Thin Mint Ice Cream

Preparation

In a medium saucepan, add cream, milk, sugar, and cocoa powder. Heat on medium to high, stirring to dissolve sugar and cocoa powder.
 
Meanwhile, place yolks in a bowl. Set up a larger bowl with the chopped chocolate, and set aside. Set up an ice bath to fit the larger bowl with the chocolate.
 
When cream mixture starts getting warm to hot, start tempering the cream mixture into the yolk mixture. Tempering means to slowly pour the hot liquid into the raw yolks, slowly raising the temperature of the yolks as to not curdle. Once the yolk mixture is warm, pour it into the cream mixture over the stove.
 
Attach a candy thermometer and cook to 180ºF (82ºC). If you don’t have a thermometer, cook until the cream base coats the back of the spoon evenly. This is called nappe. Once the mixture at nappe, remove from heat and use a fine mesh strainer to strain the hot mixture over the chopped chocolate. This will remove any cooked egg particles you may have obtained during the cooking process.
 
Whisk to melt the chocolate into the cream mixture, and put the bowl over an ice bath. Using a spatula, move the ice cream base around to cool it down faster. Once the base is chilled, start to churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturers’ instructions.
 
Once churned, remove ice cream and fold in crushed thin mints. Put ice cream in large container and let freeze for 24 hours before serving.

Makes about 1 quart ice cream.