Day 27: Dough-n't stop believin'

I realized that we had gone nearly a month eating all sorts of vegan dishes, but never any desserts. Rather than easing into it with muffins or cupcakes, I decided to go all in and make our own version of a Dairy Queen Cookie Dough Blizzard. It was super simple and there were only 7 ingredients, compared to more than 50 in the DQ version, plus I could actually pronounce the things I was consuming. Here's how it goes:

Heavenly photo credit: Oh She Glows

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Blizzard (makes about 1 pint)
Click here for the ingredients list and recipe card

Part 1: Making the chocolate chip cookie dough balls

1. In a food processor, add 1/2 cup unsalted cashews and 1/4 cup rolled oats. Process until it forms a fine crumble. Aren't you glad you finally invested in a food processor this weekend? Those things mean business. I can't wait to lose my first finger!
2. Add in 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1.5 tablespoons sugar, and 1/4 cup oat flour. Process a few seconds more until well mixed. You only had to go to two different grocery stores and flag down multiple mustachioed Whole Foods employees during your search for oat flour, but you prevailed! ...And will now have enough oat flour to last you the rest of your life.
3. Add in 3 tablespoons of maple syrup and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. The recipe will say 3-4 tbsp of syrup, but when you add 4, you'll quickly realize you've made a [delicious, delicious] mess. Onward, soldier.
4. Add in 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips or stir in by hand. Now shamelessly drop your paw into the bowl like Pooh Bear to honey, and eat half the batter... because it's delicious. I can't get over how much this tasted like regular cookie dough, minus the salmonella risk. I would have wolfed down the whole batch, but I really wanted to try the blizzard, so I exercised a small amount of self control for the first time in my life.
5. Roll the mixture into balls and store in the freezer.

Part 2: Making the blizzard

1. In a food processor, add 3 frozen bananas and process until it reaches a soft serve consistency. You'll overdo it because you're having too much fun with your new food processor, but that's ok.
2. Add in 2 tablespoons of your cookie dough.  Blend until they're combined. I also added a tablespoon of peanut butter, just for giggles. I highly recommend it. 
3. Pour the mixture into a glass and add your desired amount of cookie dough balls. I suggest adding 1 or 2... thousand, depending on your personal preference. They're just so damn good.

So simple. So easy. And so tasty. I did two things wrong, and it was still incredibly flavorful. My first error: I added too much maple syrup which turned my cookie dough balls into more of a cookie dough glue, but I put them in the freezer to set and it helped a lot. The texture didn't matter though... love is blind, especially when it comes to cookie dough. My second error: I was too impatient to wait for my bananas to fully freeze, so I added an ice cube to the food processor. My advice to you is DO NOT DO THIS. It made my "ice cream" a little too runny, but more importantly, I nearly killed the food processor during its first use ever. It went a lot like this:





Anyway, my point is: you should go make this right meow, because it's easy, delicious, and a whole lot better for you than a cup full of DQ's Sodium Phosophapotamus Dextrate 9 Blue Palmitate.