved, stir in heavy cream and vanilla until well combined. Pour mixture into a one quart ice cream maker and freeze according to your ice cream makers instructions. When the ice cream is just about finished processing in the ice cream maker, add the chopped cookies and jimmies. For example, my ice cream maker takes about 25 minutes to process, after 20 minutes I add the cookies and jimmies. Once ice cream is processed, place it in an air tight container(s) and freeze until firm-at least 2 hours.** 

Makes about 1 1/2 quarts of ice cream

*Vanilla amount can be adjust to taste, but keep in mind that flavorings can dissipate a bit in the freezer.

**Freezing ice cream until firm is what a recipe means if it says to "ripen" ice cream.

Enjoy!

Ice Cream Worth Stunting Your Growth For {Recipe: Coffee Ice Cream With or Without Add-Ins}

In a previous post on July 20, 2016 for Mocha Granola, I tell the story of how my mother would not allow my siblings and me to have coffee or tea when we were growing up. Whenever we wanted to try either one she would say, "No, it will stunt your growth." The one thing she would allow is coffee ice cream; I guess somethings are worth stunting your growth over.

My father-in-law's original recipe
handwritten by my mother-in-law.

Coffee ice cream never did much for me until I tried this one. This recipe comes from my father-in-law, the chemist. This recipe proves once again that chemists can cook (see the 7/19/17 post "Never Tell a Chemist He [or She] Can't Cook). The man certainly knew how to make ice cream!

So far I have only tried his ice cream recipes. He also prided himself on how well he made sourdough pancakes and waffles from his own sourdough starter. One day I hope to try my hand at these.

Coffee Ice Cream

The original recipe made about a gallon of ice cream, I cut the recipe down to make only about a quart. 

2 cups whole milk (Original recipe does not specify, but whole milk is usually used in ice cream.)

3 tablespoons ground coffee*

1 egg

1 cup sugar

4 teaspoons flour

1 1/3 cups heavy cream 

Scald the coffee and milk to the boiling point; strain through cheese cloth. Beat egg, sugar, and flour together. Very slowly stir milk mixture into beaten egg mixture, be careful not to do this fast or the egg will cook and become lumpy. Cook the milk/egg mixture in a double boiler, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool. Whip cream until stiff, then fold into the cooled milk/egg mixture until well combined. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's instructions. 

*Use your favorite ground coffee. We use one we found at a local coffee place, Maps, in Kansas City, MO; it is so good in this ice cream! 

Update: We recently tried this recipe with Oreos-so good! Chop up about 10 original flavor Oreos and add to the ice cream during the last minute or two in the ice cream maker. Continue to process the ice cream until done and Oreo is well distributed throughout.

Enjoy!