You know I couldn’t make just one, didn’t you?! Here’s ANOTHER really, really good Philadelphia Style ice cream! Philadelphia Style ice cream is, without a doubt, my choice for ice cream—it tastes lighter and it’s sooo much simpler to make. I have fond memories of Andes Mint Chip Ice Cream, and I’ve only known one place that made it, and it went out of business years ago 🙁 When I was pregnant with Hannah, 26 years ago, I used to take a walk to this ice cream shop, on a regular basis—the cool Andes mint and the cold ice cream just seemed the perfect way to soothe my cravings! How exciting that I can now make this at home and I don’t have to be pregnant to enjoy it!

I found this recipe, and only modified it a little bit, at serving-ice-cream.com.

Andes Mint Chip Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

• 1¼ cups cold whole milk—or 2%, 1%, or non-fat…remembering that each step down in fat content will affect the creaminess/iciness of the finished product.
• 2½ cups cold heavy whipping cream (or half-and-half)
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoons peppermint extract—don’t even think of increasing this! I tried it a few times and the ice cream base got bitter 🙁
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• A few drops of green food coloring, optional
• 1 box (4.67 oz.) Andes mints, coarsely chopped
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips OR ½ cup of chopped milk, dark, or mint chocolate

DIRECTIONS

1. Stir milk, cream and sugar together, using a wire whisk or hand mixer, until sugar has dissolved.
2. Stir in peppermint extract and optional green food coloring.
3. Pour mixture into an electric ice cream maker, and process for about 15-20 minutes, or until mixture is very thick and slushy.
4. Stir in all of the chopped mints and chocolate, and process for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Remove ice cream to a freezer safe container and freeze until hard, two to four hours—if you can wait that long!

Thanks for stopping by my kitchen today!  Have fun making and enjoying this wonderful ice cream 🙂  I have been making homemade ice cream for so long that I really can just walk by all that processed stuff in the freezer section—they just don’t taste REAL to me anymore. It tastes sweet, yes, and cold, and sometimes there’s something gooey running through it, but, on the whole, store bought ice cream has good mouth feel, texture and creaminess, but no TASTE.