Summer and Fresh Mint Ice Cream

What does summer mean to you? To my little family it means trips to the farmers market, long sunny days outdoors, fresh basil and tomatoes, home-made ice cream. . . and most of all our annual trip to northern Michigan. We rent a 1920s-era log house (that's the view from the dock, above) and meet up with a whole host of extended family members at a beautiful lake not far from the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. There are cousins and parents and kids and uncles and siblings to total about 25 of us in several houses around the lake.

We meet up on boats, by jet ski (like the teenage cousins, above) or around a big campfire at night, where we inevitably play charades or a game called Hollywood. As the sun slips down beyond the lake on the horizon, the parents sip wine and the teenagers (see them, below) make s'mores and go for an evening swim, perhaps piling into cars to head for the 1950s-ish drive-in movie theatre, the Cherry Bowl, to catch a late night show. It is perhaps the perfect week of the whole summer.

Now that we're back home in Ohio, I captured a little bit of summer magic by making home-made mint chocolate chip ice cream with mint plucked from my little herb garden by my pond. It's gluten free and summery-good!

Fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream

3 cups fresh mint leaves, rinsed and dried on paper towels
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream (divided)
2/3 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
6 ounces semisweet chocolate or dark chocolate, chopped fine

Put the mint leaves in a heavy saucepan with 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of cream. Heat until steaming but don't boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let stand for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size bowl, set in a larger bowl filled with ice.

Strain the milk / mint mixture into a separate bowl, pressing the mint leaves to get the most liquid out of them. Return the mixture to the saucepan. Add sugar and salt. Heat until steaming, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat.

Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl. Slowly pour the heated milk cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so as not to cook the eggs. Return to saucepan.

Stir this mixture over medium heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon, about 10 min. You should be able to run your finger across the back of the spoon and leave a trail in the custard.

Remove from heat, and pour through a sieve into the cold cream (over the ice bath) to stop the cooking.

Chill mixture for a couple of hours. Freeze in your ice cream maker. Fold in chopped chocolate. Place in your freezer in air-tight container until firm. Enjoy!