Black and white and yummy all over

Chocolate chip cookies are all well and good, but every now and then you need a cookie that grabs you by the short and curlies, you know?

Well, the following recipe, shared on a recent episode of Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa television show, fits that bill and then some.

(BTW, these really should be called triple chocolate almond cookies, as they have cocoa, semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips, but I'll leave the name as is out of respect for Ms. King.)

Kathleen King's Double Chocolate Almond Cookies

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 1/2 sticks) salted, room-temperature butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark or light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup almonds, coarsely chopped

After you preheat your oven to 350 degrees, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, cream together the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer that's been fitted with the paddle attachment and then add the egg and vanilla. Once those two ingredients have been incorporated, add the flour mixture and continue beating until just combined. Finally, add the chocolate chips and the almonds and mix until combined.

Using a small or medium ice cream scoop, drop the dough about two inches apart on sheet pans that have been lined with parchment paper. (You should be able to get about six cookies on each sheet if you use a medium ice cream scoop.) Bake for about 15 minutes.

Don't worry if the cookies seem a bit soft when they're pulled from the oven; they'll firm up nicely as they cool. Speaking of which, allow the cookies to cool on their cookie sheets for about 10-15 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.

Yield: Approximately 20 four-inch cookies, if you use a #16 (1/4 cup) ice cream scoop.

A different kind of peanut butter cup

I'm not sure why, but nothing makes me "ooh" and "ahh" like a big spoonful of homemade ice cream. That's especially true when said ice cream is flavored by a bit (or a lot) of peanut butter.

Well, there's been a lot of oohing and aahing in our house as of late thanks to the following recipe, which was pulled from the pages of Isa Chandra Moskowitz's and Terry Hope Romero's Veganomicon.

Peanut Butter Ice Cream

1/2 cup cream of coconut milk**
1 cup soy milk
1 cup sugar
6 ounces silken tofu
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Throw all of the ingredients into a blender (or a food processor) and blitz until smooth. Pour into an ice-cream maker and then follow the machine manufacturer's instructions.

**Place a can of coconut milk in the fridge the night before you're planning to make your ice cream. When it comes time to make it, use the "cream" that has risen to the top of the can. Reserve the rest of the milk for some other use.