Eat With The Pandits

A delightful combination of dark chocolate and mint, this ice cream never fails to delight kids and adults alike. Once you try this homemade variation, you will never yearn for the commercial variety again.

My earliest memory of choco-mint ice cream is from when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old, growing up in the tiny piece of heaven called Mauritius. My dad used to work in a textile factory there, and our Sunday’s were usually reserved for the beach. Both Mom and Dad are avid swimmers and very fond of swimming in the sea. So come Sunday we would head to Flic en Flac beach, in all our beach fineries, adn mom’s cooker with vegetable Pulao and a 2 liter bottle of Coca Cola.

On our way back home, after spending nearly 10 hours at the beach, we would always stop at this ice-creamery called Pizzaz. At Pizzaz, they served the softest scoop of mint ice cream with choco chips. A scoop bigger than my face. I was loyal to this flavour, and still am.

That was the beginning of my love affair with mint, and mint chocolate ice-cream in particular. My method calls for fresh mint or pudina leaves, and has no preservatives. It is a custard base ice cream, with both egg and egg less versions possible. And it will not be green in colour because we are not using any food colouring!

INGREDIENTS

• Fresh mint leaves / pudina – leaves from about about 8-10 sprigs of mints. The more mint you use, the stronger the flavour.
• 1/2 a packet of Morde’s Dark Chocolate bar – I use this brand because it is easily available
• 200 gms cream – I use Rich’s dairy cream, again because it is easily available
• 250 ml of full cream milk – avoid the carton milk because it seldom gives the desired texture
• 3 eggs
• 30 grams of regular white sugar

DIRECTIONS

Make the Custard

• In a heavy bottom pan, heat the milk and cream. Heat it on low flame, and ensure that it doesn’t boil over. This should take about 8-10 minutes. Once done, add the washed mint leaves, and let it cool to room temperature. This will infuse the mint flavour in the custard base.
• In a deep bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar only. Whisk it to a pale yellow consistency.
• Add the milk + cream mixture to the egg+sugar blend through a colander so that the mint leaves are separated. Make sure to extract the mint flavour by pressing the leaves with a back of a spoon. Whisk gently. The milk + cream mixture should be at room temperature else the eggs will curdle.
• Once it is mixed well, put the mixture back in the heavy bottomed pan, and heat it on a low flame, while constantly stirring with a spatula, taking care to scrape the bottom of the pan as well. We are now making the custard.
• After about 10-12 minutes of stirring, the custard should thicken. Do the back of the spatula test to check for readiness of the custard – run a fingers across the spatula and if it leaves a clear path, your custard is done.
• Add the Morde bar to the custard. The heat will melt it nicely, and you will not need a double boiler.
• Let this mix cool down to room temperature and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

Blending in the Ice Cream Maker

• Run this mix in your ice cream maker as per instructions. I use a Cuisinart.
• Eat fresh, or freeze and eat later!

If you do not have an ice cream maker

• An ice cream maker churns the blend very slowly, thus incorporating air into the mixture. This air is what makes the ice cream nice and light.
• If you do not have an ice cream maker, like I didn’t for the longest time, you can also just freeze the rested mix in an air tight box. This should take about 4-6 hours to freeze. After a couple of hours, give the mix a nice whisk to break the ice crystals. These ice crystals are the criminals which interfere with the texture of the ice cream.

If you do not prefer eggs

Skip step 2 of the “Make the Custard” process. You can use a combination of 1 tablespoon of corn flour with 4 tablespoons of water and add it to the milk + cream mixture while it is being heated. This mixture will thicken to a custard consistency after constant stirring for 10 minutes or so.