Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

I never was much fond of ice cream sandwiches, but they're my husband's absolute fave, and he'll go for them every time we get ice cream. So, for our 13-course dinner, I thought it would be fun to make some myself. Remember, you *could* make these with store-bought ice cream, and cookies too - or use any cookie, and any ice cream. Go ahead and experiment!

Chocolate Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

(printable recipe)

The cookies are from Fanny at Foodbeam, and the ice cream from David Lebovitz.

Chocolate Cookies:
180 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

200 g dark chocolate
30 g unsalted butter

2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
150 g brown sugar

Mix flour with baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a separate bowl, melt chocolate and butter. (In the microwave, or over a waterbath.)

Beat eggs and brown sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla extract and the melted chocolate-buttermix. Finally stir in the dry ingredients. Drop round cookies onto a lined baking sheet - leave some room, but they won't spread a lot.

Bake at 175°C for 6-8 minutes. If the cookies are still mounds rather than flat when they come out (mine did), use a small ball of aluminum foil and press them flat. Let them cool completely, then freeze.

Coffee Icecream:
250 ml cream (35-40% fat), divided
375 ml milk (full-fat)
pinch of salt
150 g sugar (I used homemade vanilla sugar, a jar of regular sugar with a few vanilla beans)
125 coffee beans (whole)
5 egg yolks
pinch of ground coffee

Mix together 125 ml of the cream with milk, sugar, salt and coffee beans in a saucepan. Heat until boiling, then cover with a lid and remove from heat. Let it steep for one hour.

Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Add the warm cream mixture while beating, and then scrape the whole thing back into the saucepan. Heat gently while stirring all the time, until the mixture thickens and coats the spoon. Pour through a sieve into a clean bowl, and add the remaining 125 ml of cream along with a pinch of ground coffee. Stir over an ice bath until cool, then leave in the fridge overnight. Freeze in an ice cream maker.

Let the ice cream freeze for a few hours to firm up. Assemble the sandwiches, and let them freeze in a baking sheet or a cutting board until really firm. Then wrap them in plastic or keep in a tight-lidded box.

Recipe in Swedish:
Chokladsandwich med kaffeglass