Mint choc chip ice cream

This mint choc chip ice cream uses fresh garden mint and melt in your mouth chocolate chips for a creamy, minty ice cream that's impossible to resist!

There are a lot of versions of this mint chocolate chip ice cream around. This is my version and IMO the best of course! I use fresh garden mint, blitzed and infused in cold milk for several hours in the fridge. A lot of recipes briefly immerse the mint in hot milk for under an hour and that's it. In my experience this doesn't produce an ice cream that tastes minty enough. If I am eating home made ice cream I want the mint flavour to shine. I want to left in no doubt its mint ice cream I'm eating but at the same time not whacking my tastebuds so hard with mint esters they can't taste the chocolate chips.

Which brings me to the second part of this fabulous green mint ice cream, the chocolate chips. Chocolate chips were invented by Ruth Wakefield, specifically so that they would not melt when baking. Excellent for chocolate chip cookies, not so good when frozen in ice cream. A lot of chocolate can take on an unpleasant waxy taste when frozen into ice cream. The very thing that makes chocolate chips great for cookies make them bad for ice cream. The solution is to lower the melting point of your chocolate chips by mixing melted chocolate with refined coconut oil, then allowing it to set before breaking it back up into chips. More work, yes. Worth it imo? Defiantly. You can of course skip this setup and just add your whole chocolate chips to the mint ice cream.

Let take a look at what ingredients you'll need

🥘 Ingredients and substitutions

Mint - I use garden mint, sometimes also called cottage mint, spearmint or common mint. You could experiment with different types of mint such as peppermint, apple mint, or go all out with chocolate mint or even Vietnamese mint (which is not a true mint of course)!

Cream - in Australia I use thicken cream. The key thing is it needs to have a fat content of around 35%.

Milk - gotta be the full cream stuff, so around 4% fat. Anything less is going to make your ice cream icy.

Tapioca starch - also known as arrowroot powder. This helps thicken and stabilise the ice cream and stop it becoming as icy in the freezer. You can substitute with corn starch, but corn starch doesn't survive freezing as well.

Chocolate - I use traditional dark chocolate chips here which I add coconut oil to. You can skip this step and add the chocolate chips straight into the nearly churned ice cream. You can also use a different chocolate, either a bar cut up into small pieces or a crumbled up dark Flake bar. Remember anything other than dark chocolate will be sweeter and give an overall sweeter ice cream.

Optional extras

Glucose syrup - also called confectioner's glucose. Its available from some supermarkets or speciality baking stores. A small amount of glucose syrup helps lower the freezer point of ice cream and improves the texture and scoopability of the ice cream. If you can't get glucose syrup you can substitute with the same amount of light corn syrup or powdered dextrose, commonly available from brewing shops. Do not add to much or your ice cream will melt in a red hot minuet!

Refined coconut oil - sometimes also called expeller pressed coconut oil. Using refined coconut oil is important because the refining process removed the coconut flavour and smell, resulting in a neutral oil. Unrefined coconut oil has a much stronger coconut taste a smell. I love a good coconut ice cream, you can check out my recipes here, but in this case it will overwhelm the delicate mint flavour we're trying so hard to preserve. Best to stick to the refined coconut oil this time.

🔪 How to make the mint choc chip ice cream

Wash the mint well. Roughly break up or chop and add to the chopping bowl of an immersion blender or food processor with the milk. Blend well. Transfer to a covered container and chill in fridge for at least four hours, ideally overnight. While the mint is immersing make the rest of the base.

Add the tapioca starch and a few tablespoons of cream to a small bowl and mix well to form a slurry.

Add the cream, sugar and glucose syrup if using to a small pot. Heat on medium until the mix just starts to bubble then turn down to low, stirring well until sugars dissolve. Add tapioca starch slurry and mix well. Remove from heat and chill well in fridge for at least four hours, ideally overnight. While mix is chilling make chocolate chips, if doing so.

