More than five years ago now, I moved to a small college town in the South to start a Ph.D. program. It was a huge change from all the big cities I had lived in up until that point, and to be frank, it threw me a bit off balance. Where were all the cool laneway bars? The world-class restaurants and late-night noodle dives? The harbors and rivers and bays?

But, determined to bloom where I was planted, I dove into my Ph.D. program and got to know the people in my department–people who are now my closest friends and confidantes.

I also, well, got planting. Having never had the space for a garden, I suddenly had a backyard. Some might have seen this as an opportunity to grow flowers. I saw the chance for more food. I planted rosemary, sage, and oregano. I planted thyme–regular and lemon. And I planted two mint plants. More is more, right?

Well, maybe. But in this case, “more” took over my whole garden. Mint, it turns out, grows by sending out runners both slightly below and slightly above ground. This makes it impossible to contain, let alone rip out.

So instead of fighting this invasive plant, I’ve learned to cook with it. I throw it into pasta instead of basil. I throw it into soup. I toss it through simple salads.

And finally, I make it into the best flavor of one of the best foods on earth: mint chip ice cream. Most mint chip ice creams you will buy at the grocery store or encounter at your local ice cream shop are made with mint extract. This is made with real mint. It makes a world of difference. The use of fresh mint imbues the ice cream with the crisp, clean, penetrating flavor of spearmint. Add a hefty dose of chocolate–as dark as you please–to melt in your mouth with each bite, and voilà: you have the paragon of mint chip ice cream.

The only downside? Once you try this, the grocery store stuff will taste like food-colored toothpaste by comparison.

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Previously:
One year ago:  Tarte à la Tomate
Two years ago: Mom’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (make a batch of dough and freeze half for when a cookie emergency strikes)

And for my Australians:
Six months ago: Umami Bomb Mushroom Soup + How to Make Your Veg Taste Better
1.5 years ago: Tip: How to Lessen the Bite of Red Onions
2.5 years ago: Muesli with Nuts, Dried Fruit, and Coconut

Also in ice cream:
Buttermilk Ice Cream with Olive Oil and Sea Salt (perennially surprising, always amazing)

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True Mint Chip Ice Cream

A combination of two David Lebovitz recipes in The Perfect Scoop
Makes about one quart (1L)

Ingredients

1 cup (250mL) whole milk
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
2 cups (500mL) heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups (80g) lightly packed fresh mint leaves
5 egg yolks
5 ounces (140g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (Lebovitz says not to use chocolate chips. I don’t know why that is, but he is very reliable, so I would heed his warning.)

Instructions

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250mL) of the cream, and salt in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the mint leaves and stir until immersed in the liquid. Cover, removed from heat, and let steep for 1-2 hours. (2 hours gives the mintiest flavor, but I’ve done 1 and it was perfectly adequate.)

Strain the mint-infused mixture through a fine sieve into a medium saucepan. Press on the mint leaves to squeeze out as much flavor as possible, then discard. Pour the remaining 1 cup (250mL) heavy cream into a large bowl and set the strainer on top. Rewarm the mint-infused mixture over medium-low heat.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mint mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Then scrape the egg yolk and mint mixture back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, being sure to scrape the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream.

Now, you need to cool the mixture. You can either (1) fill a bigger bowl with ice and place the bowl with the custard mixture on top of the ice and then stir the mixture until cool, or (2) place the custard bowl straight in the fridge and pop back to stir it occasionally. (I do option 2 because I do not have an automatic ice maker or that many bowls.)

Once thoroughly cool, place the mixture in ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer’s instructions. (For more on ice cream makers, see notes following recipe.)

While the ice cream is churning, melt the chocolate. I do this in a bowl in the microwave, but you can also rig up a double-boiler by bringing a couple inches of water to boil in a pot, putting the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, and then placing the bowl on top of the pot. Just no direct heat, because then you risk burning the chocolate.

When the ice cream is about a minute from being done, slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into your ice cream maker. Aim for the ice cream, not the dasher (mixing blade). When the hot chocolate hits the cold ice cream, it will freeze and break up into chips of varying sizes.

Remove the ice cream and pack into a freezer-safe container. Lick the dasher (obviously). The ice cream will still be on the soft side at this point, so it’s best to freeze it for another hour or two before serving, if you can afford the time and/or resist temptation for that long.

Notes

After finishing a particularly difficult chapter of my dissertation, I treated myself to this ice cream maker. The canister needs to have been in the freezer for 12 hours before you use it, which means it either needs to live there or you need to anticipate your ice cream cravings a half day in advance. But it works extremely well without any supervision or effort on the part of the user (you!), the price is reasonable, and the remaining parts aren’t too irritating to store in an upper kitchen cabinet or closet. I’m very happy with it.

Not ready to pull the trigger on an ice cream maker? You can follow David Lebovitz’s technique, described here. I have done this with the buttermilk ice cream, but I am not sure how it would work with breaking up the chocolate for the mint chip. Perhaps you could drizzle it over the ice cream as you place the ice cream in your freezer storage container, then give it all a stir?