At the beginning of the summer the Meal Planning Mommies invited me to join their blog for a day with fun recipes from my family’s company, Ann Clark Ltd. Unfortunately, just days before I was headed into the kitchen I fell and broke my wrist leaving me (even more) helpless in the kitchen. I actually fell while I was chasing my little boy – but that’s for a different blog.
Now that I have mended I would like to share my version of my mother’s Ice Cream Sandwich recipe. While every mom had great ideas, it is always fun to tweak them a bit and make them your own. If you’d like to read my mom’s recipe please visit her web site.
Over Labor Day weekend my husband and I had a houseful of company. While he was in charge of all of the cooking for the weekend, I was in charge of the desserts…and entertaining the masses. What better way to entertain than to bring everyone into the kitchen? Since I had a wide span of ages to work with, form age 2 to 47, I decided to put everyone to work making ice cream sandwiches!
First thing in the morning on Saturday I set up to make the dough for the cookies (or “cake” portion of the sandwich.) Since the dough needed to chill for a few hours, it was best to start early. There was lots of stirring and measuring to do so everyone could take part.
Next we used our ice cream maker to make a batch of homemade vanilla ice cream. I had planned to make two batches of ice cream, chocolate and vanilla, but realized that the cylinder on the ice cream maker needed twelve or more hours to fully re-freeze between batches. When I do this again I will make one batch of ice cream before everyone arrives.
The kids loved the idea of making their own ice cream and again, it was a simple recipe with opportunities for even the youngest of helpers to pitch in. If you don’t have an ice cream maker – no worries, but you really should get one! I can’t recommend it enough. The recipes are silly-easy and my son cheers when he sees me take it out.
The Ice Cream Recipe (Taken from the www.cuisinart.com)
Whisk together:
1 cup whole milk, well chilled
¾ cup granulated sugar
Until sugar has dissolved
Stir in:
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract, to taste
Turn on machine and pour mixture into freezer bowl. Allow to mix until thickened, about 30 minutes. Remove from ice cream maker and transfer into a freezer-proof container and allow to freeze for several more hours until firm.
With the ice cream hardening in the freezer, it was time to make the cookies. I chose to use mom’s classic Chocolate Cookie recipe.
The cookie recipe~
Cream together:
1 ¼ cup soft butter
1 ½ cup sifted powdered sugar
Beat in:
1 egg
Add:
3 cups flour
½ cup cocoa
¼ tsp. salt
Mix well. Turn out dough on to lightly floured surface and form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for 3 hours. (Can also be frozen for future projects)
Preheat oven to 350. On a floured surface roll out ¼” thick and cut with cookie cutters. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool on the pan for a few minutes then transfer them to a rack to cool completely. (We left ours for a few hours while we played outside.)
We used basic cookie cutter shapes, the Linzer Cookie Cutters and the Biscuit Set, as I was concerned that intricate shapes might become brittle and break when we sandwiched them with ice cream. There are many to choose from – something for every holiday and season.
Finally it was time to assemble to sandwiches. We placed a small scoop of ice cream on a cookie and then topped it with a matching cookie. A fun option next is to roll the edge of the cookie in a topping (nuts, sprinkles, chocolate chips etc.) for an added treat. Our recipe made about a dozen vanilla ice cream sandwiches (remember, you need two cookies for each sandwich.) Plus a few more for tasting in the kitchen!
And, don’t forget MPM readers get 10% discount at Ann Clark through December!
We are the Smith Family says
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! We are sooo excited!!!