Peppermint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie, spread it thinly on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the freezer. Freezing in this way will make softer, thin chocolate flakes.

Mix the Xantan with the dry sugar.

In a pot, heat the milk, cream and sugar-xantan mixture until a simmer begins. In a separate pot, pour the now-hot mixture onto the mint leaves. After 10 minutes, strain back into the original pot, catching the mint leaves in the strainer and writing out excess liquid with the back of a spoon.

Add the beaten egg yolks, salt and Vanille Bean Mark, then heat to 71.5 Celsius. Remove from heat.

Place mixture in a bowl on ice to cool to room temperature.

Once room temperature, add to the freezer with the chocolate and let the mixture set for 90 minutes.

After about 90 minutes, the bottom and sides of the ice cream mixture should be somewhat frozen. 

Remove the chocolate from the freezer, fold it inside the parchment and crumble it into small pieces.

Blend the mixture, making sure to fold in the ice crystals from the sides and bottom. Don't blend so long as to heat up the mixture, but do blend enough to vigorously incorporate air bubbles and break up ice crystals. Add the chocolate pieces at the end of the blending process.

Freeze the ice cream and serve when ready.

Should your ice cream become very hard in the freezer, carefully cut it into slices with a warm knife before serving. This hard ice cream is also great for our milk share recipe.