Peppermint Ice Cream

How many of you guys have leftover candy canes sitting around in your cupboards?

I thought so.  We had, in fact, three boxes of varying flavors, which have been slowly picked off, one at a time, over the last two and a half months.  But when we got down to our last box, I knew I had to make a peppermint recipe.

And yet somehow, lately, I've gotten out of the habit of using my ice cream maker.  How could this happen, you ask?  My theory is that it's all about the appliance placement.

My kitchenaid mixer is placed prominently on our counter, as is the toaster oven.  My food processor is in one of my most-used cabinets.  The microwave is right below the toaster over (although, let's face it, the microwave would still get a lot of use if I kept it on our roof).

But my ice cream maker?

Bottom shelf of our pantry, right next to the dog food.

I'm serious.  Yuck, right?  But after I'd thoroughly cleaned it out, frozen the churning bowl, and 24 hours later, had created this ice cream, I can't imagine how I've let it be neglected for so long.  Three days later, this ice cream is gone.  And, unlike most of my dessert recipes, I didn't eat it all myself -- my fiance regularly went back for seconds and thirds of this ice cream all week.

So bring a little Christmas to your February, and use up your extra candy canes with this.  Enjoy!

Peppermint Ice Cream

INGREDIENTS

3 peppermint candy canes

1 1/3 cups milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tbsp vodka

DIRECTIONS

Crush the candy canes into a fine powder in a food processor. Dissolve the powder in the milk and then pour in the cream and vodka and mix well. Process the mixture in an ice cream maker until churned, then freeze for several hours before serving.