Cookies & Cream is a classic ice cream flavor. You can make a batch that beats the store-bought versions hands-down! This recipe uses my vanilla base as a starting point. Choose quality ingredients and follow my directions below for amazingly yummy results. It was so good, I didn’t even have the chance to get a photograph before it was all gone!

Ingredients (to make 6 quarts)

• 4 Cups heavy cream
• 4 Cups 2% milk
• 6 Large whole eggs (farm-fresh preferred)
• 2 Cups granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
• 2 lbs. Oreo cookies, crumbled

Directions

1. Whisk eggs with sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl then set aside.
2. Add milk and cream into large 6-quart pan and bring to a simmer while stirring constantly.
3. Gradually whisk the hot cream mixture into the bowl with the egg mixture.
4. Pour the combined cream and egg mixture back into the large pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches a 170 degrees or coats the back of a metal spoon. Do NOT allow the mixture to boil.
5. Refrigerate while stirring the mixture every hour until cold (about 3-4 hours).
6. After the mixture is chilled, stir in the vanilla extract.
7. Freeze in a 6 quart ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions.
8. While the mixture freezes, let the kids crumble the cookies in a large zipper-top bag to small and medium sizes.
9. Once the cream mixture is frozen, scrape the mixture from the dasher (paddle) and let the kids lick it clean outside on the deck.
10. Ladle the frozen cream mixture into five 5-cup storage containers. Fill each half way, spoon in 1 cup of crumbled cookies, then fill the container to ½” from the top with more of the frozen cream mixture. With a wooden spoon, thoroughly fold the ingredients together in each container and level the mixture.
11. Spread any remaining crumbled cookies across the top of the cream in each container.
12. Cover and freeze in the bottom of your freezer at least overnight.

Try to resist the temptation to eat it out of the creamer. I like the texture & flavor much better after flavors have mellowed and the cream is frozen solid. Serve hard-packed scoops into a bowl with whole cookies (yes, that’s cookies — plural). Enjoy!

For the Novice: the Do’s and Don’ts

Do make it ahead of time and allow your frozen cream to harden in your freezer for 24 hours. You will be amazed at the mellowing of flavors and how the texture improves when frozen hard.

Do make sure your freezer is cooling to 0° Fahrenheit.

Do taste your mixtures throughout the process but keep it clean!

Do use real vanilla extract.

Do make sure you have extra ice hand. It wouldn’t be unusual to go through 10 pounds of ice when freezing 6 quarts. It’s a good idea to have your ice in a cooler right by your creamer (which is setting in your sink) with a plastic bowl to dish it out

Do add plenty of salt to your creamer. Any type of granulated household salt will do, even table salt, as long as you add the appropriate amount. Salt lowers the freezing point and produces a super-cold water jacket around your cream to freeze it. Freeze it quickly by using the right amount of salt in the creamer and you will create  small ice crystals, making an amazing smooth texture.

Don’t allow the cooking mixture to boil! You want ice cream, not scrambled eggs!

Don’t allow salt to contaminate your freezing cream. Sure, there’s salt in the recipe but spilling salt water or granules of rock salt into your cream will make for some unpleasant surprises while eating.

Don’t freeze your cream on the backyard lawn with a salt-n-ice creamer. Creamers of this style allow the escaping salt water that is produced in the creamer to drain out a hole in the creamer. It’ll kill vegetation. It’s usually convenient to place the creamer in the empty kitchen sink. If you are outside, make sure you use a dishpan to catch any effluent.

Don’t put the cookies into the creamer while it is freezing. The dasher (the paddle inside the creamer) will blend the contents down into a homogenized mass of sameness — perhaps tasty but not astounding. You want pockets of varying flavor and texture so fold it in as you are filling your individual storage containers.