Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches with Cacao Nib Cookies

It’s 90 degrees out. The AC is broken. The afternoon is long and hot. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Ice cream to the rescue!
Ice cream is my summer vice and I’m not sorry about it. In fact, the only time I am sorry about ice cream is when I leave it out too long and it melts. Sorry, all ice cream I have done this to! I promise I won’t do it again. Especially to this one!
Ooh, this ice cream is a good one. Packed with roasted strawberries which give it a light pink hue and an undeniably fruity taste, it’s creamy and sweet, with a little tang from the sour cream.
It’s good on its own, even better when covered in a dark chocolate magic shell, but this ice cream really shines when it’s scooped between two textured cookies and turned into ice cream sandwiches. Filled with oats, poppy seeds, cacao nibs and buckwheat flour, the bitter undertones in these cookies perfectly complement the sweetness of the ice cream. Since they’re naturally gluten free and made with melted butter, the cookies are also chewy, which means that instead of them breaking when you bite in, and all the ice cream squishing out, they meld with the ice cream and become one, like the most magical, refreshing union there ever was.
These would be a great addition your Memorial Day weekend, or to your Shavuot menu- especially seeing as how Shavuos always ends up being epically hot! But really, who needs an excuse to eat fresh, homemade ice cream? Not me. Not ever. And now that I’ve shown you these, not you, either!

PS: these ice cream sandwiches, which I posted two years ago for Shavuot, went viral on Pinterest and were featured on BuzzFeed! A great alternative for those of you without an ice cream maker.

Yields: around 18 ice cream sandwiches

Barely adapted from Sweeter Off The Vine 

Why I love this recipe: the ice cream is creamy and sweet, with full strawberry flavor (thanks to the strawberries being roasted first) and the sour cream adds just a touch of dairy tang. Paired with the naturally gluten free cookies, which are filled with oats, cacao nibs, and slightly bitter buckwheat flour- the perfect counterpoint to the sweet ice cream- they make a wonderful summer dessert. Bonus: they get even better after they sit in the freezer for a couple of days, since the ice cream and the chewy cookies really meld together. 

For the strawberry ice cream: 

• 1 pound fresh strawberries, stemmed and halved
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons honey

For the cacao nib cookies: 

• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 6 tablespoons buckwheat flour
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 tablespoon cacao nibs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Start by making the ice cream. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 375ºF. Toss the cut strawberries and 1/3 cup sugar on a baking sheet.
2. Roast the berries until the juices start to caramelize, 15 to 20 minutes. Let the berries cool slightly then puree them in a blender or food processor until smooth. Set aside.
3. Whisk the egg yolks together in a glass or stainless steel bowl; set aside. Combine the milk, cream, remaining 2⁄3 cup of sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan.
4. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture begins to bubble around the edges.
5. Ladle about 1 cup of the cream mixture into the egg yolks and whisk vigorously.
6. Pour the egg and cream mixture back into the pan and whisk well to combine.
7. Cook the mixture on medium low heat and cook, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula and being careful not to let it boil, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 7 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and whisk in the sour cream, honey, and roasted strawberry puree.
9. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and allow the custard to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate to chill completely, at least 4 hours or overnight.
10. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions, then transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze until firm, about 4 hours or overnight.
11. Now, make the cookies: position two racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 325ºF.
12. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.In a medium bowl, stir the flour, oats, poppy seeds, cacao nibs, baking powder, and salt together until well combined.
13. In a separate bowl, use a rubber spatula to stir butter and sugar together. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until well combined. Add the dry ingredients all at once and stir until just combined.
14. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoons onto the prepared baking sheets at least 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies, rotating the pans in the oven halfway through from top to bottom and front to back, until lacy and golden brown on the edges, 9 to 11 minutes.
15. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets (or they will fall apart!), then carefully remove them from the parchment paper. Repeat until all of the batter is used.
16. Now, assemble the sandwiches: remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 minutes before you want to make the sandwiches, to soften slightly.
17. Divide the cookies into like sized pairs. Flip half of the cookies over so their flat sides are up. Top each flat cookies with a small scoop of ice cream and top the ice cream with another cookie, flat side down.
18. Put the sandwiches on a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate and refreeze until they’re firm, about 45 minutes. Either serve them immediately, or wrap them individually in plastic wrap and store for up to two weeks in the freezer.