Michelle Darmody: Cookies and ice cream from scratch
The chocolate hazelnut cookies have a soft cakeiness that works well with a slightly melting ice cream. The basic vanilla ice cream recipe can be amplified quite easily. A selection of dried fruit will turn it into a cassata or some small chocolate chips into a stracciatella. It is custard-based which makes it rich and soft but takes a little longer to make than an ice cream without eggs. If you have an ice cream maker it will save you time.
For the chocolate hazelnut sandwich you can roll the cookie in sprinkles to brighten up your day. The black sesame version is a bit more refined; a grown-up version. The black sesame cookies are crisp and crunchy and the mixture of coconut and sesame gives them a nice flavour.
