NicStan Cooks

Apologies for the long intro and I don’t know if I can add a “jump to recipe” button.

I’m not sure when my obsession with ice cream began. I’ve always liked it but I don’t know if I would have said it was my favorite dessert. I enjoy trying new funky flavors, like lavender and goat cheese. Enter Salt and Straw. Visiting my sister in Oregon in 2012 she took me to this new ice cream place that excels in strange flavors, but also has an incredibly high quality of ice cream. I was hooked and demanded we go to Salt and Straw at least once daily every time I went to visit her for the next 8 years. When the carnivore and I bought our house last May, as a housewarming gift my sister sent me an ice cream maker and the salt and straw cookbook. It’s been a fun new (albeit not the healthiest) hobby!

My parents were in town last weekend for some skiing and my moms birthday. We got a place in the mountains and friends Lilly, Chris and baby Hannah joined us, along with Aunt Sarah. I wanted to make an ice cream for my mom’s birthday and thin mints have always been one of her favorites. I learned this year that thin mints are vegan, and so is Lilly so I made the Salt and Straw vegan base (which has coconut flakes in it, making it reminiscent of caramel delights, hence this becoming Girl Scout cookie ice cream, not just thin mint ice cream), added some peppermint and cocoa, crushed in some thin mints and finished freckling some dark chocolate in at the end!

Ingredients

Vegan ice cream base

• 1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• 2 1/2 cups unsweetened coconut cream (salt and straw calls for boxed, like Aroy-D, rather than canned, but I’ve never been able to find it)

Additives

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 4 drops peppermint extract
• 8-10 thin mints (crushed)

Freckling

• 3 oz single-origin dark chocolate
• 1 tsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Ensure ice cream bowl is frozen.
2. Toast the coconut flakes at 300 until they turn a dark amber color.
3. Stir together sugars and xanthan gum.
4. Combine coconut flakes, corn syrup, dry ingredients, and 1 cup water in small saucepan. Whisk until smooth. Set pan in medium heat until sugar melts without bringing to boil.
5. Remove from heat and stir in coconut cream.
6. Bring 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water to boil and immediately remove from heat.
7. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth.
8. Add peppermint extract.
9. Combine peppermint cocoa mix with the base and chill until cold.
10. Once mixture is chilled (seriously it needs to be cold or it won’t work), add crushed thin mints and pour into ice cream maker and churn until it has the texture of soft serve.
11. While churning set up a double boiler for the dark chocolate, add oil and melt until liquid.
12. Once ice cream is soft serve texture SLOWLY drizzle the dark chocolate into the ice cream maker. Like so slow your arm gets sore. When the chocolate hits the cold ice cream it will scatter into millions of little melt-in-your-mouth pieces of freckled chocolate.

Gather your favorite Girl Scout cookie lovin ice cream consumers and enjoy! Here’s a couple other photos from the weekend.