We are kicking off June with some summer favorites. We both grew up on classic ice cream sandwiches after a hot day at camp and couldn't think of a better way to end the first day without rain in Austin in a long time. It finally feels like summer is here and we are ready to jump right in. I'm sure we will be eating our words in August when it is 102 degrees outside, but for now, the sun feels amazing.
After finishing a 5.5 mile walk in the sun and scarfing down salads for lunch, we were craving something sweet and it just struck me that the perfect snack for a day like this was straight from our childhood: ice cream sandwiches.
The key to those perfect ice cream sandwiches from camp was that the chocolate cookie was soft. You could bite into it and it wasn't tough to break through the cookie, it just broke apart perfectly with the ice cream. So for us to have the same experience, we needed a cookie recipe that was going to produce a soft, almost spongy cookie.
I found this recipe for Oreo jello cookies and modified it a bit. We left out the Oreo's and white chocolate chips and replaced them with mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. And for the ice cream we used good ol' Breyer's vanilla bean.
Once you have baked your cookies and allowed them to cool completely, putting them together is pretty simple. One thing to remember though, is when working with ice cream, speed is critical so make sure to get everything you need ready and set out before you get the ice cream from the freezer and begin.
You will need:
- 1 batch of cookies of your choosing (but we recommend a variation of this recipe)
- 1 gallon of your ice cream of choice
- A serrated bread knife
- A cookie cutter (we used a round biscuit cutter)
- A tray or containers to store and re-freeze your assembled sandwiches in
- Sprinkles for decoration (optional)
- Plastic wrap
Once you have assembled all your supplies, make sure you have cleared out a space in your freezer that will fit your sandwiches once they are assembled. You will need to put them directly back into the freezer to refreeze for at least an hour before wrapping them individually. Then you are ready to go!
- Using your cookie cutter, cut an even number of cookies, discard the left over edges (we used a biscuit cutter because our cookies were round and it was the closest size so we wasted the least amount of cookie).
- Take your gallon container of ice cream from the fridge and place it on your cutting board on its side (so the bottom of the container is perpendicular to the board). Using your bread knife, slice off the bottom inch of ice cream evenly (yes, cut right through the container!).
- You should now have an inch-thick slab of ice cream on your cutting board. Remove the cardboard from the ice cream, moving quickly because the ice cream will begin to melt, and use your cookie cutter to cut pieces of ice cream to put between two cookies.
- Once you have assembled one sandwich, place it on a tray and directly back into the freezer. If the ice cream starts to melt while between the cookies the pieces will slide around and they will not set evenly.
- Repeat this process for each cookie sandwich.
- After they have set in the freezer (about an hour minimum) you can remove them, wrap each sandwich in plastic wrap and then stack back in the freezer.
For a touch of color we rolled them in sprinkles. Perfect to enjoy on a nice hot day. Hope you enjoy!