Mint Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream

A love for ice cream is required in my family. My grandpa Z can never resist a milkshake or sundae. My grandma Carol lives for chocolate on chocolate Haagen Dazs bars. My Uncle Lee has been known to make ice cream a main meal. And as I recently discovered, my cousins who live in Germany eagerly anticipate trips to the US, where the quality and price make ice cream a daily treat.

In my family, we’ve always had something for mint. My mom has a huge electric ice cream churn that uses rock salt and ice. Something like this but much larger. She stores it at the mountain house and we have spent many a summer’s night ignoring its rather loud buzzing sound as it works its magic on the back deck. Mint chocolate chip has almost always been the flavor found inside its massive metal canister. At some point, I began to claim that I did not like mint chocolate chip ice cream. This is not actually true. I do like it, but I tend to tire quickly of the same flavor of anything, particularly ice cream. I have many half-eaten pints in the freezer simply because I grew bored of one and decided to purchase another. However, when I pulled out my ice cream maker this summer, I decided that maybe I was overdue for an old favorite flavor.

The June/July issue of Fine Cooking had a great spread on ice cream, which consisted of a basic recipe for custard and a bazillion options for jazzing it up. This issue, along with my beloved copy of The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz gave me the methods for making what I deem the best mint chocolate ice cream. The two keys to the recipe are:

1. Steep fresh mint leaves in the warm milk before making the custard. This infuses it with fresh mint flavor sans mint extract. (Fine Cooking)

2. Instead of adding chocolate chips, add melted chocolate in a thin stream at the very end of churning. This creates a soft chocolate swirl, similar to straciatella. (David Lebovitz)

As long as you follow these two rules, you will be rewarded with the perfect mint chocolate swirl ice cream. You can use any custard base you like, but in case you are looking for one, I’ll write mine out. Also, thanks to all my neighbors who ate this with relish at Hootenanny. Sorry it took me so long to get it up on here!

Mint Chocolate Swirl Ice Cream
Makes about 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 bundle fresh mint (10-15 sprigs) + a few mint leaves, minced
1 cup heavy cream
6 large egg yolks

Combine milk, sugar, and pinch of salt in a saucepan. Place on medium heat and stir until barely simmering. Remove pan from the heat and add mint sprigs. Cover and let steep for 1 hour.
Make an ice bath (fill a large bowl with ice water, place a smaller bowl inside it). Pour the cream into the smaller bowl. Have a mesh strainer ready.
Rewarm the milk mixture gently over medium heat for a few minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs yolks in a medium bowl. Pour 1 cup of the rewarmed milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Then pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly. Stir constantly over low heat until custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
When custard has thickened, pour immediately through the strainer and into the bowl with the cream. Allow the mint to remain in the strainer, pressing on it to extract all the flavor. Discard the mint. Allow custard to cool in ice bath. When custard has cooled, take it out of the ice bath and place it in the fridge for several hours.
When the custard is cold, freeze it in your ice cream maker according to its directions. Towards the end of churning time, melt a few ounces of your favorite kind of chocolate (semisweet is my choice) in a glass measuring cup in the microwave, stirring at 30 second intervals until mielted. When the ice cream is almost finished churning, begin drizzling the chocolate through the opening of the ice cream maker as it churns. After chocolate is drizzled in, slowly drop in the minced mint leaves and continue churning until fresh mint and chocolate are fully incorporated.