Coffee and Cookies and Crème Ice Cream

Tips: A fabulously rich, smooth coffee ice cream is blended with chopped chocolate sandwich cookies—what more could you ask for? Serve this plain or with a bit of a good hot fudge sauce; either way, you can’t go wrong. You’ll need a candy thermometer, a fine strainer, and a one quart ice cream churn (I have a Krups electric model that is several years old at this point, but it still performs like a champion).

For the chocolate sandwich cookies, I’ve used Oreo Double Stuf ™. I had some internal debate about this: these cookies do use partially hydrogenated fat, which I don’t like to consume or recommend to others. On the other hand, they’re my favorite cookies of this type, and I almost never eat them. If the trans fat aspect bothers you too much, you can substitute 6 or 7 chocolate-covered toffee bars (1.4 ounces each), chopped and frozen until they’re added, for the cookies. Technically, the liqueur is optional here, but I always use it. The addition of this small amount doesn’t really affect the ice cream’s taste, but it does prevent it from becoming rock-hard in your home freezer. The ice cream is at it’s best within about 3 days of churning.

Yield: 1 generous quart

Ingredients:

• 1-3/4 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp. instant nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 Tbsp. instant coffee (dry)
• Few grains of salt
• 4 egg yolks, from eggs graded “large”
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 8 Double Stuf Oreos ™ or other chocolate sandwich cookies, each chopped into sixteenths
• Optional (but good): 2 Tbsp. coffee liqueur

Method:

Set a fine strainer on top of a heatproof pitcher of about 4-cup capacity; place near stovetop. Combine heavy cream and milk in microwaveable container (I use a liquid measuring cup) of at least three-cup capacity.

Off the heat, attach a candy thermometer to a 2 quart, heavy-bottomed, nonaluminum saucepan. In this pan, combine both sugars, nonfat dry milk powder, instant coffee, and salt. Pour about 1/4 cup (no need to measure) of the cream-milk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a large spoon until smooth. Set aside. Place egg yolks in small bowl. Add about 2 Tbsp. (again, no need to measure) of cream-milk mixture. Beat with fork until well-combined. Add egg yolk mixture to mixture in pan; with spoon, stir until smooth.

Heat remaining cream-milk mixture in microwave at high power until very hot (alternatively, mixture can be heated in small saucepan over low heat; stir frequently). While stirring the egg yolk mixture rapidly and constantly, very gradually add hot cream mixture, a little at a time, until it is all incorporated. Scrape pan bottom and sides with rubber spatula.

Place 2 quart pot over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until it reaches a temperature of 175 to 176 degrees F. Immediately remove from heat and pour in a thin stream into the fine strainer. Once strained, add the vanilla to this coffee “custard” and stir it in. Cool briefly, then chill for at least 6 hours (overnight is fine, too; in fact, you can make this custard a day or three in advance). When cold, cover top of pitcher with a layer of paper towel; trim paper towel layer until it’s only about 1/2 inch larger in circumference than top of pitcher. Place trimmed paper towel layer over top of pitcher once more; cover pitcher tightly with plastic wrap (this will keep any condensation that forms from dripping back into the custard).

An hour or two before churning, chop the cookies (or toffee bars), place in a bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and chill in fridge or freezer. Chill a freezer container with a slightly-larger-than-one-quart capacity.

When ready to churn, stir the coffee custard. Follow manufacturer’s instructions for churning. When coffee custard is about three-quarters frozen, add optional liqueur, one tablespoon at a time, allowing first addition to be mixed into the custard before the second is added. Continue churning until done.

Work quickly now. Stir cold cookie chunks into frozen coffee custard, mixing until they’re evenly distributed. Pack into chilled freezer carton, cover, and replace in freezer. If you eat this within the first few hours after it’s churned, it will be more like a soft ice cream, and the cookie chunks should retain at least a little bit of crispness. Later on, the ice cream will be a bit firmer (although it never becomes too hard if you use the coffee liqueur), and the cookie chunks are no longer crisp, but I’ve never had anyone complain about that! Serve within three days of churning.

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