REAL Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato

So a lot of you know and love my two ingredient no machine ice cream recipe, but I actually have never done an old school classic custard based ice cream or gelato and then spun that on an ice cream machine. I'm going to show you how to make mint chocolate chip gelato that is so incredible that you're not going to want to miss this recipe. So let's get started. So we are going to start out on the stove by infusing our milk and cream. So into a nice big heavy saucepan, I'm going to add in my milk, cream, and then here the star of the show, mint, fresh mint, we are not using mint flavoring anything like that here we are using real deal, lovely green fresh mint. So add that in there. So what we're going to do is turn this onto a medium low heat and let it slowly come to a simmer. By doing this slowly, we're allowing the mint to just get all that lovely flavor into the milk and the cream. So while that's coming to a simmer, let's talk about the differences between gelato and ice cream. It's very simple. Ice cream is mostly eggs, sugar and cream. So it's thick, it's creamy, it's a little bit heavier. Gelato is eggs, sugar, milk, mostly and a little bit of cream. So it's almost a little bit lighter, lighter on the tongue, but still creamy, still absolutely delicious scoops really soft. So it's kind of you know, whichever your preference is. But to be honest with you, ice cream or gelato, both are really good. So just as it comes to a simmer, turn off the heat. And we're just going to let that sit there and steep and just let that flavor really intensify and get stronger. While it's doing that, we're going to go over here and mix together the rest of our ingredients to make a classic gelato. Here I have some egg yolks in my nice big bowl. And I have some sugar and all you want to do is just by hand whisk these together. And then I'm also going to add in here a pinch of salt. Because even ice cream bases and gelato bases need salt. So take your milk mixture, pour it in over your eggs while mixing all the time. This method is called introducing when you add a mixture that is a different consistency and temperature to another one. You want to add in a little bit at first and then add the majority of the rest. What we want to do is just heat up those eggs a little bit without cooking them and get all of this mixed together. This is just a traditional custard. Okay, lovely. And then go ahead, pour that back into your pot, bring it back to the stove, put it back on a low heat. And we just want to cook the custard just for a few minutes until it thickens slightly. We don't want to overcook it or anything like that. If you do overcook it, I've got an amazing tip. So hang around for that. All we're doing here is letting the eggs cook and thicken. And you'll notice that it coats the back of your spoon. It'll take a few minutes and what you want to do is stand here and stir with a wooden spoon just so it doesn't curdle. Now, if your ice cream curdles or your gelato curdles, that's okay. Don't freak out. You can actually save I know it sounds crazy. But if you're ever making a custard that curdles here is my chef's secret. Get an immersion blender or a stick blender, put it in there, blend it for a few seconds and your custard will become perfectly smooth as good as new. Nobody will ever know it curdles. It is a crazy trick that I learned years and years ago and I still use it to this day. Because sometimes I curdle my ice cream bases. So as you can see, this is nice and thick. So I'm going to turn off the heat, then come straight over here and what we're going to do is pass it through a strainer. Just in case there's any bits of cooked egg in there, which of course I'm sure there is not. And remove that mint. Gorgeous. So this is our gelato base. And here's what I like to do. Give it a little taste. Oh my gosh, it's minty. It's sweet. It's fresh. The thing about making ice cream and gelato is that once it gets frozen, the flavor actually kind of tones down a little bit. So your ice cream base needs to be nice and strong and full of flavor, just factoring that in. So I'm just going to set this over to the side, let it cool down completely. And then we're going to turn it. So my ice cream machine is a Cuisinart. I'm going to put the information about this on my website along with the recipe. I love this machine. So into this you want to pour your really cold ice cream base and you can make ice cream bases up to three days in advance. Make sure they're nice and cold. So for those of you who don't know, I do Amazon lives every week. And actually a few weeks ago, I debuted this recipe and this ice cream machine over there. I talk about baking the equipment that I use. It's all in one. It's really good. It's interactive. So definitely go check out those videos. So now here's the question. How long does it take to churn your gelato? Well, that depends on your ice cream machine. Roughly you're talking 1520 minutes. Honestly, just look for when it looks like it's kind of firm, soft serve. That's when it's ready. So this is the perfect time to add in my melted chocolate. So for this recipe, I'm using milk chocolate because milk chocolate and I meant I think go way better than darker chocolate and mint. So I like that little bit of lightness a little bit more sweeter. So just pour that in as the blade is going and you will notice that the chocolate sets on the gelato. This looks amazing. I just love how all the chocolate gets broken up into tiny little bits. So go in with a spatula and never use a sharp object in an ice cream machine. And get this into your tubs. Once it's frozen, it is ready to scoop and try. Oh my gosh, the mint flavor is so refreshing. It can't be beat homemade gelato is light. All the little chocolate bits kind of melt on your tongue. It's absolutely delicious. And when it melts a little bit in your bowl, the flavor is even better. I love how it has a strong flavor of fresh mint, but it's not dyed green. There's just something really nice about that. If you have an ice cream machine, dust it off and try this recipe. You're not going to be sorry.