Member-only story
DIY Ice Cream Sandwiches Can Be a Revelation
These might be better than the childhood classic
I started making ice cream about eight years ago after friends brought me to a brewpub in Brooklyn where the menu consisted of cheese, meat, and ice cream sandwiches. The beer was OK and the meat and cheese were forgettable, but the ice cream sandwiches were a revelation.
Unlike the sandwiches of my youth — vanilla ice cream between a cakey chocolate substance that stuck to the wrapper and my fingers — the brewpub sandwiches were constructed from actual cookies.
The beer was OK and the meat and cheese were forgettable, but the ice cream sandwiches were a revelation.
The day we visited, the offerings included chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, oatmeal cookie sandwiches, and brownies sliced horizontally to make sandwiches. I don’t remember the ice cream flavors, only that I decided immediately that I had to make my own sandwiches. The cookie part would be easy, but the effect would be ruined without homemade ice cream. I bought an ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid and began experimenting.
I started with oatmeal cookies filled with cinnamon ice cream that I flavored by steeping cinnamon sticks in the custard. I learned quickly that you can’t spread ice cream the way you spread peanut butter or Nutella or anything else that usually goes on a sandwich. When I did, the cookies looked as if they’d been put together by a toddler who hadn’t grasped the concept of utensils (Despite their unfortunate appearance, the sandwiches were quite tasty.)
Through trial and error, I developed an effective method: lining a 9 x 13-inch cake pan with wax paper and spreading the ice cream as if it were cake batter. A good height is ¾ inch to 1 inch, but don’t be stingy: Unlike a cake, ice cream doesn’t rise. If you like an overstuffed sandwich, add more, but in my experience, an overstuffed sandwich tends to explode at the first bite.
Once the ice cream hardens, cut rounds using a cookie cutter that is approximately the same size or only slightly larger than the cookies. The first few rounds are usually firm enough that I can transfer them straight from the cookie…
