Adapted from Mitchell’s, San Francisco, CA
This minty, green ice cream is chock full of chocolaty fold-ins. So you might as well go all the way and top it with Hot Fudge Sauce.
Makes about 1 quart
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup whole milk, divided
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 to 1 teaspoon pure mint extract or mint oil
3 to 5 drops green food coloring (optional)
3/4 cup chopped fudge brownies
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1. Combine the cream, 1/2 cup milk, sugar, corn syrup, and salt in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the mixture begins to steam; watch it carefully and make sure it does not come to a boil.
While the mixture heats, combine the remaining milk, cornstarch, milk powder, vanilla extract, mint extract, and food coloring in a small bowl, and stir until smooth and both of the powders have dissolved.
2, Add the cornstarch mixture to the pan, and bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Whisk until smooth, and simmer the mixture for 2 minutes, or until thickened. If the mixture is lumpy, strain it through a sieve.
Transfer the hot liquid to a storage container, and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin from forming.
3. Refrigerate the mixture uncovered until it is completely chilled (below 40ºF), or quick-cool it according to the method below.
4. Freeze the chilled custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the soft ice cream to a chilled mixing bowl and fold in the brownie pieces and chocolate chips.
5. Serve immediately for a soft ice cream, or transfer the mixture to an airtight storage container and freeze until hard. Allow the ice cream to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving if frozen solid.
Cooling It Down
These recipes employ a time-honored, effective technique for cooling liquids properly: time. The first step is to pour the ice cream custard into a container and press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the hot liquid. This prevents the dairy solids from coagulating and forming a thick “skin.” When the custard reaches room temperature, you chill it to a temperature of between 38ºF and 40ºF by putting it on the top shelf of the refrigerator. And you preferably leave it overnight. This is called the “ripening” process in ice cream jargon.
But if you are in a hurry to get the machine going—it’s 6 p.m. and you want to serve the ice cream for dessert at 8 p.m.—you can go through a rather laborious cooling process. But the goal is that it must not be any hotter than 42ºF or the texture will not be smooth.
While the custard is heating, chill a metal mixing bowl in the freezer, and have a larger mixing bowl into which the chilled one will fit when the larger bowl is filled with ice. Then you’re going to replicate the environment of an old-fashioned cranked ice cream maker by placing ice cubes and salt in the larger bowl, and stirring the custard in the smaller bowl set over the ice until it has chilled. You must be careful, however, as the ice melts, that you do not inadvertently get salty ice water into the custard.
CREDIT: From SCOOP by Ellen Brown, Running Press, 2011
