When I started thinking up cookie recipes in my head, I usually have a pretty good idea of how I want them to turn out.
Whether or not they turn out this way is a whole other story.
These cookies were originally envisioned as a drop cookie with espresso powder and dark chocolate chips. When I realized I didn’t have chocolate chips, I scrapped that idea and decided to use the same recipe, only roll the dough in cookie crumbs before baking.
During my summer trip, we made a stop off at my Grandma’s house. I love visiting her place. She’s lived there for over 40 years and except for some carpet changes and a few small renovations, it’s still the same as I remember while growing up. She has a nice big back yard with a large garden and raspberry bushes. Her basement is filled with old board games from the 70’s that used to belong to my Mom and my Uncle. Up until a couple years ago, there used to be boxes and boxes of old comic books (from Marvel and DC superheros, to Archies and Richie Rich), until my Uncle reclaimed them. She doesn’t have internet, but her TV is right next to the dining room table and we usually spend the evenings socializing, watching sports and doing jigsaw puzzles.
Another thing I love about her place in the summer is that she has air conditioning and her kitchen is always stocked and ready for baking. On this particular visit, we found ourselves making savoury cinnamon buns at midnight. For over 20 years she worked in a restaurant in her small town, so this wasn’t just any handed-down recipe. This was a bread recipe that she perfected in their kitchen and its definitely a recipe I’ve been meaning to get my hands on for a while.
I can’t believe it’s been over 3 weeks since I last blogged. Bad Jessica, bad, bad Jessica.
Sometimes you just need to get away though, and what better way is there than to surround yourself with family and food? The joke in our family is that no matter what kind of get-together we plan, there is always tons of food involved. My brother Nathan and I joke that we always gain weight when we go home to visit, but that’s what happens when you have a family that loves food. My Grandma cooked in a restaurant for over 20 years and my mom loves to have people over and feed them. No one leaves our home hungry.
June was a really busy month for me. Between working my usual Monday-Friday day job, I decided to get back into shape by joining a nearby hot yoga studio. Taking up hot yoga in a city like Toronto can be really expensive, but they were having an amazing promotion of 30 days for $30 and based on the location of the studio and the schedule of their classes, I knew I couldn’t turn it down. Since I had full unlimited access to any class, I decided to make the most of it and attend as many as I could.
Physically, I really benefited from the class. My clothes are a bit looser, my appetite has changed and I’m dealing with the Toronto humidity much better than I was last year. I’ve upped my water consumption and I can touch my toes again without having to bend my knees.
In the beginning of June, I made whole wheat cookie dough bites and later in the week when the humidity rose in our apartment, it took all of our willpower not to gobble them down.
Before I posted the recipe, I mentioned that Trevor compared the bites to the little bits of cookie dough in ice cream. Not that he really eats ice cream, but I’m sure that memory of being a kid and being able to digest it is still stuck in his head.
With this in mind, I set out to make a homemade dairy-free cookie dough ice cream substitute that he could enjoy. Just so I could stop getting dirty looks for wanting to keep the real thing in the freezer for me.
I present to you….Cookie Dough Banana Soft Serve “Ice Cream!”
Canadian food blogger, baking and eating her way through life. Musical theatre fanatic. Personal finance nerd. Sometimes runner/yogi. Green smoothies are pretty amazing.
