Chocolate and peanut-butter ice-cream sandwiches Chocolate cookies

(From the Homesick Texan web site)

1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of brown sugar
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
2 oz. of unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa

In a double boiler, melt the unsweetened chocolate. Whip the soft butter and sugars until fluffy. Add to butter and sugar mixture the beaten egg, vanilla and cinnamon. Mix well. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder. Add to butter, etc. Mix well. Stir in melted unsweetened chocolate.

Cool dough in refrigerator for half an hour or longer.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and scoop out a tablespoon of dough for each cookie.Bake for 8-10 minutes. (After taking sheet out of the oven, you can press down on hot cookies with a glass or spatula to flatten a bit.) Cool on sheet.

Repeat for rest of the dough. Makes 24 cookies.


Peanut butter ice cream

3 cups of heavy whipping cream
1 cup of natural, unsweetened peanut butter (can use chunky or smooth depending on your preference)
3/4 cups of sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Dash of cayenne pepper (optional)

Heat the peanut butter and sugar together on medium until the sugar dissolves, about two minutes. Whisk together peanut butter and sugar with cream, vanilla and cayenne until smooth.

Refrigerate for an hour or until chilled. Freeze and churn according to your ice-cream maker’s instructions.

To make the sandwiches: Chill cookies and ice cream in freezer for about an hour. Take out and place one scoop of ice cream between two cookies, and either eat immediately or return to the freezer (either individually wrapped or several laid flat in a plastic container). As long as they’re well wrapped, can keep in the freezer for at least a week.

Note: While I was waxing nostalgic about Big Wheels, I decided to make these a bit smaller because I don’t have quite the metabolism I did when I was young. That said, you could make the cookies as large as you like.