]I made this recipe with wild wintergreen berries from Massachusetts, but the berries live across much of the northern tier of states and in Canada. It is a pretty subtle wintergreen, so it shouldn't remind you too much of mouthwash or toothpaste. If you don’t feel like foraging, you can use a teaspoon of wintergreen extract, but the flavor will be slightly different. I do not use eggs in this recipe. I am using corn starch and maple syrup. This lets me do several things: First, it keeps the color of the ice cream a pure white, which I like because it makes me feel cooler, as wintergreen should. Second, it keeps the flavors pure. Third, the corn starch and maple syrup, which is an invert sugar, keep the ice cream scoopable far longer than with a regular, egg-based ice cream.
4ouncesof semi-sweet chocolate,chopped fine and kept cold
Instructions
Save about 1/4 cup of the milk back to dissolve the corn starch in later. Heat the rest of the milk, the cream, sugar and wintergreen to the steaming point, about 160°F to 170°F. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let steep for at least 2 hours, and up to overnight. To steep, let the mixture cool to room temperature on the stove, then pour it into a lidded container and refrigerate.
You can strain the mixture or not: The cooked wintergreen berries soften, have an innocuous texture and add a little color to the ice cream, but you can strain it if you want.
Pour the mixture back into a pot. Turn the heat on medium to heat it up again slowly. While it is heating, whisk the corn starch in with the remaining milk until it is dissolved. Stir the cornstarch mixture into the ice cream base. Stir in the maple syrup. Stir the ice cream base frequently until it gets back to the steaming point, then stir it constantly for 8 to 10 minutes. You need to do this to get the mixture to set up correctly.
Turn off the heat and cool the mixture. I do this by filling a large bowl with ice and then nestling a smaller bowl inside the larger bowl. Pour the ice cream base into the smaller bowl, then stir frequently to cool it rapidly. Now is the time to add the wintergreen extract, if you're using it. When the ice cream base is cool, put it in your ice cream maker and follow its directions.
As soon as the ice cream is made, gently fold in the chocolate chips. Either serve at once (it will be soft) or allow to harden in the freezer. The longer you store this ice cream, the harder it will get.