1. Heat the milk and cream.

Combine the following in a saucepan:

• 3/4 cups of heavy cream
• 1 3/4 cup of whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar

Heat over medium heat, stirring regularly. Once the mixture reaches a simmer (i.e., bubbling very slightly around the edges of the pan), reduce the heat so that the milk stays very hot but is not quite simmering or boiling.

Stir in the 2-3 cups of peppermint leaves. Make sure you washed them really well (you don’t want gritty ice cream)! They should wilt fairly quickly.

Keep the mixture at this temperature (hot but not below a simmer) for about 15 minutes. Stir every few minutes. Then remove from heat.

2. Allow the base to cool.

The mint will continue to infuse into the base as it cools, so leave the wilted leaves in there. Once the mixture is warm or near room temperature, pour the mixture through a strainer to catch all of the mint leaves.

You can press the leaves down to get out all the ice cream base – the more you agitate the leaves, the more green color your gelato will pick up. But it’s not going to be truly green unless you add food coloring.

Toss the mint out – its job here is done.

3. Chill the ice cream base in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. 

The idea is to get the base as cold as possible before you put it into the ice cream maker.

4. Get your ice cream machine.

Follow the instructions for your ice cream machine. It usually takes our ice cream a good 20 minutes to start to get thick and freeze up. (We have an older version of this one.)

Put the ice cream container you plan to use for the ice cream into the freezer now to let it chill.

5. Prepare the chocolate.

While the ice cream machine is working, start to prepare the chocolate. Chop or break up the 4 ounces of chocolate into small squares. Add the 2 teaspoons of olive / avocado oil. Microwave in 15 second increments, stirring in between. Get the chocolate just warm enough to melt – you don’t want to pour warm chocolate into the ice cream machine. You want it to be as close to room temp as possible by the time you add it to the ice cream.

6. Once the ice cream looks nice and thick, add the chocolate.

With the ice cream machine running,  use a spoon to drizzle chocolate over the top of the ice cream. The chocolate will freeze as it hits the surface of the ice cream and then break up as the ice cream machine continues to churn. Keep drizzling until you’re out of chocolate.

7. Scoop the ice cream into your pre-chilled container.

Allow the ice cream at least 3 hours to freeze up. Although you can eat some right away (and we definitely do)!