"I" is for Ice Cream Sandwiches

(Sorry this post is late - I've been crazy busy the past few days and didn't get around to finishing it)

Ice cream seemed an obvious choice for our "I" week last week.....but we decided to take it a step further and make Ice-cream sandwiches instead. Yum!  Our recipient of the week was one of Corban's best friends, Isaiah. (and we gave some to the rest of his family, too.....cause we're nice like that). 

I considered going with chocolate chip cookies or even something a little more unique, like snickerdoodle cookies with cinnamon ice cream, but eventually settled on a simple chocolate cookie with (gasp!) storebought ice cream to imitate the treats my kids love from a box...in a slightly healthier version. 

I just used a round biscuit cutter for my cookies - but you could use any shape of cookie cutter you want.  I did find that several of the sandwiches did leak ice-cream a bit while freezing back up, so they pretty much ended up a huge mess....but certainly an edible mess that we didn't mind a bit. 

Recipe: (from Annie's Eats) - makes 10-12 sandwiches, depending on how big you cut them

4 T. unsalted butter, room temp.

1/4 cup canola oil

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 t. vanilla extract

1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 half-gallon vanilla ice-cream (or your desired flavor)

In a mixer, combine the butter, oil, and brown sugar.  Beat on medium speed until combined. Blend in the eggs one at a time, and the vanilla extract until smooth.  In a separate bowl, sift the cocoa powder and combine with the flour, baking powder, and salt; whisk to blend.  With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated and a soft dough forms.

Gather the dough into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until well chilled, at least 1 hour.  Dough will still be soft!

Line a 13 x 9" pan with plastic wrap.  Allow ice-cream to soften until somewhat spreadable - spread evenly in the lined pan.  (harder than it sounds).  Return pan to freezer until cookies are ready to assemble into sandwiches.

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4-inch thick.  Use a cookie cutter to cut out as many pieces as you can, transferring the cut outs to the prepared baking sheet.  Gather and re-roll the dough scraps as needed.  If desired, use a wooden skewer to make a dotted pattern on the cookies.  Bake 8-10 minutes (8 was perfect for me).  Let cool on the baking sheet a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Remove ice cream from freezer.  Use the plastic wrap to pull the ice cream out of the pan.  Use the same cookie cutter to cut pieces of ice cream to put between two cookies. Return sandwiches to freezer immediately.  Some of the ice cream will not be perfectly shaped because you'll have to use leftover scraps.  Just smush them together and make it work! :) 

Wrap the sandwiches individually as desired.  Keep frozen until ready to serve.

Annika with Isaiah

To see the rest of our Alphabet Service Projects, click here.