Hi Etravia: I used Pamela's baking mix only because someone gave me a few bags of it some time ago. Normally I fiddle with a recipe and mix flours to get a blend I like. With cookies I tend to use some brown rice flour I'd use 1 cup here, 1/4 cup soy flour, 1/8 cup, a teaspoon of xanthium gum, and then make up the rest of the 1/8 (a little less) with a starch like potato or tapioca. I do not like some recommended flour mixes in cook books that are all starch and no protein or fiber. Food has to have a value for me to eat it!! I skipped sweetened condensed milk and used a bit of almond milk with two teaspoons cane sugar (because they don't specify enough on the can of milk enough about what is mixed in with the sugar in this product...). We just cooked the almond milk on low heat to "evaporate" it a bit. Tasted great. Nobody at the party noticed anything different about the cookies! GGG

You can also do it the really old fashioned way -- the same method that has long been used to make sorbet. Just pour the mixture into a baking dish, and set that into your freezer. Also, you will need a heavy glass or metal bowl, an electric hand mixer, and a bowl of ice big enough for the first bowl to sit in. Put the heavy glass or metal bowl and the beater attachments for the hand mixer into the freezer at the same time as the ice cream mix to chill them. When its almost but not quite fully frozen, use a fork to break it up into small lumps about the size of a nickle or a little less. Then put it back into the freezer about 10 minutes to set up a bit again. Now, working as quickly as possible, take the pre-chilled heavy bowl out of the freezer,and set it in a bath of ice cubes in the 2nd larger bowl. Quickly transfer the ice cream mixture into the chilled bowl, and beat it as much as possible with the electric mixer ONLY until the lumps are broken up, and it begins to whip up a bit. Then, back into the freezer for another 15 to 30 minutes, until its not at all "melty" but still a little soft. Repeat the beating/whipping process several times -- the idea is to whip as much air into it to make it creamy and fluffy as possible, without melting it too much at each whipping. The chilled bowl, the ice bath, and the chilled beaters help, but beware that the very act of beating it creates friction between the bowl and beaters, which makes heat, so this process is a balancing act between beating in air and melting the ice cream. Done right, which isn't at all hard to do with just a little practice, this method does work, albeit it will never be quite as fluffy as commercial ice creams you are used to, which not only incorporate a large volume of air into the mix using specialized equipment, but which also generally use gums and stabilizers which prevents the product from melting and turning liquid as fast as a pure, cream and milk only product will. Good luck.

You could probably get away with the chocolate you're using if you melt it, spread it paper thin on waxed paper, let harden and break up into flakes. Thinner pieces won't be as challenging as actual chunks. Alternatively, I often put diced brownies in my ice cream. When adding 'extras' like candy, brownie pieces, broken chocolate covered pretzles--I chop them up, and put them in the freezer, then add to the ice cream just the last few minutes of the churning time, when the ice cream is just about done. You only want to mix them in, not take a chance the add-ins will be crushed or broken during the mixing process.

I still haven't dipped my cherries yet...decided to make Coconut Bon Bons and dip them at the same time. I've made the Coconut Bon Bon recipe a number of times and yet...it's hand written by a friend and it reads: 1 Eagle Brand milk. I had the sweetened condensed out, put it back and used evaporated milk instead. As I'm pouring it into the mix, I thought "Eagle Brand doesn't make evaporated milk." Ugh! I stopped pouring, yet used enough that the mixture is thinner (much thinner), added more (much more) powdered sugar to stiffen it up, slipped it into the frig for a couple of hours. Finally got them rolled into balls, could only roll two, rinse and dry my hands, roll two more. What a time waster! So, I was hoping Ann would let us know what tips she might share with the dipping process...How do you make them look so "package" beautiful? Deborah