Have I ever told you how much my grandpa loves ice cream?

When I was little, we took a trip to a family reunion – my mom, grandpa, sister, and I. With no clue who these really old people were, and not very many children to play with, I remember very little of the reunion besides intense boredom and hot dogs.

What I do remember was the journey out to where ever it was we were going. Why? Two things:

1. We rode out there in my grandpa’s motor home. When you are 10, a motor home, literally a house on wheels, is the most amazing thing ever. “You mean, I can sit on this couch while we drive down the road!?” Yes, yes you can little me.

2. My grandpa loves ice cream. Stops at Dairy Queen were mandatory. And frequent.

So let’s recap: house on wheels, mandatory ice cream pitstops. It really is about the journey, not the destination.

My love of frozen dairy has to be genetic then. A trait I proudly bear from my grandpa, and an addiction I only ever intend to enable thanks to my beautiful ice cream machine.

Ingredients:

• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup 1% or 2% milk
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. peppermint extract
• 1 roll of Thin Mints

Directions:

How to make the base:

1. In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in half of the sugar (1/4 cup). Set aside.

2. In a heavy nonreactive saucepan, stir together the cream, milk, salt and the remaining sugar (1/4 cup) and put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.

3. Carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the egg yolks. Repeat, adding another 1/2 cup of the hot cream to the bowl with the yolks. Using a heatproof rubber spatula, stir the cream in the saucepan as you slowly pour the egg-and-cream mixture from the bowl into the pan.

4. Cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and holds a clear path when you run your finger across the spatula, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

5. Strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer into a clean container. Set the container into an ice-water bath, wash your spatula and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. Remove the container from the ice-water bath, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours or overnight.

6. While it cools, empty your cookie roll into a gallon-sized plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, or other solid object, break the cookies up into small pieces.

Freeze the ice cream:

1. Whisk the peppermint extract into the chilled base.

2. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put the container you’ll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. Add the cookie pieces in the last minute or so of churning, or fold them in by hand after transferring the ice cream to the chilled container. Enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, freeze for at least 4 hours.