Monday 16 April 2012

Grasshopper Ice Cream

Grasshopper Ice Cream 
- for the love of mint... and brownies... and chocolate chips 




I have always loved mint ice cream. An unbelievable amount. 

My go to at the ice cream store? Always mint chocolate chip. And I love Marble Slab but they don't sell mint ice cream... so I stopped going there. 

You get the picture. 

So after making the Cookies and Cream ice cream (courtesy of the recipe that came with the mixer), I set out to make mint ice cream. Only I couldn't find a recipe online that I was confident in. 

So I spent an evening getting inspired at my local bookstore. Best evening ever! I plunked my baker butt down by the racks of baking books and had myself a little read. I came across a book which I already LOVE. It's called Scoop. And I don't think I have put it down since. 

Expect plenty more ice cream recipes from me.

And here is the first. 


Okay, second. But it's the first of the awesome ones. 



Remember those brownies that I so gracefully dropped? I found a use for them! 

Grasshopper ice cream is the perfection fusion - mint, brownies, and chocolate chips - and I set to making it right away. 

I was ambitious and tried to make this as homemade as possible. I found a recipe that seeped mint leaves for 30 minutes in the cream mixture to create the mint flavour. 

The process wasn't pretty. 

And it didn't make the mixture turn the colour I was hoping for either, so I played around with food colouring. 


After I'd strained out all of those mint leaves, of course. 

Here is what it looks like after colouring and cooling. 


Not bad! 

Now, the colour turned out nicely but the flavour was not what I was looking for - it was much too strong! Almost had a sharp taste too it, too. 

Then I realized that that was the peppermint in the Extract of Mint and Peppermint I accidentally used. 

Hmm, so that explains the ever so slightly detectable toothpaste taste. 

"You did what?!"

I know. I knowwww. 

I'm going to work on it. 

And purchase my ingredients a little more carefully next time.


But seriously, who sells a mint and peppermint combo? Not my fault. 

In the meantime, how beautiful did this ice cream turn out to be!



Recipe

1 cup whipping cream
2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vanilla instant pudding mix
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves
3 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon of mint and peppermint extract (oops!) 

Heat cream, milk, half of the sugar, vanilla pudding mix, and salt in a saucepan. Stir to dissolve the pudding mix. Bring to a simmer. Add chopped mint leaves and cover for 30 minutes, steeping for flavour. 

Strain cream mixture through a fine sieve. 

Beat egg yolks, the other half of the sugar, and mint (and peppermint) extract. Slowly add about 1/3 of the cream mixture to the eggs mixture. Return all contents to the saucepan. 

Add food colouring. I opted for 3 generous drops of green food dye. Although, add one at a time and use your own preference for colour. 

Put the saucepan on medium-low heat for 3-6 minutes. Ensure that the mixture does not come to a boil or the eggs will scramble. The mixture will be ready when it emits steam. 

Remove from heat. Put in a container, laying cellophane along the surface so that a thick layer doesn't form, and store in the fridge for a series of hours (ideally, over night) or in an ice bath for 30 minutes. 

Time for the fabulous mixer! After about 20 minutes of churning, add the brownies and chocolate chips. 

Store the ice cream in a freezer friendly container and let it sit for a few hours to harden up. 

Ta-da! 




Happy! 
















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