Peppermint Fleck Ice Cream

Happy Monday! This week I am happy to be participating in Ice Cream Week 2014 hosted by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Susan of The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen. They have teamed up with 25 amazing bloggers to bring you ice cream treats all week long. I hope you have as much fun as all of us bloggers. Break out those stretchy pants and celebrate Ice Cream Week with us.

For my first contribution to Ice Cream Week, I have decided to share one of my favorite recipes from Scoop Adventures: The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States (You can win a copy of my book! Enter below) – Peppermint Fleck Ice Cream. It is amazing how many varieties of mint exist.  I love growing several types, such as spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint and some hybrid varieties.  There is even a mojito mint! Growing herbs has always been easy for me and I enjoy being able to walk out my back door and pick the fragrant leaves as needed.  Fortunately my mint plants often do well, as they are practically a weed and hard to kill.  Amazingly I have several vegetable plants that are going crazy this year as well.  The tomatoes are in full force, so much so I’ve been trying to figure out if I can make some sort of tomato-inspired ice cream or sorbet.

This recipe for Peppermint Fleck Ice Cream in an original Scoop Adventures recipe that comes from the Inspirations from My Travels chapter of the cookbook. Inspired by ingredients in my backyard, fresh mint is steeped in sweet cream and flecked with pieces of dark chocolate to make a heavenly summer scoop.  Enjoy! Stop back this week for more Ice Cream Week scoops.

Peppermint Fleck Ice Cream
Recipe found in Scoop Adventures: The Best Ice Cream of the 50 States
Makes 1 generous quart

Below is the recipe as it is written in my cookbook.  Lucky for you, I have figured out a shortcut since publishing the book.  The double boiler method works great for melting chocolate, but if you would like to melt the chocolate faster and create less mess, break up the chocolate and put it in a small plastic bag.  Pop the bag in the microwave and zap for 30 second intervals, smushing the chocolate around with your fingers until it is melted.  Follow directions  for adding to ice cream below.

1 ½ cups (355ml) whole milk, divided
1 tbsp (9g) cornstarch
1 ¾ cups (414ml) heavy cream
2/3 cup (133g) sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup packed peppermint leaves
3 ounces (84g) dark chocolate, chopped

Fill a large bowl with ice water.  In a small bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons milk with cornstarch, whisk and set aside.  Combine remaining milk with heavy cream and sugar in a medium saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring milk mixture to a low boil.  Cook until the sugar dissolves, 3 minutes.  Remove milk mixture from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture.  Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.  Pour into a medium bowl. Whisk in salt.  Add peppermint leaves and steep at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Pour peppermint-infused milk through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on the back of the mint with a wooden spoon to extract as much flavor as possible.  Discard the mint. Set bowl in the ice water bath to cool, 20 minutes, whisking occasionally. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Once chilled, pour ice cream base into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  When churning is near completion, use a double boiler to melt dark chocolate until completely smooth.  Transfer melted chocolate to a small ziploc bag and keep warm.

When ice cream is finished and begins to pull away from the sides of the canister, cut a small hole in the corner of the chocolate bag and slowly drizzle a small stream of warm chocolate into the churning ice cream.  If the ice cream isn’t moving well, the chocolate may be getting caught on the dasher, so move the ice cream away from the dasher using a spoon.*  Complete churning and transfer to a freezer-safe container. Freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.

*Tip: If you have trouble with the drizzle method, you can also alternate layers of drizzled chocolate with finished ice cream as you scoop it into a container (do not stir).

Note: Looking for a more subtle peppermint flavor? Reduce the amount of peppermint leaves to ¾ cup or experiment to find your ideal amount of peppermint.

Make sure you swing by for a scoop from each of today’s Ice Cream Week Participants:

• Pink Lemonade Ice Cream Pie by Cravings of a Lunatic
• Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Ice Cream Pie by The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen
• Peppermint Fleck Ice Cream by Scoop Adventures
• Raspberry Lemonade Ice Cream Pie by The Redhead Baker
• Coffee Ice Cream by Cookistry
• Salted Caramel Ice Cream by Life Tastes Good
• Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Buster Bars by The Life and Loves on Grumpy’s Honeybunch
• Cherry Cheesecake Ice Cream by Hezzi-d’s Books and Cooks
• “Fried” Ice Cream Pie by Renee’s Kitchen Adventures
• Mint Chip Ice Cream by Crumb
• S’mores Ice Cream Pie by Love and Confections
• How to Make an Ice Cream Pie at Home by Farm Fresh Feasts
• Gluten Free Sandwich Cookie Ice Cream Pie by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Fudge Topped Chocolate Ice Cream Pie by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Salted Caramel Ice Cream Pie by The Spiffy Cookie
• Caramel Coffee Milkshake by Wishes and Dishes
• Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Pie by The Messy Baker
• Majarete (Dominican Corn Pudding) Ice Cream by Mind Over Batter
• Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream Cake by The Gunny Sack
• Dirty Girl Scout Ice Cream by Quarter Life (Crisis) Cuisine
• No Churn Low Carb Blueberry Cheesecake Ice Cream by Yours and Mine are Ours

Other Blogs participating later this week:

• My Catholic Kitchen
• Noshing with the Nolands
• Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Mother Would Know