Fresh Mint Cookie Ice Cream, Hot and Smoky Baked Beans, and Mexican Chocolate Ice cream

 I keep forgetting to post the ice cream recipes I tried. Probably because I don't write them down...yet I think of all my opinions of them and then still somehow forget to post them. Odd.

So because of that I have two to post. 

Mint Cookie Icecream- At one point mint chocolate ice cream was my absolute favorite. I think that was in the 2nd grade or so. I couldn't get enough. So that meant I was excited to try it out again because it's been years and years since I had any. I even remember it being my go to for visits to Baskin and Robbins if I wasn't getting orange or rainbow sherbet. Anyway...this mint ice-cream uses real mint. Which was a pain to puree. I first tried a stick blender which didn't work. So I had to throw it in a blender, dirtying up more appliances. After that it was pretty easy...Just churn it with crushed Oreos. Unfortunately it wasn't my favorite and I wouldn't make it again. It had a nice mint flavor...but not punchy enough. More of a sweet mint. And I wished the cookies were chocolate chips instead. Not bad, but not

 worth the effort. 

Then I made baked beans. I've never made baked beans before. Not even sure I ever had homemade ones but growing up I did eat at least a can of Bush's Vegetarian Baked beans weekly. These beans were actually very good and very easy to make-even starting from dried beans. The texture was better and they weren't as sweet as the canned variety. I would definitely make them again! I especially love the chipotle flavor since I'm a little obsessed with chipotle.....

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Last but not least, I made Mexican Chocolate Ice cream. I've made a few chocolate ice cream recipes (they were all great!), but I think this is my favorite. The cinnamon flavor was just so good and just elevates it. It kinda reminds me of when my sister got a bunch of different high quality chocolates and made chocolate mousse and hot chocolate to test them out. The most expensive one had subtle cinnamon flavors. This is a way to mimic that expensive chocolate (I still used a high quality, pricier chocolate to make this). I think it was also the easiest chocolate ice cream recipe as it had less steps... Wish I took a better picture but I made a half-batch and had to make sure to share!