Mint chocolate chip ice cream was my all time favorite ice cream flavour when I was a kid. Ice cream has always been a big treat for me and having something cold and minty with crunchy bits of chocolate in it just made the day seem brighter. Even now, although I tend to eschew the term "favorite" since achieving some semblance of adulthood, I can say without a doubt that ice creams that combine mint and chocolate still top my list of prefered desserts. Therefore it's not surprising that I churned up some mint chocolate cookie dough ice cream a couple weeks ago-what's surprising is that it took me this many months to get around to making it!
I have been experimenting with ice cream recipes trying to come up with the simplest ones I could invent. While I do appreciate the rich taste of a custard-based ice cream, I find all that cream and eggs to be a bit too rich, almost greasy, to my palate. Additionally, a family tendency towards chronically high cholesteral levels have driven me to avoid egg yolks in most of my cooking. Now some may argue that at this point my ice cream isn't really ice cream, but then gelato (while I admit it does employ cream) usually doesn't have eggs in it and a lot of commercially produced ice creams avoid eggs as well. Plus, I think that the lighter recipe allows the chosen flavour of the ice cream to really shine through.
While this recipe calls for the use of World Peace Cookie dough, you can substitute chocolate chips, chunks or slivers, any chocolate cookie dough or even cooked brownies. I just recommend that you freeze any of your add-ins before making the ice cream so that they don't cause the ice cream to melt when you add them during the churning process.
The World's Easiest Mint and Chocolate Ice Cream
Makes about 4 cups. Total calories depends on what kind of add-ins you use.
2 cups 1% milk (cold)
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk, either non-fat or full fat, your choice.
3/4 tsp mint extract (or to taste, this makes a particularly minty dessert)
1 cup chopped frozen world peace cookie dough or other chocolate cookie dough, or your favorite chocolate or chocolate chips (or omit these if you would like a pure mint ice cream)
Procedure:
1. This is probably one of the easiest ice cream recipes around. I guarantee that you can have ice cream in your bowl 40 minutes after you start, as long as your milk and the ice cream churning equipment is already chilled. Simply stir together the milks until the sweetened condensed milk is dissolved. Stir in the mint extract. If you want a green tint to your ice cream, you may add a couple drops of green food colouring until you get the shade that you desire.
2. If the milks are not cold, put them in the fridge or freezer for a while. Pour into your ice cream maker and churn. Add in the chocolate or cookie dough when the ice cream has started to get thick. Pack into a container and freeze. The ice cream will not freeze solid even with non-fat milk, because of the sweetened condensed milk (I don't know what weird stabilizers they put in there, but they work). Remember to get organic milks for this recipe, and yes, organic sweetened condensed milk DOES exist!
Tip: This makes a lovely ice cream sandwich with two world peace cookies. Yum!Labels: Desserts, Ice Cream