Cookies and Cream, like you've never had

We've all had ice cream. Be it a pint of Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie™ or a scoop of Vanilla flavoured Häagen-Dazs.

Here's another awesome way to enjoy ice cream.
Make your own!
And to kick it up a notch, bake a batch of Chocolate Chunk Cookies, break it into small pieces, stir it into the custard, and enjoy your very own Cookies and Cream ice cream.
Don't just buy oreo cookies. It's easy, I know, but baking cookies aren't all that hard.

Make the ice cream

French Vanilla Ice Cream
(adapted from Baking at home with The Culinary Institute of America)

3 Cups Heavy Cream
1 Cup Whole Milk
2 Cups Sugar (Divided Use)
1 Vanilla Bean, split lengthwise
6 Large Egg Yolks
Makes about 1¼ quart

Prepare an ice bath, Combine the cream, milk, 1½ cups of the sugar, and the vanilla bean in a heavy nonreactive saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly.
Whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining ½ cup sugar in a bowl until thick and pale yellow.
Gradually add about one-third of the hot cream mixture, whisking constantly.
Pour the tempered mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a spoon. (About 180°F / 82°C).

Pour the custard through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Set it in the ice bath. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the custard.
Stir the custard every few minutes until cool.

Refrigerate the custard for at least 4 hours or up to overnight before freezing in an ice-cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Pack the ice cream into containers and let ripen in the freezer for 3-4 hours before serving.
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If you do not have a ice-cream machine, you can still smoothen the custard by hand, or a mixer.

Basically, to turn the custard into ice-cream, you want to beat the ice crystals out of the custard and incorporate air into the custard so that in grows in volume.
The result you want is to have a soft and creamy frozen dessert with a light texture and barely perceptible ice crystals.

Smoothening without an ice cream machine.
Pour the custard into the bowl that works with a mixer. Let the custard harden slightly, and then, pop the bowl in to position, and beat with a paddle for ~ 5 minutes.
You can taste the custard at this stage, and you’ll find the custard rough. That’s the ice crystals, and we don’t want that. No sir, we don't.

Repeat the process until you’ve achieved a smooth and creamy custard.

Make the Cookies

Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(adapted from Baking at home with The Culinary Institute of America)

Flourless cooking Spray for greasing. *(Alternatively, you can use non stick parchment paper/baking sheet, etc)
2½ Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 Cup/226g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
1 Cup granulated Sugar
¾ Cup tightly packed Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla Extract
2 Cups Bittersweet Chocolate Chunks or Chips

Pre heat the oven to 375°F/ °C. Lightly spray cookie sheets with cooking spray or line them with parchment paper. Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt into a bowl and set aside.

In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed until light in texture and smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract. Blend until incorporated. On a low speed or by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula, mix in the sifted dry ingredients and the chocolate chunks. Scrape down the bowl as needed to blend evenly.

Use 2 serving spoons to drop the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 2 inches apart. If desired, slightly flatten the cookies before baking. In batches, bake until the cookies are cracked on top but still slightly moist, rotating the pans as necessary to bake evenly, 14 minutes. Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool completely.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Make Cookies and Cream like you've never had

Break the cookies in to smallish chunks. Churn the ice cream till smooth. Pour in the gems and let it mix throughly.

Pack in to containers and let it ripen.

Enjoy.

Personal Notes: I used a ice cream scoop instead to portion the cookie dough. It's more consistent, in terms of portioning the dough. Well, whatver makes you happy.
Oh, and if you can afford it, use good quality chocolate.
I used Valrhona, 55% cacao. No regrets there.
Ripening time depends on your freezer, and the containers that you've packed them in.
The bigger the container, the longer it will take to freeze.