Recipe: Delicious Homemade Lemon Balm (or Mint) Ice Cream

Homemade Lemon Balm (or Mint) Ice Cream.

You can have Homemade Lemon Balm (or Mint) Ice Cream using 6 ingredients and 14 steps. Here is how you cook that.

Ingredients of Homemade Lemon Balm (or Mint) Ice Cream

1. Prepare 1 cup of fresh lemon balm or mint (I just packed a glass full of leaves from the garden).
2. You need 160 g of sugar or to taste.
3. Prepare 600 ml of whipping cream (30-35% fat).
4. You need 300 ml of milk.
5. Prepare 2 pinches of salt.
6. It's 6 of egg yolks.

Homemade Lemon Balm (or Mint) Ice Cream instructions

1. Blend the sugar and the fresh lemon balm/mint together until bright green using a food processor or hand mixer..
2. Add cream, milk, salt and the sugar mixture to a medium pot. Heat and simmer on medium-low until the sugar is completely dissolved (5-10 minutes)..
3. Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks together in a bowl. Whisking constantly, gradually whisk in 1/3 of the hot cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs..
4. Then pour the contents of the bowl back into the pot with the rest of the cream and milk..
5. Heat again on medium-low and gently cook the mixture until it's thick enough to coat a back of the spoon (do not boil!). This will make a custard..
6. You'll know it's done if you run your finger through the custard on the back of the spoon, and it leaves a clean streak like in the photo. You can also measure by temperature - it should be around 170°F/77°C..
7. Remove from heat and cover with a lid. Let the lemon balm/mint steep in hot custard for 30 minutes..
8. After 30 minutes, strain the custard through a fine strainer to get out big chunks of the herbs and curdled eggs..
9. Let cool completely, then chill in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight..
10. After chilling, pour the custard into a container and place in freezer for 4-6 hours. Every hour whisk the ice cream with a fork or hand blender to break up the ice crystals that form when freezing. (Or use just use your ice cream maker from here.).
11. Here is my ice cream after an hour or two. It was still really liquidy so I just mixed with a fork..
12. After another couple of hours, it was close to getting frozen, so I used a hand blender to smooth it out more. You can just mix vigorously with a fork, too, though it might not be perfectly smooth..
13. After blending mine looked like this....
14. You can eat it soft like soft serve, or give it some more time to harden up :) If it's too hard, let it set out on the counter to soften a bit before scooping out..