Support Your Local Raspberries in Finding Their Life's Purpose

We have so many raspberries growing like crazy around our house MTV should come do a special: Raspberries Gone Wild. And it is our duty to find something reponsible to do with all that homegrown lushness. So, we freeze a buttload every year, and we invite the neighbors over to pick a bushel, and we pick them fresh every morning to put in oatmeal and cereal, and on weekends we set about finding new opportunities to incorporate them in recipes. This goes on for a month--raspberry muffins, raspberry jam, raspberry pies, raspberry crumble, raspberry pancakes, etc. But I think we really, truly have found the reason these raspberries have come to produce so prolifically on our city property--it is so we can make these:


Yeah, that's right. Raspberry chocolate chip ice cream sandwiched between two homemade chocolate chip cookies. So we have been making raspberry ice cream like it is our job around here.

And so should you, if you know what's good for you. I mean, if you have access to some fresh raspberries--please, by all means, make this. And here's how:

• 2 cups of fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 2/3 cups of sugar
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla
• dash of salt
• 1 bag of mini chocolate chips

Place all ingredients except chocolate chips in a food processor or blender and process until smooth. Cover and refridgerate until all ingredients are cold. Then add to your ice cream maker and let it do its magic. Add the chocolate chips to the ice cream once it is setting up, but still soft. If your ice cream maker is like ours, you will need to fully freeze the ice cream in the freezer (ours only seems to get it about as solid as soft serve ice cream).

Then make your fave chocolate chip cookie recipe (I actually cheat and buy Sweet Martha's frozen chocolate chip cookie dough--but why bake from scratch when you can fool everyone else with these?). I recommend leaving the cookies slightly under-baked so they are soft--otherwise once frozen you are likely to break a tooth trying to bite into it or the cookie will sadly crumble around you. Also, it is imperative to freeze the cookies once baked so you have a solid base to smoosh a scoop of your fresh raspberry chocolate chip ice cream between.

And remember, you have to share these--even if you do not want to. The raspberries would want it that way.