Peppermint Stick Ice Cream seems to be one of those old fashioned ice cream flavors that’s been cast aside to make room for the weird. Pomegranate Cookie Dough or Cilantro Swirl anybody? Okay, maybe I’m just joking there, but when you have a classic flavor like this it shouldn’t be forgotten.

This is a rich vanilla custard base with some kick from the peppermint/almond extract and some crunch from the candies. That’s it and that’s all. A little sweet striped piece of kidhood to cool you off and appease your inner child. Actual kids will like it too.

When I tell people about this recipe I get the same response across the board. It’s always along the lines of, “I used to love this and now you can’t find it anywhere anymore!” Well, consider it found.

Making the custard follows the same drill as I more fully described in the recipe for Salted Steen’s Ice Cream. The short version of that is to gradually whisk the warm milk/cream mixture into the egg/sugar mixture. After about half of the warm cream has been added to the yolks you can pour that back into the pot and stir until the custard thickens and coats a spoon, or registers 180 on a thermometer. Strain it into a bowl and add the food coloring like this:

Same stuff as they use on CSI episodes I’m sure.  Anyway, mix it to your preferred degree of pinkness, add the extracts, cover with plastic and chill.

While the blood splatter is chillin, you can have a go at the candies. I wrapped mine up in a dish cloth and bashed them with the wimpy female type hammer you see in the shot below. If you’re a man making this recipe you can drop them in a Hefty bag and back your truck over them. Whatever works for you.

So when the custard is chilled, freeze it according to directions and when it’s almost done drop in the candies and prepare to revisit your childhood summertime memories.