Homemade Thin Mint Ice Cream!

Summertime is a the time of year when I most enjoy eating ice cream all by itself.  Generally, I prefer a tiny dollop on top of something like a warm fruit crisp.  One of my favorite flavors of ice cream is a mint chocolate chip and the other in pre-gluten-free days was a mint oreo flavor made by this wonderful ice cream shop in Boston.  This ice cream provides the best of both worlds!  A yummy cookie crumble, bits of chocolate, and mint all infused together in one delicious ice cream.  And, best of all you won't need all the cookies from your batch of GF thin mint cookies for this recipe, so you'll have extras to serve on the side.  Enjoy!

A delicious fresh batch of homemade GF thin mint ice cream! 

A rather crazy looking scoop of scrumptious ice cream with a GF thin mint cookie on the side! 

Homemade Thin Mint Ice Cream

Mix in a bowl:
3 cups 10% lactose-free cream (OR regular light cream OR 1 cup cream + 2 cups milk)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
2 drops peppermint essential oil (I love the Doterra peppermint oil in this recipe - and much prefer it to an extract)

Mix ~10-15 minutes in your ice cream maker (according to the directions on your ice cream maker).  While mixing, you can crush your homemade GF thin mint cookies, enough so you have about 1 cup of crushed cookie crumbs.  I like to leave some larger pieces and some smaller pieces.  It's easy to crush the cookies by placing in a freezer ziploc and rolling or hit with a rolling pin.

After the 10-15 minutes of churning, add to ice cream maker:
1 cup crushed homemade gluten-free thin mints.

Continue mixing until ice cream has thickened, as directed by your ice cream maker.  Scoop ice cream into a freezer-safe container and let chill ~2 hours before serving.  Feel free to serve alongside a few extra cookies! Enjoy!!!!

Yummy homemade thin-mint cookies

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream! (with lactose-free option)

Up here on Prince Edward Island it's strawberry season, so it seemed the perfect time to whip up a batch of easy, homemade strawberry ice cream!  This recipe does require the use of an ice cream maker.  I have a Kitchen-aid ice cream maker that connects into my regular machine that I've been happy with.  My parents and sister have a Donvier, which they both love.  This recipe is for machines that suggest a typical timeframe of ~25 minutes to churn out a batch of ice cream.  Remember ice cream expands during churning, so your bowl will look only 1/3-1/2 full at the beginning, but will look quite full by the end!

Freshly churned strawberry ice cream after chilling for a few hours in the freezer post-churn.

Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream! (lactose-free)
Makes ~ 1.5 quarts

Prepare strawberries (below) before beginning to use your ice cream maker.

Mix together:
1 cup whole cream + 2 cups 2% milk OR 3 cups half/half cream OR 3 cups 10% lactose-free cream (If they sold 15% lactose-free cream, that is what I'd use, so go with what's available near you.)
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste - my preference in ice cream)

Freeze in machine for about half of the freezing time directed (I usually mix between 12-15 minutes before adding fruit).  Then, add:
1 cup finely diced strawberries + 1 Tbsp sugar (once diced, chill in the refrigerator at least 1 hour)

Continue mixing in the ice cream maker for another 10-15 minutes (or until directed by your machine).

Once ice cream has frozen you can eat it!  Or, if it's seeming like it's mostly frozen - sometimes with lower fat content, using the 10% cream, the ice cream struggles getting thick enough in the mixer alone - working as quickly as you can, transfer your strawberry ice cream to a container with lid you can put in the freezer.  Immediately place covered ice cream in the freezer.  Let ice cream fully harden for at least 3-4 hours.  The ice cream will have a nice light texture and taste amazing once fully chilled.

Yes, you can eat it immediately after making it in the container, but I always find it melts quickly because it hasn't had the extra freeze time.  If you want to scoop proper ice cream cone-style scoops, it's best to freeze first.  Scoop and enjoy!!!!