Peppermint Ice Cream

You may be very organized and throw all of your leftover candy canes away when Christmas has come and gone.  Or perhaps you are like me and think that there must be something that you can do with all of that delicious peppermint confection.  Sometimes I just toss all of them into the food processor, chop them up very tiny, store it in a jar, and sprinkle it on vanilla ice cream.  The only problem with that is it seems like I have the jar sitting on my pantry shelf forever, not using it up as I had originally intended.  Well, this year my sister, Kass, gave me a recipe for Peppermint ice cream that is so good.  According to the recipe you don't even need a little ice cream maker; however, I do happen to have one, so I cut the recipe in half, and just threw all of the ingredients into my ice cream maker, and it turned out delicious.  It uses a lot of candy canes as well, so you can make short order of however many you may have sitting around after the holidays.

Peppermint Ice Cream

28 candy canes
2 cups half and half
4 cups heavy whipping cream

1.  Unwrap candy canes and place in a freezer bag.  Seal bag and use a rolling pin to beat candy canes into tiny pieces.  (I actually just ground mine up in my food processor).  Pour candy cane bits into the bottom of an eight-quart freezer-safe container.

2.  Pour whipping cream and half and half on top of candy cane bits.  Stir until well mixed.  Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours, stirring occasionally.

3.  Remove from fridge and stir until blended.  Pour mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer.  Whip until soft peaks begin to form.

4.  Place cream back into a freezer-safe container and freeze until set up -- about 8-12 hours.