Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Meet one of my favorite Christmas gifts - the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt - Ice cream, & Sorbet Maker! In addition to other great kitchen tools, my generous in-laws gave me this gift, as well as the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. This ice cream maker is top rated by Cook's Illustrated (as well as used by Coconut & Lime). I have wanted an ice cream maker for a long time - particularly for sorbets and frozen yogurts. I also love sno-cones/slushies and was so excited to learn that this machine can make those too!

For my very first frozen treat, I decided to do Mint Chocolate Chunk ice cream. Mint Chocolate Chip/Chunk is one of my favorites - the cool mint is so refreshing. I used the Ben & Jerry's Mint Oreo recipe but subbed chopped semi-sweet chocolate for the Oreos. My only issue was that the chocolate took a long time to melt after frozen - as in it gets stuck in your teeth. I used Ghiradelli chocolate, so maybe a different chocolate would be better?

As far as the taste of the ice cream - fantastic! I'm amazed that I can make this at home. Great texture, creamy and delicious. I'm excited to try many more flavors, especially ones that are hard or impossible to find in stores.

The basic idea of Mint Chocolate Chunk can be applied to different ice cream bases - you don't have to use the egg-containing base that I did. I almost had to hide the ingredient list to get Bob to eat it; raw eggs creep him out :)

Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy or whipping cream

1 cup milk*

2 teaspoon mint/peppermint extract

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into pieces smaller than a chocolate chip

optional: tiny bit of food coloring gel - a little goes a long way!

*I used skim milk, and it turned out great. The Ben & Jerry's book talks about fat percentages of cream, half-and-half, and different types of milk and how you can play around with it in the recipes.

Directions:

1. Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes (I did this in my KA mixer with the whisk attachment).

2. Add the sugar slowly while whisking, then whisk for about a minute more until completely blended.

3. Add the cream and milk while whisking to blend.

4. Add mint extract and blend again. Add food coloring at this point if desired.

5. Add mixture to your ice cream maker and prepare according to manufacturer's instructions. For mine, it calls to add the chocolate chunks in the last 5 minutes of mixing.

6. Serve immediately if desired or transfer to an airtight container and freeze. I preferred the texture of the ice cream after it was frozen overnight.

Source: Adapted from the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book and booklet that came with the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker