I was a Girl Scout once upon a time. Emphasis on once. Technically I was a Brownie. Each week a group of girls and myself would walk to our troop leader’s house around the block from our elementary school. One of the girls in our group was a little thug and would occasionally steal our dues money. That was a great lesson. Too bad there wasn’t a Mean Girls Merit badge because that little twit would have been a top notch candidate.
During my brief stint as a Brownie/Girl Scout I remember religiously studying the official handbook. I had quite the yen for textbooks when I first started going to school and I loved pouring over the pages that detailed knot tying, sing-a-long songs, and campfire cooking. But what I remember most vividly was the excitement and calamity involved with the selling of Girl Scout Cookies. I have a distinct memory of arriving at our troop leaders house with my mother and finding her dining room and entryway completely filled with cases of cookies from floor to ceiling. Imagine it: Thin Mints, Tagalongs, and Do-Si-Dos as far as my 7-year-old eyes could see.
These days Girl Scout cookies make their way into our homes via the efforts of various “well meaning” parents in our offices who tack the order forms to the outside of their cubicles, or sometimes we happen upon a table of little sash clad girls sitting outside the local supermarket at a table full of cookies looking much too adorable for you to say no to. That’s what happened to me this year. I was ambushed right in front of the Harvard Coop. The site of all those colorfully boxed cookies was too much for me to resist and I sheepishly bought two boxes of Thin Mints.
After CK and I slowly savored the first box as a nightly after dinner treat I thought it might be nice to use some of the remaining cookies in a minty homemade ice cream. Then just to make everything as highly calorie laden as possible I added in a dark chocolate swirl. The cool minty flavor of this crunchy cookie ice cream was absolutely delicious. I also learned a little trick about adding “swirls” to ice cream. Don’t add the chocolate sauce directly into your ice cream churn. This will make the mixture muddy looking. Layer the ice cream and chocolate sauce in a freezer proof container. Then when you scoop out a serving you’ll have noticeable layers of cookie ice cream and gooey sauce.
Double Thin Mint Ice Cream
Loosely adapted from the Ben & Jerry’s Sweet Cream Base #1 recipe originally published in the Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book.
Makes 1 quart
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons peppermint extract
10 ounces of dark chocolate sauce
15 Thin Mints (one sleeve of cookies) crushed
Whisk the eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue to whisk until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream, milk, and peppermint extract and whisk to blend. Begin freezing the mixture according to your ice cream maker’s manufacturer instructions.
As the ice cream starts to come together in your machine carefully pour in the crushed Thin Mint cookies. Then allow the ice cream to finish the freezing cycle.
In order to add a chocolate swirl to your ice cream do not add the chocolate sauce directly into your ice cream churn. This will make the mixture appear muddy looking. Layer the ice cream and chocolate sauce in a freezer proof container. Start with a layer of ice cream. Then smooth half of the jar of dark chocolate sauce on top. Add another layer of ice cream, and finish with the remaining chocolate sauce. Freeze the mixture until it has hardened completely. Then when you scoop out a serving you’ll have noticeable layers of cookie ice cream and gooey sauce.