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!