Mint-Basil Chip Ice Cream 

Virginia Kellner 

Food52

This mint-basil chip ice cream is everything the green-hued mint chip of yesteryear isn’t—in the best ways. It’s lively, bright, floral, and, you know, tastes like mint. Whether your batch leans more toward basil or mint—or whether the two will be in perfect harmony—depends on the herbs you grab. Any which way, though, this ice cream will help you cope with a hard lesson: Giving up the groovy shade of green is worth it for flavor.

Yield

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients

  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup loosely packed mint leaves, torn
  • 1 cup loosely packed basil leaves, torn
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 3 ounces dark chocolate (70% cacao), chopped into bits and chilled

Method

Warm the milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat. When gentle bubbles form on the edge, add the mint and basil. Off the heat, cover and let steep for 30 minutes or so.

Pass through a fine-mesh sieve into a small bowl, squeezing any remaining liquid out of the leaves. Return the milk to the saucepan along with 1 cup of the heavy cream. Warm over medium heat.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg yolks. Gradually whisk 1/2 cup of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks.

Pour the milk-yolk mixture into the saucepan, along with the remaining cup of heavy cream.

Cook over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes, whisking all the while and being careful not to let it boil. When the base thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, remove from the heat. Chill the base completely in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight.

Pour the base into an ice cream maker and churn it according to the manufacturer’s instructions. During the last minute of churning, add the chocolate.

Don’t Be Bummed If Your Base Breaks

When you “break”—meaning overcook or curdle—your ice cream base on the stove, transfer it to a high-powered blender (or bring out the immersion blender). Blend until smooth, pass it through a fine-mesh sieve to get rid of the lumps, and continue with the recipe like nothing happened. The texture might not be exactly the same, but how much do you want to bet that no one notices?

Recipe adapted from Food52.

https://www.jamesbeard.org/index.php/recipes/mint-basil-chip-ice-cream