It's-Its ~ the San Francisco Treat!

So Jon has been asking me to make It's-Its for him for probably over a year. I'm kind of a slacker... or procrastinator.

I like to try to recreate the foods he remembers.

Anyway... what's an It's-It you ask?

If you're not from the Bay Area, you probably have never heard of them. I know I hadn't.

An It's-It is a Chocolate Covered Ice Cream & Oatmeal Cookie Sandwich.



It's-It
Oatmeal Cookies
Vanilla Ice Cream (or any flavor you like)
Chocolate

That's all you need.

Unfortunately I missed that they were covered in Dark Chocolate, so mine ended up being covered in Milk Chocolate. But they still turned out yummy.

Since I was making them at home, I used Homemade Oatmeal Cookies and Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream. And since Jon loves chocolate, I made some with chocolate ice cream too. But I only have one ice cream maker... so only the vanilla was homemade!

First, get the chocolate melted.


Now you have to work kind quickly.

Warm melty chocolate & cold ice cream, don't play nice out in the hot kitchen.

So start with cookies, flat side up.


Top with a big scoop of ice cream.


Top with another cookie.


It helped that these cookies were pretty flat and chewy, so they didn't snap when I pressed everything together.

Now into the melty chocolate...

This super fast action shot is kinda blurry...


That came out way better than you thought it would, didn't it?


Ok, it came out way better than I thought it would!

Working with warm chocolate and ice cream was a little more challenging than I anticipated.

I did a couple of vanilla... now time for some chocolate.




And into the chocolate.


Ok... two of each.


Now quickly into the freezer!

Fast forward a couple of hours after dinner...


Ok... some leakage definitely occurred.


It kinda looks like it has a tongue!

At a couple/few hours... these were still kind of a melty tasty mess.


But Jon definitely liked them.

But, the next day, after sitting over night in the freezer, the remaining It's-Its were much better looking. And they held together when you ate them!


Less leakage...and neat and tasty!


Jon considered this a win!

If you're longing for this San Francisco treat, you can totally make it at home!

Oatmeal Cookies

So I needed to make some Oatmeal Cookies to make a frozen treat that Jon remembered from his childhood.

I LOVE my sister's oatmeal cookies, so I asked her for the recipe. She sent it. Months went by before I actually got around to making the frozen confection from years gone by and her recipe was languishing in my work email inbox.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I decided it was time to indulge Jon's wish. But alas, I was at home with no access to Jeannie's Oatmeal Cookie recipe. *sigh*

What to do...

Look for another online of course!

I chose this Excellent Oatmeal Cookies recipe and made a couple small changes. Should be good with Excellent right in the title right?

This reflects my changes (notice I dropped the Excellent from the name?)



Oatmeal Cookies
1 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 C quick cooking oats

Preheat oven to 325F.

Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into the butter/sugar mixture. Mix in oats until just blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. Cookies should be at least 2 inches apart.
Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok... you know the drill...

Cream together butter, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.



Whisk up the other dry stuff (flour, baking soda, salt)
And mix that in.



Mix in the oatmeal.



Drop by spoonfuls onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.


Bake at 325F for about 12 minutes... cool on rack.



These came out very thin. (Jeannie's are much fluffier) But they were very chewy. I enjoy a chewy cookie. But Jon likes his crisp.

Were these excellent? Ummm I'd say they were ok. To be fair, I did omit cinnamon. I didn't want a cinnamon oatmeal cookie. I also omitted nuts. I would have added walnuts, but I'm out of them. (how the heck does that happen??) Nuts definitely would have made them better, but I don't think excellent.



Flat chewy oatmeal cookies turned out to be just the thing I needed to grant one of Jon's food wishes.

Stay tuned for homemade It's-Its!