Although the holidays are over, peppermint season is still in full flight at the Eva Bakes house. We enjoyed this chocolate peppermint ice cream post New Year’s!
The holidays were unusually warm this past December. The weather in Iowa is typically in the teens, with a wind chill below zero. This past Christmas, however, it was a balmy 60+ degrees outside, so we got to ride bikes for a few hours.
When we returned home to the east coast, the temperatures were slightly colder, but not to the point where I needed to bundle up too much. Since it has been warmer than normal, my body craved ice cream. But let’s get real – I’m always craving ice cream!
We bought a package of candy cane sandwich cookies at a local grocery store so that I could make a batch of ice cream. I used the chocolate milk and cookies ice cream recipe as the base and modified it slightly. The resulting ice cream is nothing short of dreamy and is absolute perfection. It’s like cookies and cream, only with a pepperminty cookie. Yum!
If you’re craving peppermint and chocolate, look no further with this chocolate peppermint cookie ice cream. Feel free to eat it any time of year, even if the holidays are over.
Chocolate peppermint cookie ice cream
Ingredients
Chocolate paste
- ¼ cup (50 grams) organic cane sugar
- ⅓ cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ounces (55 grams) semisweet chocolate chopped
Ice cream base
- ¾ cup organic cane sugar
- ½ cup skim milk powder
- 1 and ⅔ cup whole milk
- 1 and ⅔ cup heavy cream
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
- 1 12-ounce package peppermint or candy cane sandwich cookies divided
Instructions
Crush the cookies
- Freeze 6 of the sandwich cookies for about an hour. Crush them either with a rolling pin or in the food processor. Set aside. Break the remaining cookies into small chunks and set aside.
Make the chocolate paste
- In a small saucepan, boil ⅓ cup of water. Once the water comes to a boil, remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the sugar and cocoa powder. Mix well and then add in the chopped chocolate. Stir until smooth and set aside.
Make the ice cream base
- Get a large bowl and fill it with ice. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, mix together the sugar, milk powder, and milk. Whisk until the milk powder dissolves. Then add the cream and mix well.
- Place the egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.
- Put a fine mesh sieve on top of a large bowl and set aside.
- Turn the stove to medium and clip a candy thermometer to the side. Stir the mixture until it reaches 110 degrees F (45 degrees C).
- Take the saucepan off the stove (but do not turn it off). Pour about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture into the small bowl with the egg yolks. Keep whisking so the eggs don't scramble. Then pour the egg yolks back into the sauce pan and keep stirring.
- Keep heating the mixture until it reaches 165 degrees F (75 degrees C). This will take about 5-10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chocolate paste until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into the fine mesh sieve. Remove the sieve and stir the peppermint extract into the custard mixture. Mix well.
- Allow the ice cream mixture to cool in the ice bath before transferring to the refrigerator to cool completely, at least another 1-2 hours.
- Once the ice cream mixture has completely cooled, add the crushed cookie bits to the ice cream custard and churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions.
- After the ice cream is churned, fold in the reserved cookie chunks and transfer to a freezer-safe container. Freeze for about 8-12 hours before serving.
Notes