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Tuesday, January 5, 2010

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.

17 comments:

  1. How many servings does this make? Yum!

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  2. Hi Jane! I want to say it makes about 10 1/2-cup servings - it definitely filled the whole 1 1/2-quart ice cream maker. I served it to a group of 4, and we all had seconds plus some left over. I think the recipe could be easily cut in half though. Hope this helps!

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  3. Oh man I am dying to get an ice cream maker. I should just go buy it and get it over with! :o) That cookbook looks amazing too! Great now I want that!!! That ice cream is making me drool! YUM!

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  4. did i miss something... what made it so green? i've used mint extract quite a bit, and it's not colored.

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  5. Ah yes - thank you for reminding me!!! You are correct, mint extract certainly isn't green. I added a tiny drop of green food gel in step 4 and it that was more than enough to make it this vibrant green, otherwise the ice cream would have been off-white colored because of the eggs. The food coloring is of course optional but I will make a note in the recipe :)

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  6. That's my favorite flavor of ice cream too!

    What an awesome Christmas gift, I'm so jealous! I can't wait to see what else you can make with it, and I'm glad you used skim milk to see what would happen!

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  7. I love CI.. I go by all of their equipment and taste test reviews

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  8. Homemade ice cream is the bomb. Looks fantastic, mint chocolate chip is one of my favorites too.

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  9. That is the exact ice cream/frozen yogurt machine that I have and I love it! It is so easy to clean and store and makes delicious frozen treats.
    This mint ice cream looks amazing! So excited to see what else you make with your gift!

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  10. What a fun gift! This would be dangerous in our house!

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  11. That ice cream looks delicious!! Mint chip is one of my favorites. I made strawberry for my first one. It doesn't have any eggs at all in it. I'll post about it soon. I got the Cuisinart one too (a red one) and love it so far! We'll have to trade ice cream recipes!

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  12. Wow I haven't see that book but now I'm dying to get my hands on it! This is my favorite flavor of ice cream (hands down) and I can't wait to try it. Thanks for saying hello!

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  13. oh wow great icecream i want an icecream maker lol

    Happy New Year love Rebecca

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  14. Enjoy your new toy! The ice cream looks super tasty!

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  15. I love my ice cream maker and I am happy to see you are enjoying yours. Mint chocolate is one of my favorites!

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  16. Mmmm, chocolate chip mint is one of my favorite flavors! Congrats on your new toy - I can't wait to see what else you make with it :)

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  17. Yum Yum
    I am missing the taste of this ice cream very much,i am already using the ice making machine,but i am unable to make so tasty and delicious ice cream,if you don't mind may i share your ice cream dear..

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