Homemade French Vanilla Peppermint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

It’s all Home Depot’s fault.

If you are on their email list, every day they have been sending out a “deal of the day”. It’s always something interesting that’s ridiculously cheap. A couple of weeks ago, they had an electric ice cream maker featured for $22.00. Being a sucker for a good deal (especially if it’s food related) I jumped on it. They didn’t charge me for shipping, either.

(Photo/Elizabeth Dougherty)

I started looking around at ice cream recipes and what I had on hand. I ended up putting together my own combo of ingredients hoping it would work. It did and the results are already half gone in my house.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients (I used organic, when possible.)

2 cups sugar (less sweet than most recipes)
2 tsp corn starch
1/4 tsp sea salt
juice of a small lemon half
6 cups whole milk
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups cream
1 1/3 cups half and half
2 cups chocolate chips
ice cream salt (for the freezing process, NOT the mixture)
2 bags ice
(Place canister you are going to use with the ice cream maker in the freezer, to chill.)

Method

Place sugar, baking powder and salt in a large saucepan, whisk to combine. Heat over medium high heat for a couple of minutes, then add milk and lemon juice. Stir until milk comes to a simmer (with the occasional bubble rising to the top). Whisk eggs and slowly add to the milk mixture, whisking in throughly. When it thickens slightly, add the extracts and the cream, whisking to combine. Take off the heat, pour into a large glass bowl and let cool for about 20 minutes, stirring every couple of minutes. When it’s just lukewarm, put in cold fridge, again stirring every 15 minutes or so, until completely cool. Let sit in the fridge 2-3 hours or overnight.

Pour mixture into the canister, add the chocolate chips and churn following the manufacturer’s directions for your ice cream machine. Enjoy!

(Photo/Elizabeth Dougherty)

Elizabeth Dougherty has been a food writer for over 10 years, attended culinary school and holds a Bachelor’s degree, Magna Cum Laude in Hospitality, Business and Labor Relations from NYIT. She has been a talk show host of nearly 150 episodes of Food Nation Radio which airs each Saturday afternoon at 4 on WWBA AM820 News and  other stations. You can read her articles and hear previous shows on her podcast page on the Food Nation Radio Network website and on Facebook.