Get ready for the ULTIMATE cookie dough ice cream! This is cookie dough flavored ice cream filled with cookie dough chunks and mini chocolate chips. The ice cream itself actually tastes like cookie dough! No ice cream maker is needed for this easy no-churn recipe.
If you’ve ever thought that cookie dough ice cream could use more cookie dough, this recipe is for you! This ice cream is absolutely packed with cookie dough – it’s incredible! Try our cookie dough brownies, too!
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What makes this cookie dough ice cream the best
The ice cream base tastes like cookie dough: Instead of a typical vanilla ice cream as the base, this recipe uses a combination of browned butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and chocolate chips to make the ice cream itself taste like cookie dough!
Lots of mix-ins: One of our biggest complaints about store bought ice cream is that there aren’t enough mix-ins. We made sure to pack our ice cream with lots of cookie dough chunks and mini chocolate chips.
No-churn: No ice cream maker, no problem! You will still get an incredible smooth and creamy ice cream with this no-churn technique.
Recipe overview
*Full recipe below in recipe card*
Cookie dough chunks: start by making a small batch of (egg-free) chocolate chip cookie dough. Place the cookie dough in the refrigerator to firm up while you continue with the ice cream base.
Ice cream base: a combination of browned butter, brown sugar, sweetend condensed milk, vanilla, and whipped cream make this delicious ice cream base.
Assembly: layer the ice cream base, mini chocolate chips, and pieces of cookie dough into a freezer safe container (I use a loaf pan) and place it in the freezer overnight.
What makes the ice cream taste like cookie dough?
A combination of browned butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips flavor the ice cream base giving it a deeper, richer flavor than plain vanilla ice cream (which you typically see in cookie dough ice cream).
How to brown butter
Brown butter is butter that has been cooked until the milk solids in the butter begin to toast/brown. The flavor is unmatched, brown butter tastes nutty and rich with a deep toffee-like flavor.
DIRECTIONS: Place the butter in a saucepan set over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned bits form on the bottom of the pan and the butter begins to turn golden and smell nutty. Cool to rom temperature before proceeding with the recipe.
Optional step: heat treating flour
The mix-in for this ice cream is a raw cookie dough. The cookie dough is eggless, so you don’t have to worry about bacteria from raw eggs, but there is a minimal risk related to eating raw flour. If you are concerned about this you can heat treat the flour for the cookie dough pieces. Place the flour in a microwave safe bowl and heat on high for 1 minute. Cool and then proceed with cookie dough preparation.
Recipe tips
- Allow the brown butter to cool completely; it should be room temperature. This takes about 15-20 minutes.
- Keep your heavy whipping cream in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.
- This ice cream is best if it has had a chance to freeze overnight. You can eat it within about 10 hours of freezing it, but it will be on the softer side.
- Be sure to make your cookie dough pieces fairly small so that they can be evenly distributed through the ice cream.
- Use mini chocolate chips instead of regular sized chocolate chips for better distribution.
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Recipe
Cookie Dough Ice Cream
Ingredients
Cookie dough pieces:
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar, I use dark
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup all purpose flour
- pinch salt
- ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips
Ice cream:
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons packed brown sugar , I use dark
- 1 scant cup sweetened condensed milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups chilled heavy whipping cream, straight from the fridge
- ⅓ cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Cookie dough:
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, butter and sugars for 1 minute, until creamy and well combined. 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 refrigerator to firm up while you prepare the ice cream.
Ice cream:
- In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Cook the butter until it is light brown and smells nutty, stirring occasionally, and being careful not to let it burn. If you've never browned butter before, see this tutorial. Transfer the browned butter and all the browned bits into a medium-sized bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar. Cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes or so.
- Once the butter has cooled, add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla into the butter/brown sugar mixture and whisk until well combined.
- In a separate bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Add half of the condensed milk mixture to the whipped cream and carefully fold it in. Add the remaining condensed mixture to the cream and fold it in. Fold in most of the chocolate chips, reserving a few to sprinkle on top, if desired.
- Transfer half of the ice cream into a freezer-safe container (I use a loaf pan). Top with half of the cookie dough, pinching it off into small bite sized pieces. Top with the remaining ice cream and then the remaining cookie dough pieces and reserved chocolate chips. Cover tightly and refrigerate overnight.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Information is an estimate based on third-party calculations and may vary based on products used and serving sizes.
Tried this recipe?Leave a comment and rating below!
Elaine
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!
Celebrating Sweets
Perfect! Thanks for sharing your adaptations, and thank you for stopping by.
Olivia
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?
Celebrating Sweets
Are you referring to regular sized chocolate chips? That should be fine. Enjoy!
Olivia
I was thinking of mixing in ghirardelli’s semi-sweet chocolate morsels which are a little bigger than the regular sized ones.
Jae
What size Ice cream maker do you use? I’d like to make this in a 4 qt so I think I need to double it, correct?
Celebrating Sweets
Yes, mine is a 2 quart.
Chris
How long will this store in the freezer?
Celebrating Sweets
It’s best within a week or two.
Karen Jakab
How much ice cream does this make? It says 10 servings but since there is no total amount, I’m not sure how much ice cream equals a serving. Thank you.
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Karen. I don’t have a volume measurement. So, one serving would be approximately 1/10th of the total amount of ice cream.
Bobbie
Hello. This recipe sounds so yum! Does the cookie dough stay soft after freezing? I tried a different one a while back and the cookie dough balls were nearly frozen solid. Thanks for your time and sharing a great recipe.
Celebrating Sweets
Hi, Bobbie. The cookie dough is not rock-hard, but they are definitely much firmer than they are when at room temp. I’ve served this ice cream to many people and never heard a complaint. 🙂
Jam
Sorry but what’s a half and half?
Celebrating Sweets
Half and half is half milk and half cream. You should be able to find it in any US based grocery store. If you can’t find it, you can make your own by combining equal parts cream and milk.
Rachel
I liked the flavor and it really tasted like cookie dough. The butter froze into little specks of butter though and gave it not so great consistency though.
Glen
Thank you! This recipe is what I’m going to use today. I’m surprised that there aren’t a lot of other people who want to make cookie dough flavored ice cream. I don’t understand why the big ice cream companies always use vanilla as the base for their chocolate chip cookie dough ice creams. Thanks again.
Celebrating Sweets
Enjoy!