When Dorie Greenspan Meets David Lebovitz…

Every few days, I get a craving for my good old chocolate chip cookie. I so want to dunk those yummy cookies in my glass full of milk and live the moments of pure joy. Simple classic flavors never let you down. And you always keep going back to them. Vanilla ice cream is another such flavor. My most favorite of all since childhood. And my second favorite these days is coffee ice cream, but more on that later. Plain vanilla ice cream without any toppings or such things, is something I can live on forever.

Though I had never made vanilla ice cream before (but not sure, why ??}. So this weekend, I thought to treat myself and my friends with these amazing chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. I did make some ice cream sandwiches last summer too, but the cookies were chocolate sables and the ice cream was store bought.

Last year when I made them, it was during peak summers {when temperature hits 45 degrees C}. Holy Cow! I had tough time handling the ever melting ice cream. God only knows, how I managed to assemble the sandwiches. I was running between the fridge and my living room, where I was taking pictures of them cuties. But it was surely worth all that hassle.

This year too, I had been wanting to make them again, but with homemade ice cream this time. But last year’s struggle with a scorching heat prevented me from doing that early. And I kept this procrastinated, until rains arrived. Weather is cooler these days, though some days are humid too. In fact, it’s perfect weather to enjoy these ice cream sandwiches. Ice cream wouldn’t melt faster than you might think and slip through the cookies sandwiching it. No hassle but pure joy!

Now the recipe had to be a really good one. And you must have easily guessed it by now, that whom I resorted to. Yes, I baked chocolate chip cookies from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, From My Home to Yours and made the vanilla ice cream from David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop.

Both the geniuses did their magic and I ended up having these amazing ice cream sandwiches. I did some tweaks to cookies recipe, replacing the plain flour by half oats and half whole wheat and reduced the butter and sugar, Dorie has mentioned. I tasted the dough, and found it too sweet for my liking so I added more whole wheat flour. And the cookies were still really scrumptious. And for the ice cream, I chose the custard version over Philadelphia style, simply because I wanted my ice cream to be richer and creamier. I halved the recipe, both for cookies and ice cream, and that yielded ten mid sized sandwiches. Good enough to treat all my friends, still leaving me with a spare one to be enjoyed later during the week.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Ingredients

1/2 cup whole milk
70 gm sugar
1 cup low fat cream
pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla bean, split
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Warm the milk, sugar, vanilla bean, salt and 1/4 cup of cream in a medium saucepan. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Rewarm the vanilla-infused milk mixture. Pour the remaining 1/4 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Strain the custard through a strainer and stir into the cream.Discard the used vanilla bean.
5. Let the mixture cool for 30 minutes on room temperature. Mix in the vanilla extract.
6. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
7. In a large rectangular glass or ceramic pan, spread the ice cream and freeze in freezer, until set properly.

Oats Wholewheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup rolled oats, powdered in food processor
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
80 gm butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup light bown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Instructions

1. Cream butter and both the sugars together in medium bowl, until pale and fluffy.
2. Beat in the vanilla and egg, incorporating well into the mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix flour, oats, salt, baking soda together and then mix into the butter and sugar mixture.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, preheat the oven at 180 degree C and line two baking sheets with baking mat or parchment paper.
6. Taking 1 tbsp of the cookie dough, roll into cookies and place on the prepared baking sheets, with 2 inches from each other. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Let cool completely on wire rack.
7. For assembling,  cut out the ice cream discs using a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter, sandwiching the ice cream between two similar sized cookies. Repeat until all the ice cream is consumed. Store in freezer, until ready to serve.