Saturday, July 25, 2015

Butter Mint Ice Cream




When I was a kid, I thought that if a restaurant had a dish of butter mints near the door on the way out, then it was a sign of fine dining. After dinner mints still come in a wide variety of styles and flavors. Party mints (those cute little pastel colored mints), fancy jelly mints, and the rare but equally delicious black anise mints. However, my favorite of all time has to be butter mints. I'm not sure if it was because of the name and that they looked like little pats of butter to me or that they had a tinge of salty butter flavor mixed with that melt-in-the-mouth mint flavor. Either way, they have always been a favorite of mine.

Once in a while, when I was quite young, I would go with my Mom to visit elderly relatives. You could always bet they would have a shiny cut glass candy dish sitting on a coffee table filled with something interesting. I would eye it with anticipation in hopes that they would notice and offer me whatever was in that dish. There were times when the mint was old and perhaps stale (based on how hard they were) but I would savor it in my mouth and let it melt slowly - which sometimes took the duration of the visit and kept me well behaved!

Now that I am all grown up, I still crave many of those flavors from my childhood. Butter mint being no exception to that rule. Here, I mixed cool, creamy ice cream with a light butter mint flavor followed with crushed party mints swirled around. A perfect way to take your "everyday" meal and turn it into a fine dining experience... I'm jus' sayin'!



Butter Mint Ice Cream

1 1/2 Cups of milk
1 1/8 Cup of sugar
3 Cups of heavy cream
1 1/2 TBSP of Butter extract
1 Tbsp Of Mint Extract
~ Crush in at the end of ice cream process 3/4 Cup of Crushed Party Mints or Butter Mints

Combine all until sugar is dissolved. Then follow manufacturer's directions for the ice cream maker.



5 comments:

  1. Butter extract, interesting! I've heard of it, but never would have thought to use it for an ice cream!

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  2. South Austin Foodie- To be clear this would be the ONLY time I would suggest using an extract for the real thing. In fact I had to buy it because I have never owned such a thing lol! I recommend King Arthur version as I'm betting it would have been better then the brand I used.

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  3. I have that same nostalgia and love for butter mints. It's funny that you mentioned a stale bowlful in homes of elderly people, as I've had similar experiences. I don't have an ice cream maker, but you've got me thinking I should try to make an icing version of this for chocolate cupcakes or something. Your awesome cooking always inspires my creativity!

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    Replies
    1. Kristin,
      It is funny about the elderly, maybe we were the only ones eating them? I LOVE your genius idea for a buttercream icing for cupcakes. If you make them PLEASE let me know how they come out. I was thinking about doing an ice box pie with a layer of buttermint filling. I'm glad I can be an inspiration. :)

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  4. I've never even heard of butter extract! But, yeah, used to stuff those buttermints in my pocket as a kid when visiting a great aunt!

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