Cookie Dough Ice Cream

     Who doesn't love cookie dough ice cream? It brings out the little kid in all of us. I used to feel silly ordering it instead of a more grown-up flavor, but later I just decided to have no shame. So what if my favorite ice cream flavor is the same as that of most five-year-olds? I can't be the only one. Since I like an unusually high cookie dough to actual ice cream ratio, I made much more dough than you actually need and used the extra to bake a batch of cookies. Also, the base is regular vanilla ice cream, so if that's all you want, feel free to skip the cookie dough. (But why would you want to do that???)

INGREDIENTS:

For dough:
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick of butter, softened
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg (You have to use pasteurized for this.)
1 cup mini chocolate chips

For ice cream:
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large bowl, mix up all ingredients for the cookie dough. Start with a spoon, but get your hands in there at some point. The order doesn't matter much as long as you add the chocolate chips last. Refrigerate dough until ice cream is done.

2. In a medium pot, mix the egg yolks, sugar, salt, and milk. Heat on low for 5 minutes until it just starts to boil. Stir constantly.

3. Run this mixture through a sieve, then return it to the pot. Add the cream and vanilla and heat on low for another 3-5 minutes.

4. Refrigerate the ice cream for 2 hours. While you're waiting, divide the cookie dough into thirds. Take 2/3 of it and bake regular cookies. (350 for 11-14 minutes)

5. Take the other 1/3 of the dough and form little bite sized pieces out of it. For my ice cream maker, they recommend that I let it mix the ice cream alone for 15 minutes and then add any solid mix-ins for the last 15 minutes.

6. Run the ice cream in your machine and add the cookie dough at the recommended time. Then transfer to a sealed plastic container and freeze for 4 hours before serving. Makes about 1 quart.

I hope you enjoy this little trip back to your youth! Tomorrow I'll post more dinner ideas.