Best. Treat. Ever.

V gave me an electric ice cream maker and boy have I given it a workout. I've made peach, vanilla, strawberry, cookies and cream and coffee ice cream. I've made frozen yogurt, various granitas and frozen drinks with it. But I hit upon the best frozen treat ever when I changed a recipe I thought was too heavy and I'd like to share it with you. Everybody that has tried this says it is the best ice-cream sandwich they have ever tasted - and because they are petite; about 3.5", they aren't too fattening.

You start with this classic custard recipe. (The recipes that require cooking are the best- without the custard base, the ice cream doesn't hold that creamy easily scooped out consistency after freezing)

• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 2 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cook the first five ingredients over medium heat stirring constantly. It needs to reach about 160˚ and then chilled in a bath of ice and water. The consistency should coat a spoon. Now add the vanilla, and put it in the fridge overnight or for a few hours.

I made ice cream with this recipe and thought it was too sweet and too heavy. So I took half of it and added an equal part of half and half. Next I added a few drops of coconut extract. With half the sugar and half the fat, the ice cream was still tasty and creamy but not too sweet and full of flavor. I tried to use coco loco coconut milk but it was WAY too oily and sweet. Extract works better.

Put the mixture into the ice cream maker and when it gets to where it has nice peaks and shapes you are ready to make ice cream sandwiches. Don't let it hard freeze or it won't spread right.

Get some Famous Chocolate Wafers. They are on the baking isle. 

Take one and get a spoonful of the ice cream and plop it in the center. Don't let it get too big because when you put the other cookie on top, you want to press lightly so the ice cream spreads out to the edges. As you make them, put them in the freezer on a plate uncovered. 

When building the sandwiches, if too much ice cream eeeks out of the side just take a spoon and run it around the edges and it looks really tidy. 

When they are nice and solid - like 10 minutes - individually wrap each sandwich in either parchment paper affixed with a sticker or wrap them in plastic bags. If you leave them on a plate, the cookie will stick. You know how the cake part of an ice cream sandwich gets kind of soft? Well, being with the ice cream makes these cookies soft so they need to be packaged. 

That little hint of coconut gives it a tropical vibe and enhances the chocolate. It's just a pretty and easy treat that has impressed everyone that has tried it.

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Haiku Monday players may recall that Moi won the chicken haiku challenge. The prize was a custom made folk art piece based on the winning haiku. I finally did the painting. Here is the winning haiku again:

Faithful feathered friend—

chopped, plucked, garlic-stuffed. Sunday's

sacrificial lamb.

I chose to focus on Moi's observation of chicken as the defacto sunday dinner. And I was thinking about all the ways she indicated it could be, er, processed. Then I started thinking about the charts that show cuts of meat and thought about the ways a chicken was used. So I ended up with a kind of silly butcher's chart for a chicken. Moi - I hope you like it. Its not pretty, but I hope its at least funny. If you don't like it, you can always use it as firewood. Oh and congratulations on yet another haiku win.