Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches

 As I'm sure you're all aware this past Sunday was Oscar Sunday. We celebrated with mimosas, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, turkey bacon, eggs, and berries. That's right, we did breakfast for dinner and held an Oscar Pajama Party. It was, admittedly, pretty great to watch the big show with friends in comfy lounge wear.

Midway through the ceremony I busted out these delectable cookie and ice cream sandwiches. I love the salty and sweet peanut butter with the rich cocoa flavor. It's probably not surprising that next to Snickers my favorite "candy bar" is a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Mmm...

Did you enjoy the show? My favorite parts in order were Tarantino's acceptance speech, Jennifer Lawrence's fall (have you seen the photo of the fall, most beautiful fall ever. She can do no wrong), and Jennifer Hudson bringing down the house.

~Ashley

Peanut Butter Cookies
*recipe 

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup peanut butter (I used creamy, but to your preference)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt

Beat the butter until creamy, 2 minutes. Add the sugars, beat for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the sugar butter mixture.

Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours or place in the freezer for 20-25 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet or parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Ice Cream
*recipe adapted from Cuisinart Recipe Book  

• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp of salt
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa, sugars, and salt. Add the milk and whisk until sugars are dissolved. Gently stir in heavy cream and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate mixture 2 hours or more.

Turn ice cream maker on; pour the mixture into the frozen freezer bowl and let mix until thickened. I let it run for about 20 minutes. The texture from the bowl is quite soft. Put the ice cream in a freezer safe container and let it firm up to desired consistency.