Backyard Mint Ice Cream

Back at GAW, Cheese Pusher was complaining about having too much mint and not knowing what to do with it.  I promised to post the recipe Mr. Kluges uses for mint ice cream and now I'm finally getting around to it!  This comes from a recipe book called Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which contains a lot of unusual ice cream recipes, like Brown Butter Almond Brittle Ice Cream and Beet Ice Cream with Mascarpone, Orange Zest, and Poppy Seeds. Note: like many ice cream recipes, this is not a quick one. :)

Backyard Mint Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

2 c. whole milk
1 Tbl. + 1 tsp [or 4 tsp, if you only want to dirty one spoon] cornstarch
1 1/2 oz. (3 Tbl.) cream cheese, softened
1/8 tsp. fine sea salt
1 1/4 c. heavy cream
2/3 c. sugar
2 Tbl. light corn syrup
A large handful of fresh mint from your backyard or farmers' marker, leaves roughly torn into small pieces

PREP: Mix about 2 Tbl. of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry.  Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.  Fill a large bowl with ice and wtaer.

COOK: Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes.  Remove from the heat, and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry.  Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute.  Remove from the heat.

CHILL: Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.  Add the mint.  Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath.  Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.  Refrigerate to steep for 4 to 12 hours.

FREEZE:  Strain out the mint.  Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy.  Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.  Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.