One of Naomi’s best childhood summertime memories involves licking the ice cream out of a rapidly softening ice cream sandwich in the brutal heat of a Florida summer. Seeking to make this a reality for her kids – and all allergy folk – she developed this recipe. This should yield about 10 2×4 inch sandwiches, depending on thickness of cookie and amount of ice cream used.

A few notes:

Be prepared to plan this well in advance and execute it at least a day ahead of time! Otherwise you will end up with melting, gooey madness all over your kitchen and you may inadvertently teach any local kidlets ‘grown up words’ that shouldn’t be learned before a certain age. Go ahead and ask how we know this… The best results come from doing the ice cream one day and the cookies the next… and there’s even less stress if you choose to make assembly a ‘day three’ proposition. It does mean you’ll be eating ice cream sandwiches four days after you craved them…. but nothing’s perfect. Most recipes out there either give you a recipe for crisp wafer or a soft cookie. The best texture – the one closest to the commercial variety – combines these. Any good recipe for an ice cream sandwich requires cookies that are soft when frozen but still firm when thawed. Naomi achieves this texture by using white sugar and added fat for the crisp exterior and a low cooking time for tender interiors. Naomi wanted something that tasted as close to the paper-wrapped mass-produced faux-cream conglomeration as she could get without weird chemicals and so she developed a vegan frozen custard that really and truly tastes ‘right’ for this. Feel free to use real ice cream, your favorite non dairy commercial variety, or your favorite ice cream recipe. For a cookies and cream style sandwich use black cocoa. For a more traditional sandwich, use regular old cocoa.



COOKIES

1 1/2 c (6 ounces or 170g) Better Batter Gluten Free Flour

1 c unsweetened cocoa powder (black or regular are both acceptable)

1 c plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 c palm shortening or Crisco

1/4 c plus 1 1/2 tsp water or df milk substitute

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Be sure your frozen custard is made ahead of time.

Make cookie dough: In the bowl of electric mixer, combine Better Batter Flour, cocoa, sugar, and salt until well combined and evenly mixed. Add shortening and mix until well combined. Add water or df milk substitute and vanilla and blend on medium to high speed until a smooth, sticky dough forms. This will be extremely soft! Divide dough in two parts and wrap securely in plastic wrap. Freeze for at least a half hour or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.

Make cookies:

Line 2-3 sheet pans with parchment paper – this is very important! You may also use Silpats.

Working with half the dough on a floured surface, flour the dough and roll out to about 1/8 inch thick. You may also go thicker (1/4 inch) if desired. Use a rounded 2×4 rectangular cookie cutter to get a perfect shape, or using a spatula and ruler, measure a 10 by 8 inch rectangle out of the dough and cut off all excess. Using the ruler as a guide, cut 10 2×4 inch rectangles from the dough. Carefully transfer to the baking sheets and, using a skewer, docking tool, or fork, press 12 holes into the dough. Repeat with remaining dough. You should get roughly 20 total rectangles. You may get less if you roll to 1/4 inch thick.

Place cookies in fridge or cool area while you heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place cookies – one sheet at a time, in preheated oven.

For 1/8 inch cookies, bake for 7 minutes.

For 1/4 inch cookies, bake for 12 minutes.

Cool the cookies on the sheet on the parchment paper or VERY gently transfer ON the parchment paper to a rack to cool. Store in an airtight container until ready to assemble sandwiches.

Assemble Sandwiches:

You will need:

1 recipe cookies (above)

ICE CREAM

1/2 gallon favorite commercial ice cream

OR

1 recipe Frozen Custard (Vegan), frozen as per instructions, then very lightly softened

cookie sheets

small ice cream scoop (2-4 oz)

parchment paper or plastic wrap for wrapping.

Work close to your freezer!

Lay cookies on cookie sheets and freeze for 20 minutes. This helps assembly of the sandwiches and prevents the ice cream from melting too much.

Working with only two cookies at a time, and using a small ice cream scoop, scoop about 1/4 c (4 oz) ice cream on one cookie and use a spatula to smoosh the ice cream to the edges. Top quickly with second cookie. Use spatula to neaten the edges, if desired. Wrap with either parchment paper (you may need to tape) or plastic wrap, taking care to keep the shape intact. Place immediately in the freezer. Proceed with other cookies in the same way.

You may find your ice cream softens a little too much as this proceeds – be sure to take a break and stick in the freezer for up to 20 minutes, if necessary.

When all cookies are assembled into sandwiches and wrapped, store in a closed container for later eating or serve immediately.