My absolutely favorite flavor of ice cream: mint chocolate chip. Mostly the stuff I've had was an unnatural green color with very regular rectangular chocolate chips that were nice and crunchy. Yummm. Here is an au-natural version using fresh mint leaves that I bought at the store in the produce section. As an aside, I promise to take a break from all of the ice cream. The novelty hasn't warn off, but I'm sure for those of you without an ice cream maker, or the inclination to make it, these postings aren't quite as interesting.

Fresh Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
From Epicurious.com

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 cup fresh mint leaves
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 oz. bitter sweet chocolate

Directions:

• Roughly chop mint leaves.
• In a sauce pan bring heavy cream, milk, and mint leaves just to a boil.
• Cool 15 minutes.
• Whisk in eggs and sugar.
• Cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly until slightly thickened (170 degrees).
• Pour through a fine sieve into a bowl.
• Chill in refridgerator until cold at least 3 hours.
• Chop chocolate.
  
• Freeze in ice cream maker according to the directions.
• Stir in chocolate.

Things to note: this is a modified recipe from Epicurious.com. After reading the comments I adjusted down the amount of fresh mint to 1 cup from two packed cups. I also just roughly chopped the leaves instead of blending them into the milk and made sure the initial cooking lasted 10 - 15 minutes. Based on the result, I think this was the way to go. I also added 3 drops of green food coloring to give my ice cream a hint of green color that I would have missed.

I didn't use a thermometer to make sure my cream went up to 170 degrees but was careful to bring it just to a boil. You can tell when this is going to happen because the mint starts to float to the top and small bubbles form, making a foam. I've found the the floating ingredient with foam (like the vanilla bean grains) method is a reliable indicator of just about to boil.

The result? Well, using fresh mint gives this ice cream a strong, minty/herby aroma initially. I find this wears off quickly and becomes more mellow as you eat it. It is a little off-putting and odd at first, but shouldn't stop you from trying this recipe if you like mint chocolate chip. Underneath the minty flavor is a very smooth milky creaminess that really is quite nice. I served this to some guests and most people said they enjoyed the fresh mint taste very much and really liked the ice cream. Someone commented that none of us had probably ever eaten fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream before and that was certainly true for me.