Jump to content
  • Welcome to the eG Forums, a service of the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters. The Society is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of the culinary arts. These advertising-free forums are provided free of charge through donations from Society members. Anyone may read the forums, but to post you must create a free account.

Cookies for Ice Cream Sandwiches


Sethro

Recommended Posts

Assuming you are not trying to create something industrial with a year-long shelf life, any cookie recipe will do. A couple years ago I created a lavender flavored sugar cookie and filled with a homemade lavender ice cream. The recipe was not particularly tailored to the freezer conditions since it was meant for consumption within a few weeks; I made small portions and wrapped them in lavender-colored clingfilm.

If you're making something for immediate consumption you only need the cookie to be cooled to room temperature.

For balance, one of the two components (the cookie or the ice cream) should be less sweet than customary, in my opinion. In my case, since I make ice cream at home quite a lot, I tend to make high fat, moderate sugar ice creams.

So I'm ready to hop on the bandwagon and do an ice cream sandwich dessert. Anyone have a recipe for something that will behave like the frozen cookie component?

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That sounds neat, but I actually need a "cookie" that will freeze soft. I plan on filling the ice creams into an acetate ring diretly on the cookie, so that I don't have to keep ice cream at a super-pliable temp for service (and so I'll have perfect, clean sides).

So what I basically need is a cookie that freezes very soft. Actually I wanted to come as close to the traditional black chocolate variety you'd get from the good humor man. I'm going all food-foward with the ice cream (mango matcha) so I want the cookie to be familiar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mango and matcha sounds like an aggressive combination, from the perspective of someone who sells cooking matcha for at least part of my income; I tend toward more cautious fusions than this. I like matcha with azuki, sweet white beans, sweetened edamame purees, kinako (toasted soybeans), white chocolate, pine nuts, macadamia nuts. I might go for a macadamia/white chocolate soft cookie dough around matcha ice cream. Matcha tends to be comfortable with more mild, simple flavors or the complexity of the matcha disappears. My Japanese friends even feel vanilla is sometimes too much of a competitor to the matcha flavor.

Based on Japanese sweets like anmitsu or mitsumame, I can imagine certain whole fruits like banana, peach and so on in the same dish, but I think it would be hard for a Japanese palate to have the flavor competition from mango and matcha without getting those in separate bites. Of course, your audience is not likely Japanese, so I guess the point is somewhat moot.

I might do something like zunda (sweetened edamame puree) molded in a ring with the ice cream. I might prefer a layer of mango and a layer of matcha, rather than trying to digest the competing flavors all in the same ice cream.

Chocolate+mango+matcha seems like a lot to process in one bite. I guess my usual limit for countries per fusion dish is about two :raz: I usually do fusions from a ingredient-functional perspective instead of a flavor-combining perspective, so I'm not the trendy New York type. In ice cream, matcha serves the function of chocolate for me; it provides bitterness and complexity. Though I wouldn't be as surprised by the combination of chocolate and mango, I might feel they compete with each other.

I tried using a ring but I found it inconvenient since I don't have dozens of them, and I wasn't willing to wait for the ice cream to refreeze so I could separate the ice cream from the rings intact. I used them for a while and I ended up just scraping away excess and wrapping.

http://www.baking911.com/cookies/storage.htm has some ideas on freezing, but doesn't answer the specific question about whether the soft cookies will stay soft. My thinking is that soft cookies will stay relatively soft; my crisp butter/sugar cookies started crispy but became softer with more time in the freezer.

I think that if your fat content is high and you bake a cookie recipe at 350F, get a soft cookie when the dough cools, it will stay pretty much a soft cookie. I believe the ice cream cookies used in commercial, good-humor type doughs is shortening or similar, rather than more flavorful butter. It seems like you'll need at least an overnight test to be sure, but I can tell you the character of my crisp cookies changed substantially between day 1 in the freezer and day 7.

If you're going for familiar, you might just choose a simple shortbread-like cookie.

That sounds neat, but I actually need a "cookie" that will freeze soft. I plan on filling the ice creams into an acetate ring diretly on the cookie, so that I don't have to keep ice cream at a super-pliable temp for service (and so I'll have perfect, clean sides).

