Mint Chip Ice Cream with Fresh Mint

Fresh mint ice cream naturally flavored with mint leaves will make this the best ice cream you have ever made. 

Mint and chip ice cream is made even better by naturally flavoring it with fresh mint leaves. Mint Chip Ice Cream is my husband’s favorite. Usually I will use mint extract instead of fresh mint, but when the garden is in full swing I can’t resit using fresh mint in the ice cream!

I used peppermint in this batch of ice cream, but any variety of mint that you like will work for this recipe! Just know that mint flavor will change slightly depending on the type of mint you use.

Mint Chip Ice Cream Ingredients

Milk: I use whole milk to help make the ice cream more creamy. If you want super creamy ice cream swap this for half and half.

Heavy Cream: The more fat the creamier the ice cream.

Egg Yolks: We will be making a custard base for this ice cream so egg yolks are a must.

Sugar: I like to keep the ice cream slightly sweet. If you like a sweeter ice cream add more sugar.

Mint Leaves: Using fresh mint allows us to naturally flavor the ice cream.

Vanilla Extract: Gives an extra note of vanilla to the ice cream base

Mini Chocolate Chips: you can also add in chopped chocolate if you want.

How to make mint chip ice cream

Making ice cream isn’t hard, it just requires time and patience. There is a lot of time spent waiting for things to cool in this recipe, but the hands on time is fairly minimal.

In this recipe we start by heating the milk and cream to steep the mint leaves in. It is important to not allow your milk and cream mixture to boil. Doing so may result in separation and curdling in your mixture. Letting the mint leaves steep for at least an hour gets as much flavor infused as possible. You can also rip up the leaves to get even more of the natural oil infused.

After the milk mixture is fully infused we will make our custard base with the egg yolks, sugar, and strained milk mixture. Heating this just enough to cook the eggs and then transferring to a container to cool in the refrigerator. Before placing in the refrigerator you can add in the vanilla extract and green coloring (if using). You can also utilize the freezer to speed up the cooling process, but do not forget about the mixture and allow it to freeze.

After the mixture has cooled you can transfer it to your ice cream maker and allow to churn according the the instructions. I use the kitchen aid attachment and allow mine to churn for about 30 minutes. Towards the end of churning I like to add in the mini chocolate chips to mix in. However, you can mix these in by hand after the churning is done.

Finally, you will put the ice cream back into the freezer to harden up for a few hours. You will then have a nice and creamy naturally flavored mint chip ice cream to enjoy.