Cookie dough flavored ice cream filled with chocolate chip cookie dough pieces and mini chocolate chips. The ice cream itself actually tastes like cookie dough – you’ll go crazy for it!
I’m sure you’re wondering why I call this the “ultimate” chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. This is no ordinary cookie dough ice cream. It is cookie dough flavored ice cream with cookie dough chunks mixed into it. Yes, the ice cream itself actually tastes like cookie dough! This recipe is for those of you that only eat cookie dough ice cream in order to pick out the chunks of cookie dough (ahem, me). No need to pick out the good stuff here … it’s all the good stuff.
The ice cream has a buttery, deep brown sugar flavor that’s similar to cookie dough. Chocolate chips get mixed into the ice cream base and generous chunks of (egg-free) chocolate chip cookie dough get added too. Think cookie dough on top of cookie dough. It’s so, so, so good!
My first thought after a bite of this ice cream was, “This is worth every single calorie!” If eating this ice cream means I need to make some sacrifices elsewhere (a little extra time at the gym and dinner tonight will be salad), that is OK! This is so darn good that I’m willing to find a way to make it work. It’s all about balance, right? And if you don’t want to take my word for how delicious this ice cream is, check out my taste tester. He refused to leave even a drop behind. 😉
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Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Ingredients
Ice Cream:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cups half and half
- 2/3 cup dark brown sugar packed
- 4 egg yolks
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips see assembly
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough:
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter softened, 4 tablespoons
- 1/4 cup brown sugar packed
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup all purpose flour
- pinch of salt
- 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
For the ice cream:
- In a small saucepan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Cook the butter until it is light brown and smells nutty, stirring often. Be careful not to let it burn.
- Add the half and half to the butter and bring just to a simmer.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk brown sugar, egg yolks, and salt for a minute or two, until light and fluffy. Slowly pour a cup of the warm half and half into the egg mixture, whisking while you pour (this will slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs). Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Heat, stirring often, until the mixture slightly thickens and reaches 170 degrees or until it coats the back of a spoon.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Allow the mixture to cool slightly. Then transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate until cold.
- Once the mixture is chilled, whisk in the 1 1/2 cups of whole milk. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze accordingly to manufacturer's directions.
- While the ice cream is churning, immediately prepare the cookie dough.
For the cookie dough:
- Beat butter and sugars for several minutes. Beat in milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt and mix until combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Place the cookie dough in the freezer for 10-15 minutes, to firm up slightly.
Assembly:
- Once the ice cream is almost fully churned, add 1/3 cup chocolate chips to the ice cream and drop small pieces of the cookie dough into the ice cream, allowing them to mix throughout. Serve straight from the ice cream maker or cover and freeze.
Recipe Notes
Recipe adapted from Buns In My Oven
Love cookie dough? Try this ice cream in my Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sundae
Oh yum! This looks amazing! And totally worth the calories. Swoon.
Thanks! I agree!
You’ve got it right–not just little bits of cookie dough but cookie dough flavored through the whole ice cream! This looks awesome!
Thank you!
I so want a BIG bowl of this ice cream right now. Love cookie dough.
Thanks, Jenn!
How many quarts does this make?
Hi, Kory. I’d estimate about 1 quart.
How can the ice cream be made to chocolate? I don’t do vanilla.
The ice cream isn’t a typical vanilla flavor, it actually tastes like cookie dough. It has browned butter, brown sugar and chocolate chips in it.
I made this as a valentine’s treat for my husband, and it was a total hit! I have made enough ice cream to know that our personal preference is for about 1/2 cup sugar to 3 – 3-1/2 cups milk/cream, so that’s what I did here. I also browned the butter for the cookie dough while I was at it. Otherwise followed it exactly. Fantastic! Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you! I’m so happy to you liked it. Thanks for taking the time to stop by!
My son just made this – it’s WONDERFUL! The ice cream itself has such a great flavor. We are making a second batch that uses coconut milk.
So glad that you liked it! Enjoy the second batch!
My favorite icecream is edy’s slow churn chocolate chip cookie dough because the icecream taste just like cookie dough. Sadly, I had to give up gluten 2 years ago and have been DYING for that icecream. Then I found this recipe. I bought an icecream maker just for this. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
And totally worth every calorie and then some!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that. I’ve had to remove some items from diet and it’s so hard when you can’t find replacements for some of your favorite foods. I’m so glad I could help. Thanks for stopping by to let me know. Take care!
P.S.- I just substituted the flour for Bobs red mill 1to1 all purpose gluten free baking flour and it turned out great.
You mentioned pouring in a cup of warm milk but later on adding 1.5 cups cold milk. Yes the ingredients only mention the 1.5 cups. Can you please clarify ? This is for the ice cream – thanks!
Hi, John. I apologize. That should have read “pour in a cup of warm HALF & HALF”. I just changed to the recipe to reflect this change. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Enjoy!
Really tasty! I used light cream instead of half and half and 1% instead of whole milk since that’s what I had on hand and it still turned out very well. Thanks!
Perfect! Thanks for sharing your adaptations, and thank you for stopping by.
I’m so excited to try this for a small party we’re going to this weekend. I want to use the chocolate morsels instead of the mini chocolate chips..will that mess the ice cream maker up? Or do you think it will work ok?
Are you referring to regular sized chocolate chips? That should be fine. Enjoy!
I was thinking of mixing in ghirardelli’s semi-sweet chocolate morsels which are a little bigger than the regular sized ones.