cookies 'n creme

I've told you before that I'm not a huge dessert fan, but I absolutely love ice cream. So when my gymnastics coaches gave me Williams and Sonoma gift cards for a graduation present I knew exactly what I wanted- yep, an electric ice cream maker. No more hand cranking and salt everywhere, and homemade ice cream whenever I want.

This ice cream maker is sooo easy to use. The hardest part is freezing the bowl overnight.

One of my favorite ice cream treats is an Oreo milkshake. So when I ran across a post for cookies and creme ice cream on Tastespotting I knew I wanted to experiment. What I came up with is awesome. Here's how I do it:

Cookies and Creme Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream, make sure its really cold
5 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
18 Oreo cookies, roughly chopped

Set up an ice bath by placing ice water and a teaspoon of salt in a large bowl.

Start by making the crème anglaise. Crème anglaise is just a fancy french word for custard that can be used as an ice cream base. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Do not let the mixture boil.

In a small bowl whisk together the egg yolks.

Pour some of the heated milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking the entire time. Pour the warmed egg yolks  back into the saucepan with the remaining milk. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture begins to thicken, about 10-15 minutes.

Place the hot pan in the ice bath you made earlier to cool the mixture quickly. Stir in the really cold heavy cream. Allow to cool completely. Add the vanilla.

Cover and chill overnight in the fridge. The next day, set up your ice cream maker according to the instructions. With the ice cream maker on, slowly pour the custard into the freezer bowl. Allow to churn for about 13 minutes.

Meanwhile chop the oreos.

When the ice cream looks mostly frozen and has increased in volume add the cookie pieces. Allow to churn for about another 5 minutes.

I like to transfer the ice cream from the freezer bowl to a tupperware so that I can refreeze the bowl to make more ice cream.

At this point the ice cream will have the texture of soft serve. Put it in the freezer for a couple of hours before serving to get a texture more like hand dipped ice cream.

I really wish that I had a picture of the end product to show you, but we dove into it so fast that I didn't have the chance to take any. Yum.