Thursday, August 15, 2013

Mint Ice Cream

As an adult I've found I rather enjoy the simple pleasure of getting a magazine each month. I change it up every couple years, mostly due to my old ones going out of print (RIP Domino and Readymade *sniff sniff*) and I'm currently enjoying Real Simple.

They had a whole spread on beautiful homemade ice cream treats and I may have indulged in a manic moment by spontaneously attempting three of them one evening. It all started with this lovely picture.

Old-Fashioned Mint-Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
image found here with the recipe
Makes you sort of want to lick the screen, eh?

So I read the recipe and it called for 2 bunches of fresh mint. Mint that I have finally convinced to grow in my dog-trodden herb garden. I will admit that it has sort of mutated from smooth, fragrant leaves to ones that have saw-tooth edges, but that's the cost of surviving in my backyard. 

Anyways, there is a special kind of pride that comes from using the products of my garden so I decided to go for it and try the recipe. Simple enough list of ingredients, mint, cream, milk, sugar, eggs, chocolate chips, and a bit of salt. I can do this.

Of course I have a little bit of a problem because I didn't fully read the recipe, just the ingredients. I got J all ready for making ice cream, expecting creamy deliciousness in about an hour's time. I didn't plan on having to steep the milky mint mixture for 30 minutes. Boo. But then I use this steeping time to read the rest of the recipe and ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! WHAT KIND OF ICE CREAM IS SUPPOSED TO TAKE 8 HOURS TO MAKE!

Such was the sad truth. Now I'm sure I could have cut some corners, but I feel the need to follow a recipe completely the first time I make it. It drives me nuts on Allrecipes.com when reviewers give it 1 star and say they added this and didn't use that. Or when they give it 5 stars and tell how they modified it. If you are going to review a recipe you should, you know, follow the recipe. 

Of course it was all meant to be because it delayed our ice cream eating until the next night so my Big Sis could partake. I must say, it really did turn out rather divine. I give credit to my man-eating mint plant. Next time, I'm going to try using the mint steeping method with a non-custard recipe and see how that works. There were no complaints though.

Ice cream is better in your pajamas


M felt very left out. Just a few more months son, a few more months.


4 comments:

jeanene c said...

They just aren't used to people that actually have ice cream makers in the house. I would certainly like a taste, especially in the form of a kiss from a certain darling little girl. Poor M, such a pained expression!

Elena said...

I feel for M, I want some too! I tried some fancy custard ice cream but didn't realize that I needed vanilla beans so I use extract and it tasted kind gross. Oh well. I'm glad yours turned out well. J looks really happy with it :)

Alicia W said...

M's face is priceless! I love it! And the ice cream was truly heavenly. Like, dreams are made of eating that. Yuuuuuuummmmm.

Lianna said...

M truly does have the cutest annoyed expression! My friend made b/mlk ice cream for her daughter, no flavor of course, but hey, ice cream is ice cream. She pumped and shook the bottle in a bag of ice and salt she said for abt 20 min... I have plans to try before summer is over....

 

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