Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato

Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato


My favourite flavour in the gelato series – a lovely fresh mint chocolate chip!

If you haven’t tried fresh mint in a gelato before – it brings this amazing fresh flavour, very different to the usual artificial mint flavouring. We cheat a little bit with a touch of green food colouring (otherwise the blended mint leaves turn the mixture grey!) and then stir through some chocolate curls at the end. A really sophisticated taste in my opinion! 

A high end gelato/ice cream machine is really important here too, as the built-in chiller will maintain a constant cold temperature to ensure small ice crystal formation while the mixture churns. I use the Musso Lussino 4080.

 


 


 

Ingredients


Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato
 30 g Fresh Mint LeavesStalks removed
 105 g Caster/White Sugar
 550 g Whole Milk
 195 g Cream32% Fat
 55 g Glucose Syrup
 45 g Skimmed Milk Powder
 45 g Egg YolksRoughly 3 Large Egg Yolks
 50 g Chocolate Curls
 2 g Ice Cream StabiliserI use Locust Bean Gum
 ¼ tsp Green Food Colour Powder
Equipment & Ingredients

Method


Mint Choc Chip Gelato
1

Pick the fresh mint leaves and place them onto a large silicon mat. Sprinkle over 50g of the caster sugar and fold the silicon mat over the leaves. Use a rolling pin to roll back and forth until it breaks downs the leaves and forms a wet paste. It can be a little dry initially but just scoop up and leaves that might fall out and keep rolling! It will only take a minute or so. Add the mint mixture into a large bowl.

2

Stir the remaining 55g of sugar into a small dish with the ice cream stabiliser and set to one side.

3

Into a medium saucepan, add the milk, cream, skimmed milk powder & glucose.

4

Place it over a medium heat and cook it until it reaches 45C/113F on a digital thermometer. Immediately tip in the egg yolks and sugar/stabiliser mixture and continue to whisk until it reaches 85C/189F on a digital thermometer.

5

Immediately pour it over the mint leaves and add just a touch of green food colour powder. Briefly blend with a hand blender with a few pulses to incorporate. About 6-10 pulses should be enough. Don't blend like crazy.

6

Pour it through a sieve and into a large bowl.

7

Place the bowl in a sink full of ice water and stir occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes. In the gelato books it will tell you to cool it to around 4C/39F but that is tough at home so once it is around 12-15C that is fine! Cover the surface of the mixture with clingfilm and refrigerate it overnight so that the gelato base can mature. This will improve the texture and taste.

8

The next day, if you are using an ice cream/gelato machine with a chilling unit, turn it on about 15 minutes ahead of time to get the bowl cold. If you are using a stand mixer freezer bowl there is no need to do this - although note you will not get the best texture with one of these as they cannot chill the gelato to the correct temperature.

9

Blend the mint gelato base one more time and then pour it into your machine to churn. It will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on your machine.

10

Just as the gelato is finished, churn in the chocolate curls right at the end.

11

The gelato should be a scoop-able texture but depending on your machine, may need to go back into the freezer for a few hours to firm up. Scoop it into a container and freeze it. Ideally this needs to be churned and served on the same day so up to 6 hours in the freezer is long enough. As the gelato freezes, the sugars begin to re-crystallise which makes the gelato go icy. As the recipe has a stabiliser in it along with skimmed milk powder, we are doing everything we can to trap as much water too, but eventually the texture will deteriorate.

12

Note - if you are using a different fat percentage of cream, say 36%, there is no need to adjust the recipe. It will just have slightly more fat in compared to 32% so will be a slight difference in texture/mouthfeel.

Ingredients

Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato
 30 g Fresh Mint LeavesStalks removed
 105 g Caster/White Sugar
 550 g Whole Milk
 195 g Cream32% Fat
 55 g Glucose Syrup
 45 g Skimmed Milk Powder
 45 g Egg YolksRoughly 3 Large Egg Yolks
 50 g Chocolate Curls
 2 g Ice Cream StabiliserI use Locust Bean Gum
 ¼ tsp Green Food Colour Powder
Equipment & Ingredients

Directions

Mint Choc Chip Gelato
1

Pick the fresh mint leaves and place them onto a large silicon mat. Sprinkle over 50g of the caster sugar and fold the silicon mat over the leaves. Use a rolling pin to roll back and forth until it breaks downs the leaves and forms a wet paste. It can be a little dry initially but just scoop up and leaves that might fall out and keep rolling! It will only take a minute or so. Add the mint mixture into a large bowl.

2

Stir the remaining 55g of sugar into a small dish with the ice cream stabiliser and set to one side.

3

Into a medium saucepan, add the milk, cream, skimmed milk powder & glucose.

4

Place it over a medium heat and cook it until it reaches 45C/113F on a digital thermometer. Immediately tip in the egg yolks and sugar/stabiliser mixture and continue to whisk until it reaches 85C/189F on a digital thermometer.

5

Immediately pour it over the mint leaves and add just a touch of green food colour powder. Briefly blend with a hand blender with a few pulses to incorporate. About 6-10 pulses should be enough. Don't blend like crazy.

6

Pour it through a sieve and into a large bowl.

7

Place the bowl in a sink full of ice water and stir occasionally, for about 15-20 minutes. In the gelato books it will tell you to cool it to around 4C/39F but that is tough at home so once it is around 12-15C that is fine! Cover the surface of the mixture with clingfilm and refrigerate it overnight so that the gelato base can mature. This will improve the texture and taste.

8

The next day, if you are using an ice cream/gelato machine with a chilling unit, turn it on about 15 minutes ahead of time to get the bowl cold. If you are using a stand mixer freezer bowl there is no need to do this - although note you will not get the best texture with one of these as they cannot chill the gelato to the correct temperature.

9

Blend the mint gelato base one more time and then pour it into your machine to churn. It will take anywhere from 15-30 minutes depending on your machine.

10

Just as the gelato is finished, churn in the chocolate curls right at the end.

11

The gelato should be a scoop-able texture but depending on your machine, may need to go back into the freezer for a few hours to firm up. Scoop it into a container and freeze it. Ideally this needs to be churned and served on the same day so up to 6 hours in the freezer is long enough. As the gelato freezes, the sugars begin to re-crystallise which makes the gelato go icy. As the recipe has a stabiliser in it along with skimmed milk powder, we are doing everything we can to trap as much water too, but eventually the texture will deteriorate.

12

Note - if you are using a different fat percentage of cream, say 36%, there is no need to adjust the recipe. It will just have slightly more fat in compared to 32% so will be a slight difference in texture/mouthfeel.

Notes

Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato