CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH ICE CREAM
The best part of making cookies as a kid was sneaking bits and pieces of the dough when Mom wasn’t looking. Of course, there’s also the iconic Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream, which was all the rage in the United States when Ben and Pete were little. No matter where you stood on ice cream flavors (Vanilla or chocolate? Strawberry or black raspberry?), the cookie dough flavor was a favorite in everyone’s book. So this recipe is an homage to what we think is one of the best ice cream flavors ever created, guaranteed to bring out the kid in you.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) sugar
½ large plump vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt
8 large egg yolks
1 cup cookie dough from Chocolate Chip Cookies
1. Pour the cream and milk into a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water). Whisk in ½ cup (100 grams) of the sugar, the vanilla bean seeds and pod, and the salt and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top. Remove from the heat, cover, and let the mixture steep for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the vanilla pod.
2. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and set another bowl over it. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining 2 tablespoons (25 grams) sugar until uniform. While whisking, add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. Continue to add the dairy mixture, whisking it in bit by bit, until you’ve added about half. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining dairy mixture in the double boiler. Set the heat under the double boiler to medium and cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and reducing the heat to medium-low as necessary, until steam begins to rise from the surface and the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Hold the spoon horizontally and run your finger through the custard. If the trail left by your finger stays separated, the custard is ready to be cooled.
4. Strain the custard into the bowl sitting over the prepared ice bath and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
5. Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place the container in which you refrigerated the custard in the freezer so you can use it to store the finished ice cream. Churn the ice cream until the texture resembles “soft serve.” Break or chop the cookie dough into small pieces and use a spatula to fold it into the ice cream by hand until incorporated. Transfer the ice cream to the chilled storage container and freeze until hardened to your desired consistency. Alternatively, you can serve it immediately—it will be the consistency of gelato. The ice cream will keep, frozen, for up to 7 days.