So what I basically need is a cookie that freezes very soft. Actually I wanted to come as close to the traditional black chocolate variety you'd get from the good humor man. I'm going all food-foward with the ice cream (mango matcha) so I want the cookie to be familiar.

Edited by JasonTrue (log)

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I discovered tht mango and green tea actually go awesome together during my run in Nobu's pastry department. It all started with a mango green tea greanite component and built from there.

Anyways, I was thinking about using shortening, but I was afraid that a higher fat cookie would actually free harder. In my experience the softest freezing thing is an egg foam cake, which is very low in fat.

Of course I'll have o do some experimenting, but its kinda inconvinient time-wise, as I'm a one man show right now. I was hoping somebody here might have already done the hard work for me. :biggrin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well technically alot of people have already done the work for you. Almost every book or recipe tells you what the finished texture is supposed to be like. Just seek out recipes for softer cookies.

I've got several books on my shelfs that specificly list soft cookies and or cookies for ice cream sandwiches, try:

Big, Soft, Chewy Cookies..........by Jill Van Cleave.

Bigfatcookies, by Elinor Klivans.

Rosie's Bakery Chocolate Packed Jam Filled Butter-rich No-Holds-Barred Cookie Book, by Judy Rosenberg.

A Bakers Field Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies, by Dede Wilson.

Great Cookies Secrets To Sensational Sweets, by Carole Walter.

I also like thin crisp cookies holding my ice cream. Tuiles can be used quite decoratively as a sandwich cookie also florentines taste great in this application. Madelines would work too depending upon how you did this.

I do a really old fashioned dessert that's pretty popular which could be used similarly. Have you ever had those wafer cookie refridgerator cakes? It's basicly a dark chocolate cookie with whipped cream sandwiched in between cookie layers. The whipped cream in time softens the hard cookies and it tastes pretty good. You can do many riff's on that..........from using flavored whipped creams to semi-fredos to ice cream. I found a dark chocolate cookie that tastes verys similar to those purchased cookies in (I think) Sherry Yards baking book.......if your interested I can give you more details.

Also Martha Stewart has a small section in her Desserts Book on frozen desserts. I've had success with them enough to tell you to check that book out too, she may have an answer/recipe for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cook's Illustrated has a recipe for homemade ice cream sandwiches too (you'll need access to their online archives). I tried it a couple of weeks ago and they worked pretty well (froze soft). Chocolate syrup was their secret ingredient. The unfrozen cookies have to be cut and handled very gently, though.

Edited by cjsadler (log)

Chris Sadler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think for the American palate it's not as distracting to have competing flavors in the same bite. Like I said, although I'm just a white guy, my fusion is based on a more Japanese approach to ingredients... Except for some over-the-top folks like Nobu and Morimoto (both conveniently located in the US) the Japanese approach to fusion is generally more about highlighting natural flavors than about asking a lot of them to all play with each other simultaneously. Textural challenges are also confusing for a Japanese palate. The towers of interesting sounding ingredients school of fusion is certainly a common approach and it works especially well when the audience isn't intimately familiar with a particular ingredient.

I'll certainly try mango and matcha together just to see what I can do with it. I might be a convert yet; when I just think of the function of these both very complex-yet-subtle tasting ingredients it seems hard to imagine them in the same cream or paste. I could imagine something like this site created working, because the flavors stay independent yet have the chance to play together. If Starbucks (Tazo) can do matcha and honeydew melon together (though I don't know how it tastes), and if the bubble tea places can do matcha-mango drinks (the most common matcha-mango references I could fine), it must have some sort of mainstream appeal.

I know what you mean about high fat things often freezing hard. When I first attempted a seriously chocolate ice cream (probably the second time I made ice cream ever) many years ago, it was based on bitter chocolate, cream, some milk, and a little sugar. It tasted wonderful, but it was a sliceable, frozen-parfait type dessert and should have been made in a mold; it wasn't ice cream because the fat had hardened too much. Now that I've made that mistake I take advantage of the knowledge to recreate the texture on purpose.

But it wasn't a crispy hard... I think anything short of a "crunch" will be a familiar manufactured-ice-cream-cookie like taste. Fran's Chocolates was usually working with a more crispy cookie for their ice cream cookies, and I remember that the "Big Cookie" frozen ice cream cookies were usually somewhat crisp.

