Vanilla Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Yesterday, Mr. D brought over beautiful fresh peaches, cream and milk and an ice cream maker and we all made ice cream. Kiddo was so enamored of the process (but not so crazy about the peach flavoring) that he decided we should make ice cream again today, but this time with mint and chocolate. "Dark chocolate, Mom." He helped with all the steps, encouraged me to make up the recipe and write it down. Smart kid!

This makes 3 quarts.

• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 bar (minus a few pieces to snack on) of Escazu 70% dark chocolate with sea salt, chopped finely
• 1 large bunch fresh mint, washed and spun dry, chopped finely
• 1 Tbs green creme de menthe

1. Add cream and milk to a large heavy saucepan
2. Add the split vanilla bean and seeds
3. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat, cover and set for 20 minutes
4. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together
5. When the milk mixture has steeped for 20 minutes, add a few ladles of the milk to the eggs and whisk, then add the eggs back into the saucepan with the milk. Remove the vanilla bean
6. Bring the custard to a low simmer, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 165 degrees
7. Refrigerate the custard in a clean bowl until chilled
8. Add the mint, chocolate and creme de menthe to the custard
   
9. Follow the directions on your ice cream maker