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You may be wondering: what makes this ice cream healthy? Well, I prioritize high-quality whole ingredients. I use maple syrup as the sweetener (a natural sweetener which is rich in antioxidant, vitamins, and minerals), I use grass-fed milk products, vanilla extract, salt, and fresh mint leaves. Ice cream does not need any added color (food dyes), gums, or artificial (or “natural”) flavoring. We’re keeping this Healthy Mint Chip Ice Cream real and simple – just fresh, whole, high-quality ingredients that are good for you!
Some reasons why you’ll love this Healthy Mint Chip Ice cream:
- No dyes
- No artificial or natural flavors
- No gums or thickeners
- Just fresh mint leaves, natural maple syrup, and all real ingredients!
Nutritional benefits of this Healthy Mint Chip Ice Cream
This isn’t all the benefits, but a few of my favorite!
- I always recommend buying grass-fed milk and cream. This ensures you are getting a healthier product (from healthier cows) and you are supporting a more regenerative farm. I love buying from a local farmer or from healthy brands like Kalona Supernatural or Mill-King that are low-heat pasteurized instead of ultra-pasteurized. The lower temps helps preserve many of the enzymes in the milk, which makes it easier to digest.
- Maple syrup is a natural sweetener (from the sap of maple trees) so it’s healthy and also rich in antioxidants and minerals such as manganese, riboflavin, and copper.
- Egg yolks are a good source of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K, as well as B vitamins and choline, which is important for brain health. They also contain antioxidants like lutein and zeaxanthin, which are beneficial for eye health.
- Fresh mint is incredible! It’s fantastic for digestive health, oral and respiratory health, cognitive function, and more. It relieves nausea, bloat, and gas. It stimulates saliva and bile flow which helps the liver and gallbladder. It contain menthol, which has anti-inflammatory and decongestant properties. It reduces stress, anxiety, and foggy memory. It has so many benefits! Most of these benefits like congestion, cough, bloat, etc, just in case your wondering, are best relieved by a hot mint drink such as mint tea.
Tools needed for homemade ice cream
An ice cream maker – I use the Ice-70 by Cuisinart. I love it!
A large bowl – I prefer using one with a spout on the side to make it easier to pour.
An electric mixer with a whisk attachment
A handheld whisk
An ice cream container for storage. This helps significantly to keep the ice cream the proper texture. You can use a regular freezer-friendly Tupperware, but the ice cream may harden more.
Is making ice cream difficult?
Not at all! It may seem daunting at first, but it’s way easier than you think. Most of the time for the ice cream is just chilling it, so you are only spending about 45 minutes actively working on it.
Ingredients for Healthy Mint Chip Ice Cream (with fresh mint leaves)
Grass-fed heavy cream
Grass-fed whole milk
Fresh mint leaves – I used organic sweet mint for the classic mint flavor. This is like the green mint ice cream you usually would buy, but with no added green dye!
Pure maple syrup
Vanilla extract
Egg yolks – this makes the ice cream extra creamy – it’s essential in my opinion!
Salt
Chocolate chips
Avocado oil or butter – for melting chocolate
How to make Healthy Mint Chip Ice Cream (with fresh mint leaves)
- Pre-freeze: ***Make sure your ice cream bowl has been frozen for at least 24 hours (this is for the Cuisinart ICE-70 Series).
- Making the ice cream: In a large saucepan, mix together the milk, cream, and fresh mint leaves. Heat over medium heat, stirring with a whisk often, until steaming or very lightly simmering. Do NOT allow a rolling boil.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt until it lightens in color.
- Once the cream/milk mixture is steaming: Using a hand whisk, start whisking the maple syrup mixture and very slowly pour 1/3 of the steaming milk/cream/mint into the bowl. Whisk for a few seconds. Then, while continuing to whisk, slowly pour another 1/3 into the maple syrup bowl. Then, pour everything back into the saucepan and place over LOW heat on the stove. Stir constantly on low heat for 2 minutes. Do not let it boil or the eggs will overcook.
- Let it cool: Remove from heat and let it cool at room temperature for an hour. Then place in the refrigerator for 2 hours before straining the leaves.
- How to strain the mint leaves: Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl to remove the mint leaves. Press down on the mint leaves (or put into cheesecloth and squeeze) to extract more mint flavor if you want.
- For churning the ice cream: Press Ice Cream and then Start/Stop. Pour the mixture through the spout and then cover with the cap. Let mix 25-30 minutes until thickened (or according to your ice cream maker). In the last 5 minutes, melt the chocolate chips with the oil or butter, then pour the melted chocolate through the opening while it’s churning. It’ll naturally harden and break up while it churns.
- You can serve as soft-serve, or transfer the ice cream to an ice cream container and place in the freezer for 3-5 hours to harden before serving.
