fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream

This fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream is lusciously smooth and popping with bright mint. You’ll love the silky ice cream, cool mint, and crispy shards of dark chocolate!

Fresh mint chocolate chip ice cream is better than anything you can buy at a store! The mint flavor is so intense, the ice cream is silky smooth, and the chocolate shards are perfectly crisp.

This is an eggless ice cream base, which keeps the mint flavor super fresh and focused.

While these can be texturally difficult (without the emulsifying power of egg yolks), I’ve worked hard to develop a base recipe that is luscious, smooth, and filled with pure milky goodness.

If you want to learn how this ice cream recipe works, keep reading, otherwise just know it makes the creamiest homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream ever.

Use all the ingredients (they’re in it for a reason!), follow the instructions, and you’ll be churning up a delicious batch every weekend.

Jump down to the recipe to make it now!

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mint chocolate chip ice cream ingredients:

How to make mint chocolate chip ice cream:

1. Melt chocolate with coconut oil, spread into a thin layer, and freeze.
2. Break chocolate into crispy shards.
3. Combine sugar and milk powder; set aside. Whisk together cornstarch and a splash of milk; set aside.
4. Bring remaining milk, cream, corn syrup, and salt to a boil.
5. Whisk in milk powder/ sugar mixture and boil for 2 minutes.
6. Whisk in cornstarch slurry and simmer until thickened, about 3 minutes.
7. Pour into a large bowl and mix in torn mint leaves. 
8. Cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
9. Strain into a clean bowl. Mix in peppermint oil and food coloring, if using. 
10. Churn in an ice cream maker until a soft-serve consistency. Mix in chocolate shards.
11. Transfer to loaf pan and freeze until firm.
12. Enjoy!

What makes this the best mint chocolate chip ice cream:

There’s a lot of science involved in good ice cream. And this is especially true when we drop the eggs, which are powerful emulsifiers and work wonders with ice crystals. 

Here’s why this recipe works so well and what makes it the best mint chip ever!

• Double mint: I love the complexity that fresh mint gives ice cream. It’s deeper and tastes more real than the one-dimensional extracts. To make this as minty fresh as possible, though, I like to beef up the flavor with a few drops of food-grade peppermint oil. All oils are different, so stir it in to taste!
• Half milk, half cream: Equal parts milk and cream give the best balance of dairy flavor and richness. Higher levels of cream (or all cream) can be overly decadent and leave an unpleasant greasy film in your mouth.
• No eggs: For the best mint chocolate chip ice cream, I love the emphasis on fresh mint, pure dairy, and crispy dark chocolate. Custard ice cream bases detract from this focus. 
• Dry milk powder: Milk proteins are emulsifiers just like egg yolks. While there’s protein present in the milk and cream we use, adding more to the mix doubles down on this effect. We boil the milk powder for at least 2 minutes to unravel the proteins. Then they bind to water and fat so, when frozen, the ice crystals stay teeny tiny and imperceptible on your tongue. That translates into smooth and creamy ice cream.
• Cornstarch: This starch functions as an all-important stabilizer in eggless ice creams. Cornstarch soaks up water and forms a gel when cooked, so the water molecules stay in place: small, separate, “stabilized”. In essence, a stabilizer locks water in place and thus thickens the base, which makes extra-smooth ice cream (no big ice crystals). It also helps protect ice cream from the freeze-thaw cycles that happen in the freezer. Smooth ice cream, for longer! 
• Corn syrup: This is a readily available form of glucose syrup that helps soften ice cream. Glucose (monosaccharide) binds with twice as much water as sucrose (disaccharide) and when it binds, it lowers the freezer point. This gives ice cream a soft, scoopable consistency. It’s also less sweet! If you don’t want to use corn syrup, skip it and just use 1 cup of granulated sugar instead. The ice cream will be a little bit harder and sweeter.

Peppermint oil vs peppermint extract: 

In the case of ice cream, I prefer to use peppermint oil over peppermint extract.

Peppermint oil flavor is more authentic and complex. It’s also much stronger! Every manufacturer is a little different, so add a few drops of the oil to the custard and taste. Add more, if desired. Remember the flavor will be dulled a bit when frozen!

If all you can find is extract, use ½ teaspoon in addition to the fresh mint. 

You can also try spearmint oil! This is a softer, sweeter mint flavor that reminds me more of a buttermint in ice cream. Peppermint is sharper, cleaner, and more intense. Have fun with the flavors and use your favorite!

Note: Make sure you’re using food-grade peppermint oil. Some are NOT intended for consumption (like, surprisingly, the Whole Foods 365 brand). It will be obvious on the label if it is meant to be put in food.

More tips for the mint chip:

• Use a large saucepan. When the milk and cream boil, they can double in volume and can easily overflow a smaller pot. And that makes a sad mess on the stove.
• You can make this without fresh mint! Add about 1 teaspoon of mint extract, or food-grade peppermint oil to taste (probably 10 drops or so). Remember the flavor will be “dulled” when frozen, so go a little stronger than you think is necessary.
• Optional color. If you like your chocolate chip mint ice cream to be green, use a few drops of green food coloring for a faint color. This is a helpful indicator for people to know what to expect, but it’s not necessary. I like to keep it very pale-- like 3 drops of food coloring, max.
• Freeze a loaf pan before churning so when you’re ready to scrape the ice cream into a container, it stays extra cold.
• Keep the chocolate shards frozen! The amount of coconut oil mixed in means it will be a soft and melty mess at warm room temperature. It's the perfect consistency when frozen, in ice cream. Keep it in the freezer until the end of churning, then dump it in and proceed with the recipe!
• Machinery! If you're on the market for a simple and reliable ice cream maker, I use this one and love it.

More ice cream recipes to try!

black walnut ice cream

buttermilk ice cream

cookie butter ice cream

coffee ice cream

lavender ice cream

no-churn oatmeal ice cream

pumpkin ice cream

rum raisin ice cream

stracciatella ice cream

toasted coconut ice cream

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