Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Santa Cruz is really warm during late August and September. It's absolutely beautiful outside, however, sometimes it can get a little unbearable during the day. Nighttimes of course are pleasant, but sometimes during the day hours I want to rip off my clothes and run naked through some pond. It's really just hot.

So since I moved into my new house I've been taking much advantage of the kitchen. I haven't taken pictures of the food I've cooked thus far, but I have been quite enjoying the gas stove and the fancy oven. And the kitchen is beautiful! There's stainless steal appliances, light wood cabinets, and granite counters. And since I'm obsessed with red kitchen supplies, I've decorated the kitchen with countless red items, my prized being my KitchenAid mixer.

This of course brings me to what I made today. Last year I bought myself the ice cream attachment for the mixer, but I hadn't made much of a use of it. So the other day I popped the bowl in the freezer and today I decided to make the mint chocolate chip ice cream, which I found via allrecipes.com. It tastes like something you could buy in the store - only better.

If anyone's reading this, do you have any flavors of ice cream you suggest I try?

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Ingredients
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
3 drops green food coloring (optional)
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Recipe

1. In a large bowl, stir together the milk, cream, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and peppermint extract until the sugar has dissolved. Color to your liking with the green food coloring.
2. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. After about 10 minutes into the freezing, add the chocolate chips. After the ice cream has thickened, about 30 minutes later, spoon into a container, and freeze for 2 hours.