When I polled people over on Instagram and asked them their favorite ice cream flavors, mint chocolate chip ice cream was by far the top choice for a majority of folks. Not that I’m surprised! The cool and creamy flavor is so satisfying with chunks of chocolate that give it an extra special texture. It’s my youngest daughter’s top choice every time we get ice cream so I wanted to make it at home myself. Making mint chip at home means you can control the amount and size of your chocolate pieces as well as making it more or less minty to suit your own preferences! One of the tricks to this mint chip ice cream is in how you add the chocolate. I use a combination of two approaches to get a mix of big and little chunks of chocolate throughout our mint chip ice cream so there is chocolate in every bite! First you melt some good quality dark or semisweet chocolate with a little bit of coconut oil. Then during the last few minutes of churning the ice cream, you will drizzle the melted chocolate into the machine as the ice cream is still being churned. Incidentally, this is basically also how you make homemade magic shell topping except here we are adding it straight into the ice cream while it churns! This technique is from Italy where it is called stracciatella, or “shards”, and it gives a more delicate, even distribution of chocolate that has a better mouth feel than big hard chunks of chopped chocolate. And you can control how thick your stream of chocolate is as you are adding it for larger chunks or tiny flecks of chocolate that are spread throughout the ice cream. If we all scream for ice cream, then you are also going to want to check out these other flavors that are reader favorites like our Old-Fashioned Fresh Peach Ice Cream, Apple Pie Ice Cream, and Cookies and Cream Ice Cream! I usually hold some of the melted chocolate in reserve though and only add half the ice cream to the container I plan to store it in, then drizzle the remaining chocolate over this before covering it with the rest of the ice cream. This results in some larger chunks of chocolate that break up as you scoop the ice cream so we’ve got the best of both worlds! If you prefer larger pieces of chocolate in your mint chip ice cream, then by all means use a chopped up bar of chocolate or even mini chocolate chips instead!
Recipe Ingredients
Heavy cream: The higher the fat percentage of your ice cream, the richer and creamier it will be. You can get away with regular whipping cream or even half-and-half, but for best results look for heavy cream. Milk: I use whole milk with heavy cream to get the best texture, but you could use 2% or even skim milk and still get good ice cream. Also, if all you have is skim milk, just add a little extra heavy cream in place of a couple tablespoons of the milk to make up the difference and you’ll get the same result. Sugar: We want our mint chip to be just sweet enough without being too sweet! Egg yolks: This is a custard based ice cream, which is my favorite kind, which means we need egg yolks for that creamy, scoopable quality that is so good! Save your egg whites to make something else. I have a whole category of recipes you can make with leftover egg whites! Peppermint extract: I prefer the flavor of peppermint extract over regular mint extract in ice cream. Sometimes the mint extract skews a little too wintergreen for me. You can add more or less based on your preference, but I think the amount in the recipe below is just right for a solid mint chip ice cream. Vanilla extract: A little vanilla actually rounds out the mint flavor of this ice cream! Semisweet chocolate: I really recommend using a chopped up bar of high quality semisweet or dark chocolate like Ghiradelli. It will melt better than if you use chocolate chips. Coconut oil: This is the secret ingredient that will help the melted chocolate reharden quickly upon being added to the ice cream! It doesn’t actually add coconut flavor to the ice cream. Green food coloring (affiliate link): This is totally optional, but it does give that classic green color that many people expect in mint chip ice cream.
How to Make Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Recipe Tips
Feel free to adjust the amount of mint extract in the recipe either up or down depending on your personal preference. Try adding broken up regular or mint Oreo cookies to the mint base! It’s one of my favorite variations! Another good mix-in would be to use 1 to 1 ½ cups of those chopped up Andes creme de menthe pieces or small chunks of brownies. You could also make hot fudge sauce, then let it cool so it’s just barely warm but still pourable, then layer the churned ice cream with a generous drizzle of hot fudge sauce, followed by more ice cream, etc. to create a mint fudge ripple. Use this ice cream to make a grasshopper ice cream pie!
More Recipes for Mint Chocolate Lovers
Mint Chip Sugar Cookies Andes Mint Cookies Peppermint Bark Cheesecake Fudgy Frosted Chocolate Mint Brownies Peppermint Macarons Chocolate Andes Mint Cookies
Want a double scoop? More ice cream recipes
Southern Blackberry Cobbler Ice Cream Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream Tutti-Frutti Ice Cream Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream
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