I would think your risk would be too much moisture (rather than fat) because higher-moisture cookies will become ice cubes.

Jason Truesdell

Blog: Pursuing My Passions

Take me to your ryokan, please

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just checked recipe source and the best looking one they had listed was made with brownie batter spread into a half sheet pan ...remove, trim, cut in half, fill, then score to desired serving size

Mmmmm sounds good to me but also could just do brownie cookies..

I saw a show on Food Network inside the Blue Bunny factory and they mentioned how suprised the public woud be to know that the cookie starts out crispy but gets soft because of contact with the ice cream

hope it helps

T

Edited by rooftop1000 (log)

The great thing about barbeque is that when you get hungry 3 hours later....you can lick your fingers

Maxine

Avoid cutting yourself while slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold them while you chop away.

"It is the government's fault, they've eaten everything."

My Webpage

garden state motorcyle association

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done ice cream sandwiches of one type or another on every menu every where. I find the best way is to mold them in acetate lined ring until solid (shallow flexipans are also good). Remove from ring, wrap each one individually label and date to insure stock rotation. When you get an order just un wrap, sandwich between 2 cookies and voila! It keeps the ice cream hard (enough) and the cookies how you want them (either chewy or crispy)

Edited by bripastryguy (log)

"Chocolate has no calories....

Chocolate is food for the soul, The soul has no weight, therefore no calories" so said a customer, a lovely southern woman, after consuming chocolate indulgence

SWEET KARMA DESSERTS

www.sweetkarmadesserts.com

550 East Meadow Ave. East meadow, NY 11554

516-794-4478

Brian Fishman

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow those are some really great reponses. I've definately got some reading to do!

FYI I was going to mold the ice creams (its mango AND matcha ice creams) in just a ring of acetate directly onto the bottom cookie, apply the top cookie, freeze and then remove the acetate. I simply don't have ring molds enough to be poppin them in the freezer.

Anyways, I'll be sure to let you know which recipe I try and if it works. Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you substitute shortening it should work fine, we used to make IC cookies sandwiches and had to use shortening because it would stay softer when frozen. Atleast that is what my boss at the time told me when I asked her why we used shortening. Jill

Stephen W.

Pastry Chef/Owner

The Sweet Life Bakery

Vineland, NJ

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you are interested in a recipe, I am posting the following. I thinke the recipe came from a Martha Stewart magazine, but it's been awhile and I'm not exactly sure. I've rewritten the instructions for brevity and to avoid any copyright issues.

Ice Cream Sandwich Dough

2 3/4 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon milk

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Cream butter, vanilla, and sugar. Add eggs and milk, and mix until combined. Add flour mixture, mixing on low speed until incorporated. Divide dough in half and shape each into a flat disk. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll dough on floured work surface to 1/8 inch thick. Cut into rectangles or other shapes. Place on parchment-lined cookie sheet and chill 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350. Remove from refrigerator and prick holes in cookies. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheet, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely. Fill with ice cream and freeze in airtight container.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

I can't believe summer is fast approaching. I'm trying to make ice cream sandwiches like the ones you buy at the grocery store (rectangular chocolate cookies with ice cream) where the cookies are soft and yield immediately when bitten into (no crunch). I would like them to look like this.

All the recipes I have tried thus far have made crisp cookies more like shortbread. Here is the recipe I am using at the moment:

12 tbsp butter

1/4 c shortening

1 1/3 c sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp vanilla

2 1/4 c flour

2/3 c cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

It's the basic cream fat and sugar together, add egg, then add dry ingredients type of procedure. I roll and chill before baking. I bake at 350 F till just barely set.

Does anyone have any tips of recipes they'd be willing to share for soft ice cream sandwich cookies?

thx, David.

"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where all the fruit is?" -Frank Scully
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made some last year that were quite crunchy when fresh but after a few hours wrapped in the freezer they softened up nicely. I wish I could tell you the recipe but i can't remember, it might have been a Martha recipe.

My point is that perhaps your cookies will "ripen" in the freezer?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I made some last year that were quite crunchy when fresh but after a few hours wrapped in the freezer they softened up nicely.  I wish I could tell you the recipe but i can't remember, it might have been a Martha recipe.

