Samoa Ice Cream

Although the Girl Scouts in these parts sell tasty little cookies called Caramel deLites instead of Samoas (Who do they think they are?!), I refuse to call them anything but Samoas.  My family took an absolutely amazing vacation to Samoa when I was about 13, but my reluctance to utter the words "Caramel deLites" is in no way due to my time in the South Pacific.  It's actually due to my stubbornness and the way I feel about unnecessarily respelling words.  I wish a biting into a cookie covered in caramel, chocolate, and coconut could take me back to that week of lounging in an oceanside hammock, snorkeling in crystal clear waters, drinking milk straight from a coconut and getting dive bombed by bats on nightly walks, but it just doesn't work that way.  If I were to create a cookie based on the tastes of Samoa I would keep the coconut but switch out the chocolate and caramel for Baileys Irish Creme, as the first sip of alcohol I ever had was a taste of Baileys one night in the little dining shack at our hotel.  Not surprisingly, though, the Girl Scouts didn't ask me what Samoa tastes like.  Nor did they seek my opinion when a second company started baking their cookies, and that company deemed it appropriate to give them a name containing a blatantly misspelled word.  What kind of example is that setting for young girls, anyway?

Fortunately I've learned to cope with being passed over by the Girl Scouts, and my coping method typically involves eating a lot of Samoas.  Because I don't stress out over cookie names too frequently, a box can easily last several months.  Ok, maybe they last so long because I want to stretch out my enjoyment of them, so I ration them out and never want to eat the last one.  Either way this usually leads to me trying to make them last so long that half a box of cookies goes stale and gets thrown away, but this year I planned ahead.  I ate a third of the box of Samoas and then stuck the remainder in the freezer.  

I had big plans for those cookies this year.  Instead of preserving them to eat at a later date, I was preserving them until I had a chance to make SAMOA ICE CREAM!  Three months later I finally have a fresh batch of creamy vanilla ice cream dotted with big pieces of Samoa cookies.  It is to die for.  

For the base I made a batch of vanilla ice cream from David Lebovitz.  

Even if you are lacking a box of Samoas I would recommend this recipe for basic vanilla ice cream.  It's rich and creamy and incredibly delicious.  

If you're not a huge plain vanilla fan like I am you could easily spice it up by adding in pieces of your favorite candy or cookies.  Thin mints, anyone?

But Samoas are a fantastic choice.  

Just make the vanilla ice cream and add about a cup of cookie pieces into the mix when the ice cream is almost ready.

And enjoy. 

I think I deserve a merit badge for this one.  

In addition to being a delicious treat, a container of Samoa ice cream can conveniently double as a cold compress!  I discovered that while rewarding myself and icing my knees after my dad and I ran the City of Lakes 25K last weekend.  Two birds, one stone.