Fresh mint ice-cream

Boil 500 ml whole milk in a pan with 60 g caster sugar.

As soon as it is boiling, remove from heat, add 2 handfuls fresh mint leaves chopped with scissors, cover and leave to infuse for 20 minutes. This stage is very important, because it is this that gives the mint flavour: add plenty, and leave to infuse well.

At the end of the 20 minutes, put 6 egg yolks and 60 g caster sugar in a bowl...

...and quickly beat with a whisk.

Foot-note: It is not necessary to beat until white, because when mixed with the hot milk it will produce a froth which you will need to remove.

Pour hot milk onto the beaten yolk, while stirring gently with a whisk.

When thoroughly mixed, wash the pan and pour the contents of the bowl back in through a fine strainer.

Squeeze the mint leaves in the strainer to extract as much flavour as possible.

Please note: by straining out the leaves and the inevitable small pieces of egg yolk the ice cream will be smoother.

Put the pan over low heat, and cook while stirring constantly (very important) with a wooden spatula, or better still, a maryse, going over the bottom to ensure that it does not catch.

There are two difficulties in this operation:

• To prevent catching on the bottom by stirring constantly
• To know when to stop cooking, for that you need to do one of the folollowing:
  • Use a a thermometer, and stop when it reaches 80°C or 176°F
  • Remove the spatula from time to time and draw a line with your finger in the mixture adhering to it. If it lasts (as in the photograph), it is cooked; if not, continue.

As soon as it's cooked, remove from heat and add 250 ml liquid cream while stirring. This will stop the cooking immediately.

Then put the pan into cold water (in the kitchen sink for example), and stir from time to time to cool the mixture as quickly as possible.

When cold, add 10 drops food colouring ().

Pour into an airtight container (a plastic bottle for example), seal, and refrigerate or put in the freezer according to whether you intend to put it in the ice cream maker now or later (see advice on this subject).

If possible enjoy your mint ice cream at its best, i.e. on removing from the ice-cream maker.

A clsasic variation on mint ice cream: chocolate chips which you can add directly into the ice-cream maker, halfway through churning.