My point is that perhaps your cookies will "ripen" in the freezer?

Just the point that I was going to make -- don't have a recipe myself though. However, I saw a show where they were making the commercial grocery store ones, and they specifically said that their cookies were crisp when made. After filled with ice cream, they had to hold their product so that the cookies could, as you said, "ripen".

So, PastryBoy, don't necessarily go looking for that soft cookie... I'll be following the thread lest the great cookie be found. I love (seriously) the way they stick to your fingers -- reminds me of childhood :wub:

Cheryl, The Sweet Side
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I saw that same show as SweetSide..............but I thought they said it was sheets of cake, not technically a cookie. Less butter in the cake so it softens up easier in the freezer.

I must have been in a pre-bed stupor after getting up at 4 AM... :raz:

As my curiousity was piqued further, I went a searching and found this recipe CLICK. From the write up next to it, it appears that it would be a soft cookie, but as I haven't made it, I can't attest to the results.

Here's another one CLICK

If any finds something, please post. I won't have time for testing as I'm busy testing out a bunch of other recipes...

Cheryl, The Sweet Side
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the previous posters. I've made ice cream sandwiches with the regular oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I make, and they always seem to absorb some moisture from the ice cream after a couple of days in the freezer (well wrapped). Just use any cookie recipe you really like unless you have your heart set on the rectangular shape.

What kind of ice cream are you planning to fill them with?

If you made double chocolate cookies with cocoa nib ice cream I'd eat 3 of them!

If only I'd worn looser pants....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used this recipe from Martha Stewart that yields excellent results. The cookie is soft at room temperature and doesn't need ripening. It stays soft even in the frozen state similar to commercial ice-cream sandwiches. This is my standard ice-cream sandwich cookie base.

Candy Wong

"With a name like Candy, I think I'm destined to make dessert."

Want to know more? Read all about me in my blog.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've tried ripening the cookies in the freezer overnight once they have been sandwiched with the cookies but they're still pretty crispy. I am trying to make mini ice cream sandwiches so perhaps I am overbaking the cookies.

I believe I will give Martha's recipe a try since it has been mentioned a few times here. I'll let you all know how it goes.

cheers!

"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where all the fruit is?" -Frank Scully
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've made this Cooks Illustrated recipe with great success. It solves the problem of how to work with sticky chocolate cookie dough and the end result is amazing. It's what the grocery store kind should taste like! (but sadly, minus the cute dimples)

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Makes eight 3-inch sandwiches

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (5 ounces)

1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (1 1/2 ounces)

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

2 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar (about 4 3/4 ounces)

1/4 cup chocolate syrup (2 3/4 ounces)

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

2 pints vanilla ice cream , chocolate ice cream, or coffee ice cream

1. Preheat oven to 350* with oven rack set in the middle. Spray a 17 1/2 x 12" half-sheet pan or 17 x 11" jellyroll pan with cooking spray and line with parchment.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl.

3. Beat the eggs, sugar, and chocolate syrup in a large bowl until light brown in color. Add the melted butter and whisk everything together.

4. Add the dry ingredients (flour thru baking soda) to egg mixture. Gradually incorporate dry ingredients into wet. Stir until the mixture is evenly moistened. Pour batter into prepared baking sheet and spread batter evenly in pan.

5. Bake until the cookie springs back when touched with finger, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool in the pan on cooling rack 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the baking sheet to loosen. Invert cookie onto work surface and peel off parchment. Cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

6. Using a 2 3/4- to 3" round biscuit cutter, cut 16 rounds from the baked cookie.

7. Slice eight 3/4"-thick rounds from ice cream pints. Peel away container. Use the same size biscuit cutter to cut rounds out of each ice cream slice, so they will fit the cookies. Assemble ice cream sandwiches.

8. Serve immediately or place sandwiches on foil-lined baking sheet, cover tightly with another sheet of foil, and freeze up to 3 hours. To store sandwiches longer, wrap individually in wax paper, then with foil; freeze for up to 7 days. Let sandwiches frozen for more than 30 minutes stand at room temperature for 10 minutes before serving.

Edited by DanielleM (log)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...