Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream - ☺♥

This is a very rich and delicious ice cream. My recipe is based on looking at various Internet recipes and then deciding what combination of ingredients and procedures would work best. The bottom line? This recipe is perfect. Make this ice cream and you will be highly pleased. The mint flavor in the ice cream is evident but not overwhelmingly strong. Oh, yes, for a mind blowing variant of this recipe make the Food Nirvana Custard Ice Cream Base and chill it, then proceed with the recipe below, skipping the first four ingredients shown and starting with the directions for adding the remaining ingredients.

The key to making great mint chocolate chip ice cream is to start with a really good recipe for vanilla ice cream and then simply add pure peppermint extract and, get this, Andes® Creme De Menthe Baking Chips. The idea is that the chocolate in those baking chips is perfect for this specific ice cream, and the mint filling adds even more to the experience. You can, of course, spend more money and get a somewhat better product by buying a 4.7 ounce box of Andes® mints and cutting each mint into 4 or more pieces.

Ingredients: (makes about 1½ quarts of ice cream)

2 jumbo eggs or three large eggs

2 cups of heavy cream

¾ cup of granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups of milk (regular, Lactaid® or Simply Smart®)

1 tbsp. of McCormick® pure vanilla extract

1 to 2 tsp. of McCormick® culinary pure peppermint extract

5 ounces of Andes® Creme De Menthe baking chips or Ande's® mints eat cut into 4 or more pieces

4 to 5 drops of green food coloring

Directions:

Put the baking chips or the cut mints into a bowl and put it into the freezer.

Use your electric mixer to beat the eggs on medium low to medium speed, then pause to add the sugar, the vanilla extract, the peppermint extract and the green food coloring and resume mixing. Mix thoroughly. Slowly add the cream and the milk while continuing to mix.

Transfer the mixture to a gelato maker and turn it on. After about 25 minutes check the ice cream to see if it is fairly stiff. If necessary continue to run the gelato maker for an additional ten minutes.

Add the Andes® Creme De Menthe baking chips (or the Ande's® mint pieces) to the ice cream a little at a time and continue running the gelato maker for two to three minutes to allow time for the chips to mix properly with the ice cream.

Transfer the ice cream from the gelato maker into a good quality 1½ quart plastic or other food storage container that has a tight fitting lid. Put the lid on the ice cream and put the container into a deep freeze for four to six hours.

The ice cream is then ready to serve. It is delicious! You may want to serve it with a few small lemon sugar cookies on the side and a nice hot cup of freshly made coffee.