Peppermint Ice Cream Chocolate Chips (Printable)
Cool, creamy dessert featuring peppermint flavor and chocolate chips for a refreshing indulgence.
# What You'll Need:
→ Dairy
01 - 2 cups heavy cream
02 - 1 cup whole milk
→ Sweeteners
03 - 3/4 cup granulated sugar
→ Flavorings
04 - 1 1/2 teaspoons pure peppermint extract
05 - 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
→ Eggs
06 - 4 large egg yolks
→ Add-ins
07 - 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
→ Optional
08 - A few drops green food coloring
# How To Make:
01 - Combine heavy cream and milk in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium until steaming but not boiling.
02 - In a bowl, whisk sugar and egg yolks until pale and slightly thickened.
03 - Gradually add about 1 cup of the hot cream mixture to the yolks, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.
04 - Return yolk mixture to the saucepan with remaining cream. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170°F). Avoid boiling.
05 - Remove from heat and stir in peppermint and vanilla extracts, plus optional green food coloring.
06 - Pour custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours until thoroughly chilled.
07 - Churn chilled custard in an ice cream maker following manufacturer’s instructions.
08 - When ice cream is nearly finished churning, add mini chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
09 - Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 2 to 3 hours before serving.
# Expert Tips:
01 -
- It tastes like a candy shop in the best way—creamy peppermint balanced by dark chocolate, not aggressively minty or cloyingly sweet.
- Once you make it once, you realize homemade ice cream isn't the fussy project you thought it was.
- The chocolate chips give you little flavor surprises in every spoonful, like finding treasure at the bottom of a bowl.
02 -
- Tempering the eggs is not optional—it's what prevents you from making scrambled egg ice cream, which tastes as bad as it sounds and will happen if you skip it or rush it.
- The custard has to be actually cold before it goes in the ice cream maker, or you'll end up with a melting situation that won't freeze properly.
- The chocolate chips go in at the end, not at the beginning, because if you add them too early they'll freeze into hard, unpleasant bits instead of staying relatively soft and delicious.
03 -
- An ice cream maker is worth owning if you find yourself making this more than once, which you will.
- If you don't have one, you can still make this by freezing the churned custard in a shallow pan and stirring it vigorously every 30 minutes for about 3 hours, though the texture won't be quite as creamy.