The Melting Peppermint Problem

As a child my family would make peppermint ice cream from time to time.  We'd get all the ingredients together to make vanilla ice cream and then we'd get a bag of peppermints.   I'd take the peppermints out on the deck and bang on them with a hammer in a bag, that being the way my mother taught me, not to mention tremendous fun for a small child.  

Then we'd make the ice cream in one of those old salt and ice-type machines.   It made lots of noise, caused lots of ice to melt and depended on lots of rock salt to make the whole process work.   At some point along the way, the tone would change in the motor, telling you the mixture was almost ready.   We'd stop it, take the lid off while trying not to let the salty water into the canister and add the crushed up peppermints.   Then we'd turn it back on and let it go for a few more minutes until it was done.

That peppermint ice cream was so delicious.  It had that nice crunch of candy in it if we did it right.   What happened if we didn't pay close attention was that we put the candy in too early and it would either melt before it was done, leaving no crunch, or melt in the ice cream overnight.  Most of the time we had pink, pepperminty ice cream but not much crunch.

Recently, my mother-in-law and I became enthusiastic about peppermint ice cream making.   She and I gave each other crushed peppermint for Christmas.  And this was funny, because neither of us had any idea it was on the other's mind.  Then we both stuck the peppermint in our pantry's and did nothing about it until it turned warm weather.  

During our spring vacation to Florida, we made peppermint ice cream using her ice cream maker and used the peppermint I gave her for Christmas.   It was great, it had crunch, and it stayed having crunch through the next day.  We don't know what would have happened beyond that because it was all gone.   Was it the new-fangled ice cream machine that used a pre-frozen container that made making ice cream a no-fuss business?   Was it the pre-crushed peppermints?   Or was it our amazing timing in adding the peppermint to the batch?   We didn't know.

Several weeks ago I made some ice cream back here, using the peppermint she gave me (a different kind).  I also have one of those new-fangled ice cream makers because after seeing how easily and neatly hers made ice cream, well, yeah, I went out and got one straight away.   Then, magic of all magic, my ice cream was crunchy and stayed crunchy too.   Had we beaten the melting peppermint problem?

I didn't like the recipe from the ice cream maker manual though.  It was mostly heavy cream with a touch of whole milk added.   Heavy cream plus loads of sugar plus crunchy candy is a heck of a lot of calories per spoonful.   Could I make it a little less caloric-intensive and still be delicious?  

I remembered making ice cream at home as a child and we used half-and-half, not heavy cream.   I decided to try again.   I used the new-fangled ice cream maker.  I used the crushed peppermint that didn't melt in the last batch, but I changed the butterfat level from, "heavy as hell cream" to "half-as-heavy half".  I added the peppermint right at the end, just like before and the resulting ice cream was both delicious and crunchy...

...until the next morning.  At that point there were little red areas in the ice cream that indicated the spots the peppermint had melted, but no crunch.   And that's when it made sense, it's butterfat related.   The more fat in the ice cream, the more difficult it is for the peppermint to dissolve.  The less fat (and more water) and the peppermint comfortably melts into the ice cream.

Mystery solved (or so I think).   I'm going to have to do some more research to determine for sure.   Note to self:  add cream and half-and-half to the grocery list.

The Big Boy Update:  At lunch today my son was romping around and not sitting still.  I told him to sit down several times.  He turned to me after the third time and said, "I need to supervise."

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  The last baby shower gift.   I received many wonderful baby shower gifts for both my children.  Today, I used the very last gift for the first time, sending my daughter to school in a T2 sundress.  She looked adorable.