Cookistry: Thin Mint Ice Cream

Monday, August 12, 2013

Thin Mint Ice Cream

Yeah, I'm talking about those Girl Scout cookies. I adore the Thin Mints. I buy extras and then I stash some in the freezer, just for things like this.

If you haven't had the foresight to do such a brilliant thing, I've heard that there are Thin-Mint-like cookies that are available all year long. I don't know this from personal experience because I'm kinda loyal to the original. But ya do what ya gotta do.

Or, you can go all domesticated-goddess and make your own Thin Mint cookie clones from scratch. Whatever makes you happy.

When I'm mixing in add-ins like these cookies, I tend to use an un-cooked, un-egged base. As much as I love rich, custardy ice cream, in cases like this, I want the flavor of cookies and milk, not cookies and custard.

At first I considered making a chocolate ice cream to go with the chocolate in the cookies, but then you wouldn't really see the cookie bits. But I compromised a little bit. I used some of Pinnacle's Chocolate Whipped vodka. It didn't add a super strong chocolate flavor to the ice cream, but there was a whisper of something extra.

Lately I've been adding a little bit of booze to most of my ice cream recipes. You know how home made ice cream tends to be rock-hard when you take it out of the freezer? Well, if you add that bit of booze, it changes the freezing temperature of the mix and you end up with ice cream that's a little more scoopable, right from the freezer.

And yes, this is a very rich ice cream. If you prefer something a little less rich, you can use 1 1/2 cups each of the cream and milk.

Thin Mint Ice Cream
Makes about 5 cups.

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons Pinnacle Chocolate Whipped Vodka
1/2 to 1 sleeve Thin Mint Girl Scout Cookies (8-16 cookies)

In a medium bowl, combine the cream, milk, sugar, salt and vodka. Stir until the sugar and salt are completely dissolved. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, then churn in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions.

Meanwhile, crush the Thin Mint cookies. You can leave a few larger pieces, if you like. When the ice cream is nearly done churning, add the cookies so they mix in. Or, if you prefer, mix them in by hand when the ice cream is finished churning.

Transfer the ice cream to a storage container and freeze until firm.

Make sure you check out each of these blogs, today and all week long, for their #IceCreamWeek recipes run by Kim of Cravings of a Lunatic and Jen of Juanita's Cocina. More than 20 blogger participated: