After accumulating all these ice cream toppings, it's only natural that one should wonder what I put them on. Well, when I'm not eating them by the spoonful, I drizzle them on whatever ice cream happens to be sitting in the freezer. Sadly, more often than not, it is store-bought. But last summer, I did start delving into the ice cream world, diligently trying out both the Philadelphia and French methods.
One recipe in particular was a cookie dough ice cream, a double cookie dough ice cream. While it was pretty good, it honestly wasn't great. The chunks were kind of brown and buttery, and just not entirely resembling any kind of dough. The reason I tried it was because the base itself incorporated cookie dough ingredients, so I thought it had to be pretty good. Meh.
I sort of steered clear of cookie dough ice creams for awhile, not feeling up to messing around with them. But when this week's Sundays with Joy recipe came up, I knew I had to give it a shot. And I am so glad that I did.
I don't know about you, but one of my biggest complaints with cookie dough ice creams out there is there's just never enough dough! You get all the chunks picked out, and there's nothing left but your lonely spoon swimming in a sea of melted (and usually bland) vanilla ice cream, sometimes dotted with hard chocolate chunks. No fun.
This is apparently not an uncommon problem. Joy starts out the recipe confessing that she is a die-hard "picker." Now, this has nothing to do with the nose, I'll just say that right now. This is has to do with the m&m's in trail mix disappearing, the little bread things in Chex mix going missing, and the cookie dough in the ice cream vanishing. If you've found yourself in any of these scenarios, with no clue why, you're in the presence of a picker.
How is this solved? More chunks, doth say Joy. She wasn't kidding. Now, the recipe says it should yield about 50 marble-sized rounds. Let's be honest here...I don't know what your definition of marble-sized might be, but mine ended up being just a wee bit bigger. Just a bit. Like maybe...two marbles worth? Sure. Anyway, point is that I ended up with something over 60 goodly-sized chunks of cookie dough. No joke! You will get a lot of cookie dough. And you will like it.
You might also be tempted to skimp or entirely skip the strawberries. I know I was. Strawberries...and cookie dough. Not my first choice, but it is now! With all that cookie dough, you need some lightening up. Let's be real. The little chunks of strawberry are just enough to tint the ice cream a delicate pink and add a little freshness. Just try it! It's lovely.
And, if you're interested, I also ventured into the land of ice cream cone-making. I'll just say now that I need a lot of practice before I have this down. I made my own mold out of a cardboard circle, a lot of tape, and tinfoil. This is not for the faint of heart. My mold needs quite a bit of perfecting, and I realized after making about six that I was over-baking them. After realizing these things, I only had enough dough for one more cone. This guy came out quite beautifully, and was the only one that I managed to seal correctly at the bottom.
You live and learn. I'll be practicing these a lot this summer, and hopefully will work up a good tutorial for you before ice cream season is over. But! They were still very delicious. No Styrofoam texture, and their somewhat imperfect edges gave them a nice, sort of rustic look. Certainly a worthy vessel for ice cream.
To fix the issue of the open end, I carefully stuffed a mini-sized marshmallow into the tip, and then sealed it off with melted chocolate for good measure. Although I didn't plan on these additions, they were actually a beautiful compliment, and almost made you want to start eating at the tip of the cone in order to get at the good stuff.
So, I'm no professional, but I will share the cone recipe and my method with you. It's entirely worth trying, and this would be a good beginner recipe for anyone. If you have heatproof gloves, use them. Otherwise, double-layer a couple pairs of sturdy rubber cleaning gloves (which is what I did). Admittedly, this isn't as protective as heatproof gloves might be, but it keeps you from the worst of the hot cookies.
If you happen to have a cone mold on hand, yay! Otherwise you can buy them in bunches on Amazon, which I recommend doing, at least until I can get you a reliable homemade cone mold method. I'll work on it! Promise.
For the ice cream recipe, I refer you to Joy's cookbook, readily available and entirely worth the purchase.
On a side note, Carrie (of Bakeaholic Mama), our wonderful group administrator, is gone for the weekend. In her absence, she asked me to host the link list, which shows all the other blogs that have also made Joy's ice cream this week for Sundays with Joy. Be sure to check out their versions at the bottom of this post, after the recipe.
Chocolate Marshmallow Cones
Yield: about six 6-inch cones (I manged to scrape out seven cones.)
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) egg whites (about 2 large egg whites)
- 7 tablespoons sugar
- 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped (or 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract)
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup (90 g) flour, divided
- 2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter, melted
- About 6 mini marshmallows
- 3 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. If you're as finicky as I am, you may want to trace two or three 6-inch circles on the underside of the parchment, I found it immensely helpful.
Combine the egg whites, sugar, and vanilla bean seeds (or extract) in a small bowl. Stir in the salt and 1/3 cup of the flour. Mix in the melted butter, then stir in the other 1/3 cup of the flour until smooth. Use a small offset spatula to spread 2 level tablespoons of batter into a circle with a diameter of 6″ (15 cm). The smoother and more even your rounds, the prettier your cones will look.
Bake one sheet (2-3 cones, depending on your cookie sheet capacity) at a time. Start checking after 10 minutes, but depending on your oven, the baking time will be 10-15 minutes. The cookies will be golden-brown throughout, with some darker and lighter spots.
When the cookies near the end of their baking time, pull on a double layer of disposable rubber cleaning gloves or heatproof gloves. Pull the sheet out of the oven and run a thin metal spatula under a circle to loosen the edges. Quickly flip it over and roll it around a cone-shaped mold (It's hot! Be wary, and quick.). Press the seam firmly against the counter to close the sides of the cone, and press the bottom together to pinch the point at the bottom (If you failed at this, don't worry! We're filling it up later anyway.). Let the cone cool slightly on the mold until it keeps its shape, then let it cool completely in a tall glass. Roll the other cone (if the cookie has cooled too much to roll, return the sheet to the oven for a minute, or until more pliable.). Continue to bake and roll cones with the remaining batter.
While the finished cones cool, fill a pot with a couple inches of water and set on the stove. Bring to a gentle simmer, but do not allow to boil. Finely chop the chocolate and set it in a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over the simmering water, and let sit, stirring occasionally, until just melted. Immediately remove and stir around any half-melted chunks until smooth.
Gently insert a mini marshmallow into the bottom of each cone. Dip the cone in the melted chocolate, and also drizzle a bit down inside to cover the marshmallow. Place bottom-down in a tall glass and put in the freezer until just hardened (don't leave it too long, or it will stick to the glass completely). Repeat with the remaining cones. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
Sources: adapted from 17 and Baking, who barely adapted it from David Lebovitz, ice cream from Joy the Baker's Cookbook
