On this, the 19 of Messidor, we celebrate mint! And boy, do we have a lot of mint with which to celebrate. We have a section of the yard with strawberries and mint growing and this year the mint has gone absolutely crazy. I’m making plain mint ice cream with chocolate cookies to form sandwiches. The cookies come from this recipe.

Mint Ice Cream 

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla

6 egg yolks

large handful of mint, with the leaves torn

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream and salt in a medium pan. Heat to a simmer and then remove from heat. Separate the eggs and temper the warm milk mixture into the eggs and then pour the egg mixture back into the pan. Heat at medium low until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat and then add the vanilla, the torn mint leaves and then the other cup of cream. Chill overnight.

I have a five-year-old, so I added a few drops of green food color to the ice cream base. Strain out the leaves and freeze in your ice cream maker. I lined a half sheet pan with plastic wrap and poured the ice cream in and then covered with plastic wrap. I froze the ice cream and then was able to cut the ice cream easily into the correct size for the chocolate cookies. Enjoy!