Creamy and cool, mint chocolate chip ice cream is easily my favorite ice cream flavors. It’s easy to make it at home and always tastes better when it’s from scratch. Feel free to omit the green food coloring, I’m a little partial to the minty color.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Perhaps posting an ice cream recipe in March is a bit much. But it’s green and we all need a little green on St. Patrick’s Day amiright?! Although spring is right around the corner (hopefully) I’m not-so-secretly hoping that by me posting this mint chocolate chip ice cream recipe, warm weather will emerge and go from the mid-twenties to something warm enough that I can actually sit outside and enjoy a cone.

It’s always this time of year that I start to get fed up with winter. I long for green leaves on trees, grass that needs to be cut, windows open and sitting in patio furniture on my deck. I don’t even care if I have to wear a light sweater, just no more snow please. Or wind. Or power outages.

bowls of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

SO with all that in mind, I thought I would whip up a batch of my most favorite ice cream flavor in all the land, mint chocolate chip.
Cool creamy mint flavored ice cream thats studded with tiny pieces of chocolate that give the ice cream a little texture and complete my world with the mint-chocolate combo.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream ingredients

TO Make Homemade Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream You Will Need:

  • sugar
  • fine sea salt
  • heavy whipping cream
  • half & half
  • vanilla extract
  • peppermint extract
  • chocolate chips or chunks

sugar, salt and heavy cream

Start by adding a cup of sugar and sea salt to a large, 8-cup liquid measuring cup or a bowl (with a pour spout!). Then pour in the 2 cups of heavy cream and 2 cups of half & half. If you can’t find half & half where you are, then you can use the ratio of 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup whole milk in replacement.

Whisk until the sugar has been completely dissolved.

add vanilla, peppermint extract and food coloring

Then add in a teaspoon of both the vanilla and peppermint extract. I used this organic peppermint extract and love it! Then squeeze in 6 drops of green food coloring. You can totally omit this if food coloring isn’t your thing. I rarely use it for anything other than dying eggs, but I like the minty green color in contrast to the dark chips of chocolate.

mix to combine

Whisk until combined, then cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled.

pour into ice cream maker

Following the manufacturers instructions, pour the ice cream base into the ice cream maker.

churn until thick

Churn until thick.

If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer, I have the ice cream attachment/bowl (linked in printable recipe) and it gets the job done. For me it takes about 20 to 25 minutes for the ice cream base to get thick.

add in chopped chocolate

Next, fold in 1 heaping cup of small chunks of chocolate or mini chocolate chips. Add more or less as desired. I could only find large chocolate chunks, so I chopped mine up so they were smaller.

transfer ice cream to freezer-safe container and top with more chocolate

Lastly, pour the ice cream into a freezer safe vessel and place it into your freezer for 4 to 6 hours or overnight. In my opinion, overnight is best.

Now we let the waiting game begin.

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Do you even know how bad I wanted to plop down on the couch and rewatch Big Little Lies (<—obsessed) with this in my lap??? So bad.

I’m totally in love with that show (and this ice cream) and the Big Little Lies playlist on Spotify because you know it’s on repeat lately.

scoop of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Mint chocolate chip ice cream: the most beloved and coveted ice cream in my world.

What’s your favorite ice cream? I wanna know… who knows, maybe I’ll make it for you/us.

For More Homemade Ice Cream Recipes Click Here.

bowl of Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Enjoy! And if you give this Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!

top down photo of bowl with Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

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Yield: 8 servings

Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Mint chocolate ice cream is my favorite ice cream flavor. Cool, creamy mint flavored ice cream studded with tiny pieces of mint chocolate made from scratch!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 generous pinch fine sea salt
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 2 cups half & half, or substitute with a cup of both whole milk and heavy cream
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
  • 6 drops green food coloring, optional
  • 3/4 cup small chocolate chunks, or mini chocolate chips

Instructions 

  • Add the sugar, sea salt, heavy cream and the half and half into a large (8-cup) liquid measuring cup. Whisk until the sugar dissolves completely.
  • Next add in the vanilla, mint extract and 6 drops of the green food coloring, whisk to combine.
  • Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled.
  • Following the manufacturers instructions, pour the ice cream base into the ice cream maker and churn until thick.
  • Use a spatula to fold in the chocolate pieces and then pour the base into a freezer safe container and freeze for 4 hours to overnight. Overnight is best.
  • Scoop and serve!
Serving: 1g, Calories: 476kcal, Carbohydrates: 38g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 35g, Saturated Fat: 22g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 10g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 105mg, Sodium: 98mg, Potassium: 216mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 31g, Vitamin A: 1097IU, Vitamin C: 1mg, Calcium: 112mg, Iron: 1mg