Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato (Double Chocolate Version)

This Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato puts a chocolate lover's twist on the classic flavor combination. Fresh mint leaves infuse a rich chocolate custard base before it's churned into silky gelato and finished with delicate dark chocolate shards. The result is cool, creamy, intensely chocolatey, and far more sophisticated than the green mint chip ice cream many of us grew up with.

What's the difference between ice cream and gelato?

Recipes for homemade ice cream are fairly straightforward. At its most basic all you really need is heavy cream and a sweetener (that's the base). After that you flavor your base as you please (vanilla beans, chocolate, mint…) and add mix-ins if you'd like (chocolate chips, nuts, marshmallow creme, cookie crumbs). 

An ice cream custard base (aka frozen custard) is in the same family as pastry cream (a version of Crème Anglaise for you purists). The benefit is that frozen custards are richer in flavor and have more body than regular ice creams. However, with that added richness comes added calories.

Gelato uses the same frozen custard method, but its base typically has twice as much milk than heavy cream, so it has a lower butterfat content than ice cream. Great flavor, less calories. Win!

Here's a quick way to look at it for this recipe:

Recipe Ingredients

You'll need the following ingredients to make this Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato recipe:

Ingredient Notes

Like with many rich ice cream recipes, you need heavy cream, milk, sugar, and egg yolks for a gelato recipe.

Milk and heavy cream: Provides the basis for the dairy custard. The amount of milk vs. heavy cream can be adjusted to suit your tastes. Ice cream generally has more heavy cream than milk (or they're equal, like in this French vanilla ice cream recipe). With a gelato recipe, there is more milk than heavy cream.

Depending on the kind of milk you use, you can also control the overall level of dairy fat in your gelato. Lower the fat by using non-fat milk, and increase it by using whole milk. You can even use dairy-free milk products. I use 1% milk because it produces ice cream that's rich but doesn't have that "coating your tongue" mouthfeel.

Mint: Fresh mint is infused into the heavy cream, lending a soft mint flavor to the chocolate frozen custard. It's more subtle the using mint extract, which will be more pronounced. Personally, I like the gentle mint flavor in this recipe.

As a guide, one 1-ounce package of mint will yield about ½ cup (15 grams) of mint leaves. For a more pronounced mint flavor, use up to 1 cup (30 grams) of fresh mint leaves. Alternatively, you can add ¼ teaspoon of mint extract to the finished custard.

Chocolate: Use a good-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (60 to 72% cocoa) that melts smoothly and complements the richness of the chocolate gelato base. Here we're using dark chocolate wafers to flavor the custard base, and later to melt for the chocolate chip mix-in. You can also use a dark chocolate bar (pictured above), chopped coarsely, if you prefer.

Canola oil: Used to help the melted chocolate freeze into shards as it's added to the churning ice cream. Believe me, it works.

See the recipe card for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Step 3: Strain and chill the chocolate custard base

Strain the custard through a fine mesh strainer into a clean bowl, pressing on the mint. Not only are you straining out the spent mint leaves, you're also removing any bits of curdled egg that might be lurking in the custard.

Put the chocolate custard bowl in a larger bowl filled with an ice bath (½ ice cubes, ½ water, reaching halfway up the sides of the bowl). Stir the custard occasionally until it's cooled to room temperature, around 70 to 80˚F (photo 7). This will take about 30 minutes.

Place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface of the cooled custard and refrigerate until chilled, at least 4 hours or overnight. Chilled custard can be kept in the refrigerator for several days. For the best results, make sure the base is about 40˚F prior to churning.

Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and freeze per the manufacturer's instructions, about 25 minutes (photo 9).

When it's almost done and has the consistency of whipped cream (after about 25 minutes), pour in the melted chocolate with the machine running. Churn until all the melted chocolate has been added and mixed into the ice cream. Alternatively, stop the machine, pour a little chocolate in, and restart churning. Repeat until all the melted chocolate has been added.

Gelato troubleshooting

Here are some issues you might encounter when making mint chocolate chip gelato:

• My gelato froze too hard: Homemade gelato is naturally firmer after a long freeze. Let it sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before scooping.
• The mint flavor is too weak: Fresh mint varies in strength, but you don't want it to be overpowering (we're going for subtlety here). For a more pronounced mint flavor, steep the leaves a little longer before straining the custard.
• My chocolate shards clumped together: Pour the melted chocolate in a thin stream while the machine is running so it breaks into delicate shards as it freezes.
• My gelato feels icy instead of creamy: The custard may not have been chilled completely before churning, or the gelato may not have frozen quickly enough after churning.