Who says you need dairy to make delicious ice cream?! This mint chocolate chip ice cream is easy to make. Sweetened with honey and packed with mint and chocolate flavor, this non-dairy ice cream can be made with dairy if you prefer.
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Somehow threading the needle between refreshing and decadent, mint chocolate chip ice cream lends itself beautifully to a non-dairy makeover. Find out how to make mint chocolate chip ice cream without dairy or refined sugar, and even without much hassle.
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What to use for mint chocolate chip ice cream?
Here I am making mint chocolate chip ice cream with coconut milk from cans. While I usually measure 4 cups of dairy for my ice cream recipes, the cans come to a little under 4 cups. It doesn’t really matter. Close enough.
If you are on the GAPS diet, ideally you will make your own coconut milk first, in which case you could use 4 cups. I cheated and used canned coconut milk on the GAPS diet. This is less than perfect; look for coconut milk without any gums or preservatives if you cut this corner. Just plain coconut and maybe water.
What could you use other than coconut milk?
Cow milk is an obvious choice– I usually do half milk and half cream or cultured cream. You could use whatever type of milk you like in ice cream, though. Perhaps cashew or almond milk. I haven’t tried any other than coconut and cow, and both work beautifully!
Will the ice cream taste like coconut?
The beauty of mint chocolate chip is that the mint flavor is strong enough to overpower the coconut flavor. Unlike vanilla, which generally will let a little coconut hint through, mint is robust enough not to, especially with chocolate added.
If you (or someone you are serving) has a superpower of coconut detection, maybe the coconut flavor will still be noticeable. I don’t really pick it up in this recipe. It may depend on the person; coconut haters detect it pretty easily.
How to Make Non-Dairy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
The process is super simple, until you get to the chocolate part. Get your ice cream churning first, then I will show you how to get the chocolate to work well. (It’s not that hard!)
You need coconut (or other) milk, honey, peppermint extract (or use food-grade peppermint oil), and a dash of salt. It works best (at least, in my ice cream maker, which is an old model somewhat like this one) to chill the coconut milk well first.
Shake it now and then as it chills so the fat stays mixed. (Definitely use full fat– you can even sub in coconut cream for part of the coconut milk for a richer result.) If the fat separates from the cream, just whiz it briefly in a blender or use a hand mixer.
Whisk the coconut milk with a quarter cup or so of honey and a teaspoon of peppermint extract, plus a dash of salt.
Turn your ice cream maker on, pour in the ice cream mixture, and process as you normally do.
How to prepare the chocolate
Don’t throw in chocolate chips! Even the mini ones will freeze way too hard. You won’t be able to taste the chocolate, unless you wait for the chocolate in each frozen bite to melt. By the time that happens, the minty ice cream will be long gone! We want to taste them together.
Besides, you might chip a tooth on those frozen little pebbles of chocolate!
You can grate some chocolate into shavings. This is quick and easy, and allows you to choose any sort of chocolate you like. It works pretty well.
The slightly harder way is, in my opinion, worth the extra effort. The reason is that the chocolate won’t quite freeze, and will melt as soon as it hits your tongue. You get maximum chocolate flavor this way, pretty simultaneously with the peppermint flavor.
You can use whatever chocolate you like– chips or chopped bars. I used about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips this time.
Melt them. If you have a double boiler, this is the time to use it. I used a small Pyrex pitcher in a pan of water. You could microwave it in short bursts instead.
Once the chocolate melts, stir in a teaspoon of oil. I used coconut oil, but others will work fine. This is what will change the texture so you can taste it!
Keep the chocolate in the pan of hot water with the heat off so it stays melt-y and smooth.
How to add the chocolate
Once the ice cream is pretty well churned, it is time to add the chocolate. This is the trickiest part. You can do it while the ice cream churns around, or use a spoon to stir it in after you stop the machine.
You want the ice cream to be quite cold. The chocolate will harden very fast as soon as it hits the ice cream, kind of like those magic shell chocolate toppings. As it hardens, it will be brittle enough to break into bits with a little encouragement from a spoon.
The other pointer: work carefully and slowly, trying to pour a thin stream of chocolate and stirring to make sure it all breaks up as soon as it hardens. This took me some trial and error, and you may need to mess around with it to get the knack.
I find it helps to trickle a thin stream, stop, stir quickly, then repeat until the chocolate is all incorporated and broken up. It doesn’t work well for me to rely on the churning of the machine, as the chocolate bits stay on top and clump. Your machine may be different.
Sometimes I leave the machine running, pour a little chocolate, and stir carefully with the machine running. Alternatively, I stop the machine and trickle in a bit of chocolate, stir to break up, and then do some more. A tablespoon or two at a time seems to be about right.
Once you have the chocolate well broken up and distributed, scoop it all into a freezer container, cover, and set it in the freezer.
But it isn’t green!
That cool green color is artificial. Naturally, mint chocolate chip ice cream is white. Except for the chocolate part, of course. Unless you use fresh mint to color it; I have tried this and not loved it.
I don’t find it worthwhile to fuss with making mint chocolate chip ice cream green. If you really want green, consider one of these ways of coloring your ice cream:
- regular green food coloring (or blue and yellow)
- more natural (better for you) purchased food coloring, like this one (which I have used for other purposes) or maybe this one (which I have never tried)
- try your hand at making green color using these ideas— maybe do matcha for green with a smitch of natural blue added?
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Equipment
- ice cream maker
Ingredients
- 2 cans full-fat coconut milk, chilled just under 4 cups, or use 2 cups each milk and cream, or about 4 cups other milk
- 1/4- 1/3 C raw honey
- 1 tsp peppermint extract
- dash salt
- 4-6 egg yolks from pastured hens optional
- 1/2 C chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bar
- 1 tsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Whisk all ingredients together until smooth. (If lumpy, such as when coconut fat solidifies, you may need to use a blender to smooth the mixture.)
- Process in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
- Melt chocolate and stir in coconut oil.
- When ice cream is nearly done churning, pour thin ribbons of chocolate into the ice cream a tablespoon of two at a time. Stir it through the ice cream to break the ribbons up into bits between each addition.
- Store ice cream in freezer container with a lid until ready to serve. If not using egg yolks, soften at room temperature 10-20 minutes before scooping.
Make extra of the chocolate mixture to serve on top for a magic shell type effect!