Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Banana Ice Cream

(That title is a mouthful. Not quite as bad as my last post, though.)

Hello, peeps! I hope you’re all having a very nice, relaxing Sunday.

Last night I got this inspiration to try my hand at making mostly-raw vegan chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (whew! that was a long title)! Okay, so here is how I did it. As a base I used Gena’s totally awesome banana soft serve recipe (love!). After whipping up that fluffy goodness in my food processor, I added:

  Cookie dough: I used a “cookie dough” that I had mixed up the day before. It was kind of an experimental run for me and I just threw in almonds, oats, dates, vanilla, and who-knows-what-else. You can use Angela’s recipe, Averie’s recipe, Katie’s recipe, or another raw cookie dough recipe. After you make your preferred dough, make little (pea-size or slightly larger) balls out of it to stir into your ice cream.

Chocolate chips: you can mix these into the dough or add them separately. For the chips, you can either use vegan chocolate chips (miniature or regular size), or use either Angela’s or Joanna’s version (scroll a bit), OR just combine agave nectar and cocoa or cacao or carob powder—plus a little coconut oil, if you wish—until you get a thick dough; then just roll into little balls. Wa-la!

You can add the mix-ins right away, but I would advise freezing the dough chunks (and if you made homemade chocolate chips, those too) first so that when you stir them into the ice cream it won’t get all gross looking. So first make your chips and dough and then, after they are frozen, make the ice cream and mix in the fun stuff. (If you do decide to add the dough and chips unfrozen just be very careful not to over-mix.)

It is very gooey when first made (like soft serve):
But if you allow it some time in the freezer it will harden quite nicely:

The verdict: The banana flavor is not neutral like regular ice cream is, so expect this to taste distinctively fruity. I think the cookie dough theme would go better with a coconut ice cream, maybe? I’ve never had that, though, so I can’t say for sure. My main problem was that it didn’t settle well in my tummy. As you can see, this is a food combining disaster and although I thought that I wasn’t really sensitive to bad combinations, recent experience has proved me wrong. It wasn’t debilitating by any stretch, but my stomach wasn’t very peaceful and happy after consuming this.

Over all, it wasn’t a phenomenal recipe, but it sure was a lot of fun to create! I think I prefer my banana soft serve either plain or with a fruity companion, like cherries (although I usually use maraschinos, as the real thing isn’t easy to find this time of year).

This post is kind of short/lame but I have to get some homework done, so I will leave you with some pictures of the beautiful scenery that greeted me during my walk today. I woke up this morning and everything—every visible blade of grass and every bit of dried foliage—was covered with that mystically sparkling frozen dew. Beautiful.

Oh yes, I was walking in a winter wonderland.

  These pictures really don’t do it justice. I love the beauty in the bleakness of winter. It is so calming and peaceful.  I never thought I was much of a winter girl, but I have to say that sometimes it can be a quite magical season.

What’s your favorite season? What simple things of beauty have surprised you today?

 
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“There is a privacy about it which no other season gives you.... In spring, summer and fall people sort of have an open season on each other; only in the winter, in the country, can you have longer, quiet stretches when you can savor belonging to yourself.”  ~Ruth Stout
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