Thin Mint Ice Cream

Yes, I do mean those Thin Mints. It started with a picnic lunch for my daughter's field day. I packed a roll of thin mints (the Girl Scout kind) for a dessert, and we didn't finish them all. The remaining ones sat in the cooler long after the cooler had given up its cooling. When I unloaded at home, I had a baggie of slippery melted cookies. So I put them in the freezer to firm back up. Then I had one solid hunk of chocolate-covered cookie. And since they were already frozen, I thought about breaking them up and sprinkling over ice cream. Then I realized it would be more fun to sprinkle them into ice cream.

This recipe makes about 1 quart of ice cream and you will need an ice cream maker.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 8 thin mint cookies, crushed

Directions

1. Whisk milk, cream, 1/2 cup of sugar in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir and warm until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture reaches about 175 degrees.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar.
3. Temper the eggs by slowly whisking about 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the eggs (off the heat so you're not scrambling the eggs!). Then slowly whisk the egg-milk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining cream.
4. Cook over medium heat until hot but not simmering (about 180).
5. Strain the cooked ice cream with a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. Cool over ice about 10 minutes and then refrigerate until cold (several hours or overnight).
6. Follow your ice cream maker instructions for freezing the ice cream. Just before the ice cream is finished, with the machine running, add the peppermint extract and cookies.