Would you like a homemade mint ice cream recipe for the holidays that has absolutely no fake ingredients? Here’s our naturally dyed mint ice cream recipe for your enjoyment! The ingredients are adaptable to your tastes, including a low-carb option. Made with rich cream, full-fat fresh milk, a touch of chocolatey mint. 
More Homemade Holiday Desserts for Later:
Snowball Marshmallows (w/Blue Plant Dye)
Mint Ice Cream Recipe Color
This mint ice cream recipe calls for butterfly pea flower syrup and butterfly pea flowers to infuse into cream. If you don’t have the syrup, you can use granulated or keto sugar.
However, to get the natural blue color, you will need butterfly pea flowers. These will be infused into the cream called for in the recipe. Using both the butterfly pea flower syrup and the pea flowers in the cream will give you a deep color, FYI.
- Learn how to make your own butterfly pea flower syrup.
- You could also replace the blue syrup with rose petal and herb sugar syrup. If you made this syrup with rugosa rose petals, you would end up with a light pink mint ice cream.
- If you have some butterfly pea flowers leftover, try making our Snowball Marshmallows.
Mint Ice Cream Recipe
With only a few ingredients, you can mix up this mint ice cream in the morning and enjoy ice cream after dinner! You can naturally dye ice cream with a variety of herbs and spices, but this blue mint ice cream is colored with butterfly pea flower syrup. You coul also use butterfly pea flower tea, if you don’t have any syrup made up.
The chocolate called for in the recipe is flaked 60%-90% dark chocolate so that you get the chocolate flavor but not the extra sweetness. You could also use flaked bakers chocolate or cacao nibs. The key is to keep your chocolate bits very small so they don’t set up like rocks in your ice cream.
Naturally Dyed Blue Mint Ice Cream
Equipment
- Countertop Ice Cream Maker May also use your freezer
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Cups Fresh Whole Milk May Use Coconut or Almond
- 2 1/2 Cups Fresh or Heavy Cream May use Coconut
- 1/2 Cup Blue Butterfly Pea Flower Syrup Or Butterfly Pea Flower Tea with 1/2 Cup of Organic Cane Sugar or Erythritol
- 1/2 Cup Organic Cane Sugar Very Optional but Will Set Up Better
- 1 Tbsp. Organic Beef Gelatin Optional but Recommended
- 1/8 tsp. Essential Peppermint Oil (Corn Mint Preferred) Or 1 tsp. Mint Extract
- 1/2 - 3/4 Cups Shaved Chocolate Or 1/2 Cup Cacao Nibs
Instructions
- Add 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 1/2 cups cream, and 1/2 cup blue syrup in a saucepan over low-medium heat. Once the milk mixture is warm, whisk in the gelatin and continue to whisk until incorporated. Please see the notes section for substitution information.
- Scald milk (until you see small bubbles at the edge of the milk). Whisk a few times to be sure the gelatin is melted.
- Put the mixture into your countertop ice cream maker with the pre-frozen bowl. (It should churn for 20-30 minutes total. The less sugar you use, the longer it takes, FYI.)
- After about 15 minutes, put in the 1/8 tsp. essential mint oil and the chocolate shavings. They will mix in well at this final stage of freezing.
Notes
- We include organic beef gelatin in our milk mixture because it acts like an emulsifier to provide a little extra smoothness. You can also use tempered egg yolks.
- If you don't want to add more sugar and you don't mind alcohol, add a few tablespoons of whiskey. Alcohol is an anti-freeze.
- Also, don't overmix your ice cream, if you're using a blender to incorporate ingredients. Some air introduced in the mixing process is fine, but lots of air will produce a harder final freeze.
- Just remember to take the ice cream out 30-60 minutes before you want to eat it, regardless of what kind of sugar you use, so that it can soften.
Mint Ice Cream Recipe Notes
The key to homemade ice cream is mostly the fat (and a little bit the sugar) you use. If you have a high percentage of cream, you will have good ice cream.
Because homemade ice cream doesn’t have the harmful anti-freeze additives that commercial ice cream has, it will always set up more firmly once frozen. It may also taste a bit grainy to a palette used to commercial ice cream.
- We include organic beef gelatin in our milk mixture because it acts like an emulsifier to provide a little extra smoothness. You can also use tempered egg yolks.
If your ice cream is truly rock hard and you want it to be a little softer, add a bit more sugar. Sugar lowers the freezing point of the water in the ice cream, so adding a little more will help it set softer.
- If you don’t want to add more sugar and you don’t mind alcohol, add a few tablespoons of whiskey. Alcohol is an anti-freeze.
Additionally, freeze your ice cream as quickly as possible. Be sure the bowl of your countertop ice cream maker is pre-frozen. The quicker you make the change from liquid to solid, the smoother the ice cream will be.
- Also, don’t overmix your ice cream, if you’re using a blender to incorporate ingredients. Some air introduced in the mixing process is fine, but lots of air will produce a harder final freeze.
Using Alternative Ingredients
Here’s some advice from our article Homemade Ice Cream:
When using alternatives to dairy, just keep the fat rule in mind. Use the highest fat subsitution you can find and be willing to experience different textures.
Remember, the flavor will still be delicious! Ice cream is simply cream, sugar, and flavoring. Regardless of texture, your experimental ice creams will still taste amazing. And you’ll get used to the differences over time and find methods that work best for you.
Be advised that lower-carb sugars like erythritol are a little different from sugar cane sugars. When I make homemade ice cream with erythritol, I skip the countertop ice cream maker and put them into the freezer in a parchment paper lined pan. It takes overnight to freeze, but the texture is nearly as good and the flavor is still great.
Read and experiment with a lot of different lower-carb, alternative milk recipes before you settle on one you like best. Everyone is giving you their best variation, but you may find that you and your family like one much better than another.
You CAN make ice cream with “weird” milks and sugars, it will simply be a little different from what you might be used to – which is fine!”
Take the ice cream out of the freezer 30-60 minutes before you want to eat it, regardless of what kind of sugar you use, so that it can soften.
Final Ice Cream Tip
Overchurning your ice cream can produce a weird oily feeling as the cream turns to butter just a little bit. Don’t overmix your ice cream!
Also, don’t overfill your ice cream maker. It takes longer to churn the mixture if the bowl is too small for the amount…which can lead to overmixing.
In general, 4 cups of liquid requires a 2-quart or larger freezer bowl. If your bowl is smaller, churn the ice cream in two batches, or cut the batch in half.
- Some ice cream makers skip the churning altogether and simply put their ice cream directly into the freezer. This will usually produce firmer ice cream, but that might be what you want (like me with my erythritol ice creams). Or you may not have an ice cream maker.
To each his own ice cream!
No Machine for Your Mint Ice Cream Recipe
There are a few different ways you can make ice cream without an ice cream making machine. Here are just a few:
No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream from Fuss Free Flavours.
Make Ice Cream in a Bag from One Little Project.
How to Make Ice Cream Without a Machine from Handle the Heat.
Ice Cream Without a Machine from Barefeet in the Kitchen.
Basically, I want you to be confident that you can make ice cream even if you don’t have a machine because ice cream is only cream and sugar. That’s it. You can stop buying and start making your own ice cream no matter what!
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