mint (too many?) chocolate-chip ice cream

well, the ice cream came out pretty well, except for the fact that - and i didn't think this was possible until today - it has too many chocolate chips in it. live and learn. it could have been worse, and had too FEW chocolate chips in it. [*shudder*]

at any rate, we now have about a half gallon of organic, raw-milk ice cream. (crikey) turns out ice cream is actually really easy to make, so i'm looking forward to trying out lots of other recipes. for this batch, i used organic pastures raw whole milk, straus family creamery organic heavy cream, marin sun farms pastured eggs, jacobs farm organic peppermint, and scharffen berger bittersweet chocolate.

[btw, it was pretty cute. kevin was super interested to witness the ice cream churning ("don't start without meeeeeeee!") ...sorta like a little kid...ok, FINE, yes, i was pretty fascinated with it, too.

picture this: two adults side by side in the kitchen hovering over the ice cream maker, intently staring at it for about 20 solid minutes while it did its thing... yikes...we need to get out more...]

recipe below. (and yes, adjusted to reflect there's too much chocolate in my batch.) fyi, the custard will taste a lot sweeter than you may like before you turn it into ice cream, but don't worry, it'll taste less sweet once it's frozen.

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
10 medium egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
3 cups loosely packed fresh peppermint leaves, patted dry and chopped coarsely
2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Ice cream maker

In large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and 2/3 cup sugar.

In heavy medium saucepan add milk, 1 cup of the heavy cream, the remaining 1/3 cup sugar, and the mint leaves. Heat over medium heat until mixture is steaming hot (just before it starts simmering). Remove from heat.

Temper yolks by slowly whisking in about a 1/2 cup of the hot milk. Make sure to whisk constantly to prevent yolks from scrambling. Once tempered, slowly whisk the yolk mixture back into the rest of the hot milk, whisking constantly. Over low heat, cook custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon - make sure to stir constantly - about 5 minutes (don't let it boil, or the custard will curdle).

Strain custard through fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl; press on and discard the solids. Whisk in the rest of the heavy cream; cover and chill until cold, at least 8 hours.

Churn custard in ice cream maker; add chocolate during the last minute. Transfer to airtight container and freeze until hard, about 2 hours. Yields about 2 quarts.