Sunday, May 17, 2009

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches...Mmm!

Here's an easy treat that tastes just as good as it looks: homemade ice cream sandwiches!

You can go the "Full Martha" and make the ice cream as well as the cookies from scratch. However, I prefer the "Martha-light" version where you bake the cookies from scratch and buy the ice cream because homemade cookies are so wonderful and because homemade ice cream often melts very very quickly.

I made the cookies the same day as the sandwiches so they were fresh! I made this recipe on the back of the Ghirardelli chocolate chip bag with milk chocolate and semi-sweet chips. Make sure to make small cookies as two of these with ice cream will be very filling. Because I needed to work quickly, I put the sprinkles on a plate and matched up the cookies in pairs by equal sizes before getting the ice cream out.

I bought some vanilla ice cream in a rectangular type carton. I cut the carton of ice cream open and sliced the ice cream in to several slices about 1/2 inch thick.

Using a circular cookie cutter from Williams-Sonoma, I cut out a circle of ice cream that was about the size of the cookies. You then have two options:

• For a tasty homemade look, you can work quickly and make all of the sandwiches. Then, the ice cream will be soft enough to squish down between the cookies and roll in the sprinkles. You can wrap them in foil or plastic wrap and put in the freezer to harden.

or for a picture perfect look:

•You can work quickly and make the sandwiches, putting them in the freezer without the sprinkles to harden. Then once hardened, take them out and add the sprinkles, pressing them in with clean fingers or a spoon. This gives a perfect rounded edge. Rewrap and place in freezer until ready to serve!

These can be made ahead of time and are a party favorite! Enjoy!