Many hands make mint ice cream success

One of the first things to thrive in my spring garden is the mint, which always bounces back with childlike enthusiasm no matter how cold or snowy the previous winter. If only I could be so resilient.

Mint thrives so well it’s often considered a weed, but oh, what a delicious pest it is. Children can enjoy it in liquid form as mint tea (cold or hot depending on the season), in mint-apple or mint-plum jelly, but the most glorious way to enjoy it, and my own child’s favorite warm-weather treat, is in homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Preparing the custard – the liquid mixture that will be frozen – is a little tedious, with several easy yet necessary steps that require careful attention. It simply has to be done without cutting corners or the results will be bad, kind of like brushing and flossing teeth, come to think of it. Enlist the youngsters to keep an eye on the heating milk and cream so the mixtures don’t boil, and if one child is old enough to pour the hot cream while a grownup whisks the egg yolks, great.

Children – and myself, I admit – enjoy the result of making ice cream so much that a home ice-cream freezer is one of the rare specialized kitchen gadgets that I keep around. Turning the crank, if it’s a manual and not an electric freezer, requires patience and some effort. This is truly an instance of the more the merrier. Decide how many cranks each participant is required to do in each of her turns at it, and let the other participants do the counting. Hopefully the motivation to get the job done will be sufficient to prevent any quarrels or boredom.

Everyone involved in this cooking project will have to get over the store-bought expectation that mint ice cream must be green. The truth is, fresh mint will not make green ice cream without a lot of fuss and bother. There’s always artificial food coloring, of course, but I try to avoid that if I can. And why perpetuate the green myth? If it tastes great, the kids won’t care what color it is.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart

1 ½ cups fresh mint leaves

1 ½ cups milk

1 ½ cups heavy cream

2/3 cup sugar, divided

4 egg yolks

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

8 ounces dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips, chilled

Put the mint leaves and milk together in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 30 minutes. Strain the milk into a bowl or pitcher and set aside.

Combine the heavy cream, half of the sugar, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar. Very gradually pour the hot cream into the yolks and sugar, whisking vigorously at the same time to keep the yolks from curdling.

Return the mixture to the saucepan. Heat slowly just to 170 degrees (or when it coats the back of a wooden spoon). Pour into a large stainless steel or ceramic bowl and add the reserved, mint-flavored milk and the vanilla.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator until cold. Churn in an ice cream machine according to instructions. As the churning finishes, add the cold chocolate chips. Serve immediately (it will be soft) or freeze 4 hours or overnight for a harder consistency.