Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream Sandwiches

For the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Using a large mixing bowl, add butter, sugar and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Add lightly beaten eggs and beat thoroughly. Add in the flour, salt and baking powder and beat again until smooth. Next fold in the chocolate chips until combined.
3. Roll out two tablespoons of the cookie dough into balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Press down to flatten.
4. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on trays. Makes a dozen cookies.

For the ice cream:

1. Warm milk, heavy cream, sugar and cherries on the stove in a medium pot over medium heat. Add vanilla and salt. Once it froths up a bit, lower heat and warm for about 10 minutes.
2. Pour into a large bowl and chill for an hour in the fridge.
3. Put the mixture into your ice cream maker. Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s directions.
4. Once churned, and with the ice cream still soft, fold in the chocolate.
5. Put the contents into a freezer safe container with a lid and freezer for several hours, or until cold and solid.

For the assembly:

1. Place a large plate in the freezer ahead of time to prevent too much melting when you place the ice cream on later.
2. Put homemade ice cream in a large container packed down and cut a 1/2″ thick slice through the ice cream. Use a 2″ round cookie cutter and press down. Repeat until you have four pieces. Remove the cut ice cream pieces and place on the frozen plates and put back in the freezer.
3. Allow a few minutes for the ice cream to freeze again and then place the ice cream between two cookies to form an ice cream sandwich.
4. Serves 4.