Mint ice cream vs peppermint ice cream
It seems that some people get confused on the flavor differences between mint and peppermint – so “mint chip” ice cream is the green (or sometimes white) ice cream you would usually buy from the store or ice cream shops and it’s in season year-round. On the other hand “peppermint” ice cream is the pink ice cream you would buy that’s more of a Christmas flavor (think of candy canes). Classic mint ice cream is made from sweet mint leaves (whether using the actual leaves or using the extract), whereas peppermint ice cream is made from peppermint leaves (whether the actual leaves or the extract). If you would rather have peppermint ice cream than mint ice cream, then follow the recipe exactly as is but use 1 tsp of peppermint extract in place of the fresh mint leaves. It should work perfectly (I make peppermint ice cream for my family every year at Christmas, and I will be posting my recipe in a month or two from this post, so search for it on my website!).
Modifications and variations
- Substitute coconut sugar instead: Use 1 cup of coconut sugar as the sweetener instead of maple syrup if desired. Keep in mind that the ice cream will be more of a brown color.
- For a lighter ice cream, you can use equal parts milk and cream (creating total of 3 1/2 cups, so 1 3/4 cups each). Keep in mind it won’t be as creamy. If I was doing this version, then I would add another egg yolk to help it stay a little creamier.
- If you want to omit the egg yolks, then feel free to. I would still heat the milk/cream/mint solution on the stove though because that process really helps extract the mint flavor from the leaves. Also keep in mind that omitting the egg yolks will make the ice cream much less creamy and rich.
Other healthy ice cream recipes you’ll love
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Chocolate Cherry Almond Ice Cream
Peach Ice Cream with Maple Caramel Sauce
I hope you love this homemade Healthy Mint Chip Ice Cream! Please be sure to leave a comment and a rating if you give this recipe a try, or even simply leave a comment below if you have any questions or plan to make the recipe! I would love to hear from you.
PrintHealthy Mint Chip Ice Cream (with fresh mint leaves!)
- Prep Time: 30 minutes for prep
- Chill time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Category: ice cream, dessert
- Method: ice cream maker
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups grass-fed heavy cream
1 cup grass-fed whole milk
1 lightly packed cup organic fresh mint leaves (1 oz, or two of the 0.5 oz packages from the store)
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
For the chocolate:
1/3 cup chocolate chips I used semi-sweet
1 1/2 tsp avocado oil or grass-fed butter
Instructions
Time references: The ice cream takes about 30 minutes for initial prep, then 3 hours for chilling (1 hour at room temp, 2 hours in fridge). Then it takes 25 minutes to churn for soft-serve consistency. If you desire it to be classic ice cream texture, then give time for it to harden in the freezer for 3-5 hours after churning.
- Pre-freeze: ***Make sure your ice cream bowl has been frozen for at least 24 hours (this is for the Cuisinart ICE-70 Series).
- Making the ice cream: In a large saucepan, mix together the milk, cream, and fresh mint leaves. Heat over medium heat, stirring with a whisk often, until steaming or very lightly simmering. Do NOT allow a rolling boil.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks with the maple syrup, vanilla extract, and salt until it lightens in color.
- Once the cream/milk mixture is steaming: Using a hand whisk, start whisking the maple syrup mixture and very slowly pour 1/3 of the steaming milk/cream/mint into the bowl. Whisk for a few seconds. Then, while continuing to whisk, slowly pour another 1/3 into the maple syrup bowl. Then, pour everything back into the saucepan and place over LOW heat on the stove. Stir constantly on low heat for 2 minutes. Do not let it boil or the eggs will overcook.
- Let it cool: Remove from heat and let it cool at room temperature for an hour. Then place in the refrigerator for 2 hours before straining the leaves.
- How to strain the mint leaves: Pour the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl to remove the mint leaves. Press down on the mint leaves (or put into cheesecloth and squeeze) to extract more mint flavor if you want.
- For churning the ice cream: Press Ice Cream and then Start/Stop. Pour the mixture through the spout and then cover with the cap. Let mix 25-30 minutes until thickened (or according to your ice cream maker). In the last 5 minutes, melt the chocolate chips with the oil or butter, then pour the melted chocolate through the opening while it’s churning. It’ll naturally harden and break up while it churns.
- You can serve as soft-serve, or transfer the ice cream to an ice cream container and place in the freezer for 3-5 hours to harden before serving.
Notes:
- You have a few methods for incorporating chocolate into the ice cream: 1 – You can melt 1/3 cup chocolate chips with 1 1/2 tsp of avocado oil or butter and pour it in (melted) while the ice cream is still churning. 2 – You can finely chop / sliver chocolate (start with 2 Tbsp and add to taste) and add it in the last few minutes of churning. 3 – You can simply put 1/3-1/2 cup mini chocolate chips into the ice cream in the last few minutes of churning. Use whatever method you prefer.
- If leaving to chill in the refrigerator overnight, then strain the leaves before placing in the fridge unless you are okay with a stronger mint flavor. I’ve done it both ways and I don’t find it significantly stronger, but I did personally enjoy the method of straining at the 2-3 hour mark instead of leaving overnight.
- Fun fact: The alcohol in vanilla extract helps the ice cream stay on the softer side rather than freezing hard. If you prefer harder ice cream, then omit the vanilla or use a vanilla bean instead. I personally like using vanilla extract for the benefits of keeping the ice cream on the softer side.
- For a lighter ice cream, you can use equal parts milk and cream (creating total of 3 1/2 cups, so 1 3/4 cups each). Keep in mind it won’t be as creamy.
Equipment
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