Eat at Home: The Quest for the Perfect Ice Cream Sandwich

I’ve never really been one for ice cream sandwiches. The traditional rectangular chocolate cookie/vanilla center version sold by ice cream men and lunch ladies is just too mushy for me—the ice cream always melts so quickly and that limp, cakey cookie gets cemented to the roof of your mouth. Not my idea of a good time. There is, of course, the more appealing Chipwich, but alas, the cookie is a little overpowering for my tastes.

This has been my sad ice cream sandwich reality for far too long, so I decided to find a solution. My vision: an ice cream sandwich with a crisp, not-too-sweet cookie that would complement any ice cream. Result: Success!

Here’s how I did it:

The cookies were the main issue. I needed one that wasn’t prone to sogginess and wouldn’t crumble under pressure. I also wanted the taste to be subtle, so that it could work with sherbet and more substantial textures. I was thinking that a Nilla Wafer flavor would be just the thing, so I followed the recipe for a homemade version from one of those Top Secret Recipes books—you can see the recipe here.

Instead of making little cookies, I shaped the dough into flat circles (with about a 3.5 inch diameter). My other alteration was that I used organic shortening to eliminate the partially hydrogenated soybean oil.

My first batch came out too thick, so I decided to roll out the dough, and used a cookie cutter. It was time consuming, but from that point on, the cookies came out looking and tasting perfect! Very similar to sugar cookies, but more vanilla-y and very sturdy.

To complete the dessert, I made a trip to Fosselman’s in Alhambra, home of the only ice cream that matters (excluding Thrifty’s, of course) I chose rocky road, black raspberry and orange juice sherbet. Then, I just added 1 big scoop of ice cream in between the cookies and, soon, I had mountains of ice cream sandwich perfection.

They were a big hit.

-Valentina