Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Second interview at the CPS school — this time with the SpEd department chair and the school social worker and Mrs. Dominguez again. They asked about IEP development, which I know well from coursework and from watching Ms. Reyes work through them during student teaching. They asked about family communication. I talked about calling home weekly, about building trust with parents who have reason to be skeptical of systems that have failed their kids before. The social worker nodded emphatically at that one.

They asked when I could start. I said whenever they needed me. Mrs. Dominguez smiled. The SpEd chair said "We'll call you." Different from "we'll be in touch." I drove home on the Metra reading the distinction like a text for meaning. "We'll call you" means they are going to call me. I think. I am trying not to think about it too much. I made it home in forty minutes and ate the leftovers standing over the sink because I was too keyed up to sit.

Valentine's Day is coming and the blog readers are asking for Valentine's recipes, which is not really my area — I write about cooking on nothing, not romantic dinners. But I wrote a post about cooking for someone you love when you cannot spend much money. Scrambled eggs at midnight. Banana bread made with the bananas they were going to throw away. The ways that care shows up when the budget is very small. It got more comments than any post I have written. People said: yes, that is what love looks like in my house too.

Made chocolate chip cookies this week because I needed to make something that would be good. They are from a recipe I have made since high school: butter, brown sugar, white sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, baking soda, salt, a bag of chocolate chips. Soft in the middle, golden at the edges. I brought a dozen to Babcia Rose on Sunday. She ate two. She said nothing. She put the rest on her counter. That means she liked them.

The cookies I made this week were about needing to do something with my hands, something I already knew how to do well, while I waited to find out whether that interview meant what I thought it meant. If you’ve ever made a batch of chocolate chip cookies just to feel like yourself again, this recipe is the natural next step — all that same brown sugar and vanilla warmth, folded into something cold and slow and worth waiting for. I made this for the first time the summer after my own hardest stretch of job hunting, and I’ve made it every hopeful summer since.

Prep Time: 25 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 6 hours (includes freezing) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
For the cookie dough chunks:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour, heat-treated (see instructions)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips, divided

Instructions

Heat-treat the flour. Spread flour on a baking sheet and bake at 350°F for 5 minutes, or microwave in a bowl for 1 minute, stirring halfway. Let cool completely. This makes the raw flour safe to eat.
Make the cookie dough. Beat softened butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Mix in milk and vanilla. Stir in the cooled heat-treated flour and salt until a soft dough forms. Fold in 1/2 cup of the mini chocolate chips. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes, then roll into small chunks (about 1/2 teaspoon each) and freeze on a parchment-lined plate for at least 1 hour.
Mix the ice cream base. Whisk together the heavy cream, whole milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl until the sugar is fully dissolved, about 2 minutes.
Churn or freeze. If using an ice cream maker, churn according to manufacturer’s directions until it reaches a soft-serve consistency, about 20–25 minutes. If making no-churn: pour the base into a shallow freezer-safe container, freeze for 1 hour, then stir vigorously with a fork. Repeat every 30–45 minutes for 3 hours total to break up ice crystals.
Fold in the mix-ins. Once the ice cream base is at soft-serve stage, fold in the frozen cookie dough chunks and remaining 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips.
Final freeze. Transfer to a lidded container and freeze for at least 2 hours until firm. Before scooping, let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cookie Dough Ice Cream — Because Sometimes You Need Something That Will Just Be Good