I’ve been on a mission lately to hoard fewer snacks at home. Turns out, the child within me is basically insatiable. No matter how many tasty treats I have, I’ll always, always want to bring home that new, shiny toy. So, I’m learning to “parent” myself. “No, sweetheart, when you finish the ice cream at home, then we can bring home this new ice cream.” It’s hard, but worth it. Because when I accumulate a thousand different snacks, you know what happens? Eventually, I get overwhelmed with decision fatigue, have a “bad-ish” day, and boom, I’ve eaten all the snacks because… well, because they’re there?
That’s why when I saw these “Doughlicious Bites” at Target – little bits of ice cream encapsulated in chocolate chip cookie dough – my first thought was: “They get it! The best flavor of ice cream is cookie dough, and the best part of cookie dough ice cream is… you knew it! Cookie dough!”
I passed on them way too many times, knowing a box of six would inevitably end up all six in my tummy in one sitting.
Then, inspiration struck! I realized I could absolutely make these at home. So I did. My first go-round, I made exactly two: one for me and one for my kid (sorry, husband, though we later made more and more and more). The recipe I’m sharing today makes exactly six bites, just like the Target ones.
Honestly, I still haven’t bought the Target version. But mine are so good and so satisfying that I seriously doubt the original could be any better. And hey, I even managed to sneak 5g of protein into each bite! Surprise nutrition bonus!
Small-batch Cookie Dough Ice Cream Bites
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 2 tbsp mashed ripe banana (30 g)
- 1 tbsp nut/seed butter (16 g) I used peanut butter
- 2 tbsp peanut butter powder (16 g) I used PBfit
- 2 tbsp oat flour (15 g) just blend oats until flour like
- 2 tbsp (plant-based) protein powder, or more oat flour (15 g) I used vanilla whey protein, you might need to add a little water if using plant-based protein
- 1 tbsp sugar (12 g) I used brown sugar
- drop of vanilla, pinch of salt
- 1-2 tsp water/milk if needed
- 1 tbsp chocolate chips (14 g) I chopped mine very small, you can also omit or sub sprinkles
Filling
- 1/2 cup (plant-based) ice cream (about 70 g) I used Halo Top vanilla chocolate swirl
Instructions
- Using a small spoon or cookie scoop, make 6 small ice cream scoops (about a heaping tbsp each) on a piece of parchment and put it quickly back in the freezer to harden.
- In a medium bowl mix all cookie dough ingredients, adding milk/water (only if necessary) to mix everything together without making the dough too wet. If the dough is too wet and sticks to your hand, add a little oat flour and knead again.
- Chop your chocolate chips very small and fold them into the cookie dough. You want them almost sprinkle sized.
- Make 6 small balls of dough between your palms and let them rest in the fridge or freezer.
- Between pieces of parchment roll your dough balls into 1/8 inch thick rounds. Moving quickly not to melt your ice cream, cover each ice cream ball with one cookie dough round. Once the ice cream is encapsulated in dough you can roll the whole thing between your palms to smooth it out. Immediately put them back in the freezer to harden, at least 30 min.
- Enjoy these bites straight from the freezer!
Notes
- If you don’t have oat flour on hand, you can simply blend oats until you get a fine flour. Alternatively you can use heat treated flour which you can make with regular flour in the microwave!