Even before I bought my ice cream maker I started Pinning recipes on Pinterest. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, even if a recipe is used strictly as a jumping-off point. This recipe, however, is actually designed as just that. I have to thank my old friend and first housemate, Laurenn, for the original Pin for a master ice cream recipe. Not only do you get a base recipe, you get several suggestions for additional flavors. There’s even a video! Here’s the link:

The Master Ice Cream Recipe – NYTimes.com.

Although I think I’m up to about 15 batches now, last night was my first time using the base recipe and the information for creating a fresh mint ice cream. I’ve been meaning to make this for almost a week. I had already bought the mint and it was starting to get a little floppy, so I figured I’d better get to it. I’m not known for following recipes to the letter, but I did this time, so I’ll let you visit the link for particulars.

My favorite part of this recipe was the beginning: creating an herb sugar by processing fresh mint and sugar together. This smelled so good and the mint sugar that resulted tasted SO good! Homemade sweet tea, anyone?

Mint + Sugar

= Mint Sugar

The mint sugar was heated up with milk and cream and eggs were tempered, then added to make the custard Ice cream base. As it cooked, it developed a pretty pale green color — almost like a thin pea soup.

6-1/2 yolks (one of the eggs was a double)

Is it soup yet?

After the custard cooled to room temp, I strained it into a bowl to chill. I obviously really pulverized the mint, because there are still flecks of it in the finished product. I think it looks beautiful — it helps that green is my favorite color.

Of course, shaved chocolate chocolate chips, chocolate cookies, or a chocolate swirl could be added to this, but I love the simple, fresh, cool mint on its own. Now that I’ve made a few custard bases, it doesn’t seem like so much work, and the rich, creamy ice cream that results is well worth it.