ICOTW: Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

We're back to ice cream making season!  Well, ice cream posting season, I've been re-making old favorites since the beginning of summer!  (Like many batches of this strawberry ice cream).  I've made a lot of different ice cream flavors, this being my SEVENTH summer doing this (although I have scaled back greatly from once a week for 15 weeks!) so many many favorites we've found.  As I was prepping for this month of ice cream making (as in...planning this week...I haven't done much planning beyond this one) I was thinking through flavors I hadn't tried yet and I came up with mint chocolate chip.

Now, mint chocolate chip ice cream instantly brings to mind two memories.  The more recent one is from a season 1 episode of The Office when Michael Scott insists on mint chocolate chip ice cream cake for Meredith's birthday.  I can. not. say or even think "Mint chocolate chip!" without hearing it in Michael's voice.

My second memory goes much further back, 25ish years ago to my Mom buying a gallon bucket of mint chocolate chip ice cream and helping myself to a generous bowl for snack one day while looking through a catalog for a knock-off American Girls doll line I have since forgotten the name of.  I remember thinking I couldn't believe I was getting away with eating all this ice cream in the middle of the day.

I don't know the last time I personally bought or had mint chocolate chip ice cream but it seemed like it was about time I made some myself.  So I did and it was good.  And easy!  One of the easiest ice cream recipes I've made, as long as you have an ice cream machine, a bowl & whisk, and about 45 minutes of time (almost all of that hands off), you can handle this.

One year ago: Lemon Cream Ice Cream
Two years ago: Blueberry Pie-Wiches
Three years ago: Blackberry Lime Sorbet
Four years ago: Coconut Lime Popsicles
Five years ago: Lemonade Ice Cream
Six years ago: Peach Sangria Popsicles

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
yield: about 1 quart
Ingredients
-1 cup whole milk, cold
-¾ cup sugar
-2 cup heavy cream, cold
-1½ tsp pure peppermint extract
-4 ounces mini chocolate chips to chopped chocolate
-green food coloring (optional but the only way your ice cream will end up green)

Directions
In a bowl combine the milk and sugar and whisk until the sugar is dissolved.  Stir in the heavy cream and the peppermint.  Immediately churn in your ice cream machine, according to the manufacturer's instructions, adding the chocolate chips in the last 5 minutes.

Pack into a freezer safe container and press a piece of parchment paper on top.  Freeze at least 4 hours.  Will need ~5 minutes on the counter until it can be scooped.

Enjoy!

Source: slightly modified from Chew Out Loud 

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In the summer I aim to make a different homemade ice cream (or other frozen treat) each week and report back here, good or bad!  I call it "Ice Cream of the Week".  You can follow the "ICOTW" tag to see them all chronologically or go to my "Recipes" page and scroll down to the "Ice Cream/Frozen Things" section for my favorites!