Our fresh mint ice cream recipe with dark chocolate takes its flavour only from fresh mint and dark chocolate. There’s no mint flavouring in this and you DON’T need it. Homemade mint ice cream with just the freshness of the mint from the garden. It is truly scrumptious. Our fresh mint ice cream recipe is also easy to make, does NOT need an ice cream maker and tastes deliciously fresh. Dark chocolate chunks are a seriously Moorish twist.
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There’s a lot of preparation time in this recipe for fresh mint ice cream, but, most of it is waiting for the mint to infuse into the cream, for the cream to cool and its eventual freezing. Once you’ve made it you’ll find it hard to go back to shop-bought mint choc chip ice cream. I made this fresh mint ice cream recipe without an ice cream maker because I don’t have an ice cream maker and it’s so good, I’m not sure I actually need one now!
Ingredients
- 500 ml of double cream
- 12 grams of fresh mint leaves – remove the stalks (read about growing mint here)
- 150 grams of dark chocolate – chopped into rough chunks
- 1 x 300 ml tin of condensed milk
Equipment Need to Make Homemade Fresh Mint Ice Cream
All these tools are in our kitchen essentials list, which you can check out here. Or click on the links below to see what we recommend if you don’t currently own these kitchen tools.
- Clean tea towel or kitchen roll for drying mint
- Saucepan with lid. A medium-size (1.5 litre/16-centimetre pan will be sufficient)
- A wooden stirring spoon
- A sieve
- Measuring Jug
- Electric whisk
- Chopping board
- Knife to chop the chocolate into chunks
- Tin opener
- Loaf Tin or Plastic Container to Freeze and store the ice cream in. (You don’t need to have a lid on it until the ice cream has frozen, but once it’s frozen you’ll want it in an airtight container)
How to Make Fresh Mint Ice Cream without an ice cream machine
First, you’ll need to make the base mint flavoured cream. It’s easy, but you’ll need to take your time with this.
Rinse the mint leaves under the tap and pat dry. You do not need to chop the mint leaves, just make sure that the stalks are removed. Put them to one side.
Pour all of the double cream into a saucepan and heat it SLOWLY over medium heat. Keep a close eye on it and remove it from the heat as soon as the cream starts to steam, so do not put a lid on the pan.
Then place the washed and patted dry mint leaves in the heated cream. Stir to ensure they’re fully immersed in the cream and put the lid on.
Leave the mint to soak in the cooling cream for about 2 hours.
After two hours, pour the minty cream mixture through a sieve or strainer into a measuring jug or container that you’ll whisk the cream in later. Press any cream or juice out of the mint to extract maximum flavour. When you have done this you can throw the used mint into your compost bin or food recycler.
Place the jug of minty cream into the fridge for at least an hour to cool properly.
When the minty cream has cooled remove it from the fridge and use an electric whisk to whisk the cream so that it forms soft peaks. (the cream will stand and fold over slightly at the ends). You’ll need to whisk on high, but be careful you do not over whisk it or you’ll end up with butter. If you’re new to this there’s no issue with stopping and checking as you get towards the end.
When your minty cream is whisked fold in the condensed milk at the same time fold in all apart from 15 grams of the chocolate chunks. Folding in means gently combining – I find it easiest to use a wooden spoon.
Pour the mixture into your loaf tin or container.
Finish your ice cream by shredding or roughly grating the remaining 15 grams of chocolate over the top.
Place into the freezer for around 5 hours. When the ice cream is frozen you should transfer it to an airtight container. The ice cream won’t be as soft as that which you buy from the shop – so to serve, I tend to use a knife to cut slices and leave it in the fridge for 15 minutes before serving.
Serve with a sprig of fresh mint.
This mint ice cream recipe with fresh mint is the perfect recipe to use with mint that you’ve grown yourself and there’s absolutely no need for an ice cream maker! Add the dark chocolate to it and it becomes incredibly Moorish.
Enjoy these other recipes from Lets Grow Cook
- EASY 10 Minute Basil Pesto
- Rhubarb and Ginger Gin
- Blackberry Infused Gin
- Creamy Courgette Soup
- Courgette Bread
- Tkemali Sour Plum Sauce
- Lemon and Balsamic Marinated Figs
- Baba Ganoush Recipe without Tahini
- Fresh Mint Ice Cream – no ice cream maker needed
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