How to make the chocolate chips (optional)

Line a tray with greaseproof paper. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl in the microwave or a double boiler. Add coconut oil and mix well. Spread chocolate out thinly out on greaseproof paper and allow to set. Break up into small chocolate chip sized pieces and set aside until needed.

Hot tip: you can skip this step if you prefer, and just add the whole chocolate chips to the ice cream towards the end of churning.

How to assemble the ice cream

Strain the mint milk mix, pressing down on the mint to extract as much minty milk as possible. Add mint milk to the rest of the ice cream base and mix well. You can add a few drops of green food colour at this stage to pump up the mint colour if you want.

Put your ice cream storage container in the freezer to chill. If using a self churning machine, turn it on about ten minutes before you churn your ice cream. Other wise take the churning bowl out of the freezer right before churning.

Churn the ice cream. Just before the ice cream is done churning and while it is still flowing in the machine add the chocolate chips. It will be the consistency of soft serve when done.

Transfer to chilled storage container and freeze overnight until firm.

🥣 How to serve

Remove from freezer, scoop and enjoy! Fabulous on it's own, or sundae style with some whipped cream, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and some lollie mint leave. Delicious!

Looking for more fresh flavours? Why not make my easy matcha ice cream or lemon ice team popsicles with lemon verbena.

Have you made this recipe? Tell me how it went in the comments below and tag me on instagram or facebook so I can see your delicious creations! #KCAEIC

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📋 Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Mint choc chip ice cream

This mint choc chip ice cream uses fresh garden mint and melt in your mouth chocolate chips for a creamy, minty ice cream that's impossible resist!

Prep Time55 mins

Cook Time5 mins

Chilling and freezing time16 hrs

Total Time17 hrs

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Australian

Keyword: chocolate chip mint, garden mint, green mint ice cream, mint choc chip, mint chocolate chip

Equipment

• ice cream churner
• immersion blender
• chopping bowl attachment for immersion blender or food processor

Ingredients

• 2 cups (500ml) thickened cream
• ¾ cup (187.5ml) full cream milk
• ½ cup ( gms) castor sugar
• ½ flat tablespoon (15gms) glucose syrup *optional
• 1 bunch (1 cup or 45gms) garden mint
• 2 flat teaspoons (5 gms total) tapioca starch *also called arrowroot
• ¾ cup (140gms) dark chocolate or chocolate chips
• 2 flat teaspoons (8gms) refined coconut oil *optional
• several drops green food colour *optional

Instructions

• Wash the mint
• Roughly chop into a couple of sections, then add to the chopping bowl of an immersion blender with milk. Blend well. Cover and refrigerate for at least four hours, ideally overnight.
• In a small bowl add tapioca starch and tablespoon or two of cream and mix well, enough to form a smooth slurry.
• Add cream, sugar and glucose syrup if using to a small pot. Heat on a medium heat until mix just starts to bubble, then turn down low and still until all sugar dissolves. All cream and tapioca starch slurry and mix in well. Remove from heat and chill for at least four hours, ideally overnight.
• If you want less waxy, more melt in your mouth chocolate chips follow the chocolate chip instructions below, otherwise continue on.
• Strain mint and milk mix, pressing down on the mint to get all the flavoured milk out. Discard mint and add flavoured milk to chilled cream mix. Mix in well. If you want a brighter green you can add a few drops of green food colour at this stage.
• Put your ice cream storage container in the freezer to chill.
• If using a self churning machine turn it on about ten minutes before churning the ice cream, otherwise take the bowl out of the freezer immediately before churning.
• Towards the end of churning when the ice cream is thick but still flowing, add chocolate chips.
• Once ice cream is churned it will be the consistency of soft serve. Transfer to chilled container and freeze until firm
• Scoop and enjoy!

More melty, less waxy chocolate chips (optional)

• Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
• Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl, either in the microwave on 30 second bursts or in a double boiler. Add coconut oil and mix well.
• Spread chocolate out thinly on greaseproof paper with a heatproof spatular.
• Allow to set then break up into small chip sized pieces.