Mint Brownie
A refreshing ice cream inspired by a conversation with a colleague.
I was having a conversation about ice cream with a colleague and they were telling me their favorite ice cream was a mint Oreo ice cream. That sounded really good, especially since I had some fresh mint in the garden. In this case, I decided to mix things up by making some brownies instead of chocolate cookies.
Special thanks to Mel for making most of this ice cream and the brownies for me! Several projects around the house were calling my name and needed to get done, so I didn't have time to make the ice cream. I forgot to ask her to take photos of the process, so this post will be shorter today!
Rating: 4 scoops
This ice cream was pretty good, with a light hint of mint. It did seem a bit muted though, which I think was due to the dulling effect of the freezer. I think I would have preferred a stronger mint flavor, but not as strong as the mint flavor in commercial ice creams (that is almost a "cool" mint). Perhaps some more mint leaves could have done the trick.
When you infuse fresh mint leaves into ice cream base, you end up with a white base. One of my ice cream books recommended the use of spirulina to naturally color the base green, so I purchased some at the grocery store. Spirulina is an algae that contains many nutrients and antioxidants. In this case, the spirulina was used less for the flavor/health benefits and more so for the color. 1 gram of spirulina mixed with 5 grams of water created a paste that I mixed into the cooled base.
The brownies in this ice cream were great and had a slight chew, even when they were frozen. I've made various kinds of brownies before (for eating, not mixing in ice cream) and have stored them in the freezer to keep them for longer. When those brownies came out of the freezer, they are rock solid. Not so much with the ice cream brownies - they were actually underbaked to keep them a little softer. After they had cooled, they were put in the freezer so they could be chopped up to be mixed into the ice cream.
This ice cream was inspired by Hello, My Name is Ice Cream.