Tovolo Ice Cream Sandwiches!

I LOVE Ice Cream Sandwiches!  I make them a lot.  I make them because they are easy, diverse, and a crowd pleaser for all ages.  Last week I made Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream sandwiches with Butterscotch Ripple ice cream and this week I decided to use Tovolo's Classic Cookie Cutters to make the most adorable Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches.  The Tovolo Classic Cookie Cutter makes easy work of the cookie component AND they are also the perfect size! Not too big and not too small.  I love that the cookie cutters are designed just right so that the designs don't bake out.  

The cookie recipe is from smittenkitchen.com and is fabulous.  It comes together fast and was very low-maintenance in rolling out the dough.  You want to underbake them slightly for two reasons.  1) They are very thin so you can go from just right to just burnt really quickly.  2) You want them to be crisp for texture but not so crisp that the ice cream shoots out from the middle, making a huge mess.  

I often make ice cream but today I used good old store-bought!  It is ok - this is a judgment free zone.  It is a time saver and doesn't disappoint on flavors and texture.  This is a great, fun recipe for kids (of all ages).  They can pick their flavor ice cream and scoop it onto the cookie.  I find that one generous scoop is perfect.  I put the ice cream into the Tovolo Glide A Scoop because it make it much easier to get a good scoop.  Additionally, if you want to pretend you made the ice cream (again, no judgement) or if you want to upgrade the look of the ice cream container at a party - you can't do better than the Tovolo Glide A Scoop. 

I am also a HUGE fan of Tovolo's Tilt Up Ice Cream Scoop.  It is heavy enough to dig into hard ice cream but the handle shape makes it easy to scoop.  It also has two little feet on the bottom so that it stays off your counter.  Genius!  I used classic vanilla ice cream and salted caramel with toffee.  

Chocolate Butter Cookies 

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup lightly salted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa 

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer. Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured counter. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. (It does disappear once baked, though, so don’t overly fret if they go into the oven looking white.) Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To assemble the Ice Cream Sandwiches:

I chose 2 cookies that had the same pattern, mostly because I was using two different kinds of ice cream and I thought it would help me keep them straight.  In the end, NO BODY cared that the ice cream centers were different and they were gone before I even offered the explanation of the different patterns.  OK, so back to assembly.  You need the ice cream to be a little soft but not runny.  I left mine on the counter for about 10 minutes. (The temperature in your house will make 10 minutes too short or too long so use your best judgment.)

Take a cookie and scoop a generous 1 scoop of ice cream and place it in the center of the first cookie.  Take the second cookie and place it on top of the ice cream scoop.  Press gently.  If the ice cream is too hard, you can break the cookie.  If the ice cream is too soft, it will squish out of the middle OR the top cookie will not stay in place.  If your ice cream is too soft put it back in the freezer for a few minutes.  

I then wrap the individual ice cream sandwiches in a little waxed paper and pop them all back into the freezer.  If they are soft, you can put them all on a cookie sheet and pop them into the freezer first to firm them up before you wrap them. I love that the waxed paper makes them easily portable but also gives the eater a little hand protection.

Have fun!  Be creative!  Eat more cookies and ice cream!