One of my biggest pet peeves is ordering cookie dough ice cream at an ice cream shop and then getting two measly pieces of cookie dough in the entire scoop. Not cool. The ice cream should be LOADED and CHUNKY (like me on the weekends). That’s why I love making ice cream at home – you control the chunk factor. With gobs of cookie dough and dark chocolate ribbons running through velvety vanilla ice cream, what could be better?

A few quick notes:

1. Since we’re not baking the cookie dough, we bake the flour on a baking tray for a few minutes to kill any harmful bacteria.
2. To the extent possible, use high quality vanilla, chocolate and butter to make everything extra delicious. My favorite vanilla brand is Nielsen-Massey; you can typically find it at Whole Foods.
3. Traditionally, most ice cream recipes call for equal parts half-and-half and heavy cream. I like to sub out one cup of the heavy cream for another cup of half-and-half (cause then you can eat more gobs of cookie dough) and I’ve never noticed a difference in terms of ice cream texture/creaminess.

Ingredients

For the cookie dough:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• Cooking spray (optional)

For the ice cream:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 tsp neutral flavored oil, such as grapeseed or vegetable oil

Directions

For the cookie dough:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spread the flour out in an even layer on a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake for 5 minutes. Let cool.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the cream and vanilla, and whisk until thoroughly incorporated.
4. Stir in the baked flour (keep the foil and the baking sheet out for the next step). Gently fold in the mini chocolate chips.
5. Scoop out small bite size balls of the dough and arrange on the baking sheet lined with foil. The dough is sticky, so the easiest way to scoop out small amounts is with two small spoons. If you’d like the dough balls to be smooth and round, scoop out the bite sized pieces and then spray your fingers with a bit of cooking spray and shape into smooth balls. Freeze for an hour before adding into the ice cream (and keep in the freezer until immediately ready to add into ice cream).

For the ice cream:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the heavy cream, half-and-half, granulated sugar, sea salt, and vanilla until the sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside.
2. Place the finely chopped chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave at low power for 30 seconds. Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir. Repeat in 30 second increments until the chocolate is fully melted. Stir in the neutral flavored oil and set aside.
3. Add the ice cream base (the heavy cream mixture) to an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s instructions. If you’re using the Cuisinart ice cream maker, you’ll churn the ice cream for approximately 20 minutes total (don’t overchurn! It will make it icy). During the last 5 minutes, add in the frozen cookie dough straight from the freezer. During the last 30 seconds, slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate (it will harden immediately when it comes into contact with the ice cream, so don’t dump in one big blob). Immediately transfer to an airtight container and freeze for 2-3 hours.