#55 - Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Sandwiches

We like ice cream, we like sandwiches, and we most definitely like ice cream sandwiches. So when we saw pictures of these chocolate-dipped ice cream sandwiches in a recent Bon Appetit magazine, we knew we had to try this one out ourselves.

Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Sandwiches

From Bon Appetit
There are tons of things in this picture, but we made our own homemade ice cream, so if you're not going that route, just buy some of your favorite flavor and your countertop will have a lot less stuff on it.
To make ice cream sandwiches, you need two things: the ice cream and the "bread." To start out, we have to make one big cookie that'll form the outside of the sandwiches.
Then for the inside of the sandiwches, we made some homemade strawberry ice cream.
The next step is to cut the cookie sheet in half, layer the ice cream, and plop the other half on top. Then you put it in the freezer to firm up, and cut them to the size sandwiches you want. And the extra goodness is to dip it in some chocolate and add sprinkles when you're done.
These things were awesome. The chocolate coating was fun and made them pretty, but the best part was the ice cream sandwich itself. The cookies were tasty, ice cream is always good, and putting them together made us feel like we were king confectioners.
Even if you're not in the mood for some tasty frozen desserts, make these now and freeze them for later.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 4 tsps vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 cups fresh strawberries, chopped
• 2 to 3 tsps sugar

Preparation

1. In a medium pan, heat the half-and-half over medium heat until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar for 30 seconds (on Speed 2 of your KitchenAid).
3. Gradually add half-and-half while continuing mixing.
4. Return the mixture to medium heat until very hot and steaming, constantly stirring. Do not boil.
5. Remove from heat and transfer mixture into a large bowl and stir in whipping cream, vanilla, and salt.
6. Cover bowl and chill for at least 8 hours.
7. Prepare your ice cream maker for use.
8. Pour chilled mixture into your ice cream maker and stir for 15 minutes (on Speed 1 of your KitchenAid).
9. While processing, combine strawberries and 2 to 3 teaspoons sugar in a medium bowl and let stand.
10. While still mixing, add in chopped strawberries and stir for an additional 3 to 5 minutes or until the ice cream is thickened.
11. Pour ice cream into a freezer safe air-tight container, and return to freezer for several hours before serving.

Chocolate-Dipped Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 1 cup flour
  
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/2 cup golden brown sugar, packed
• 2 Tbs golden syrup
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups ice cream, softened
• 9 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 3 Tbs vegetable oil
• Assorted decorations

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Line 13x9x2 inch metal baking pan with foil, leaving 1-inch overhang on long sides. Coat lightly with nonstick spray.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, and a pinch of salt.
4. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Cook until milk solids on bottom of pan turn deep golden brown, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes. Transfer into small bowl.
5. Put sugar and syrup in a large bowl. Pour in browned butter and whisk to combine.
6. Whisk in egg yolks and vanilla.
7. Add flour mixture and stir just to blend.
8. Transfer dough to prepared pan and press into an even layer.
9. Bake cookie for 15 to 17 minutes, until golden brown and sides pull away from pan edges.
10. Cool completely in pan on rack.
11. Using foil overhang, lift cookie layer from pan and place on work station.
12. Place sheet of plastic wrap lengthwise in same pan, leaving overhang on both short sides of pan. Place another sheet of plastic wrap crosswise in pan, leaving overhang on long sides.
13. Cut cookie layer in half.
14. Return 1 cookie half, top side down, to 1 short end of the pan.
15. Slightly soften ice cream in microwave in 15 second intervals.
16. Spread ice cream evenly over cookie in pan.
17. Place second cookie half, top side up, on top of ice cream, pressing slightly.
18. Fold plastic wrap over ice cream-filled cookie, and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.
19. Line baking sheet with wax paper.
20. Use serrated knife to cut cookies lengthwise in half, then cut each strip crosswise into 4 sandwiches.
21. Place on baking sheet and freeze.
22. Stir chocolate and vegetable oil in medium metal bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Cool to lukewarm.
23. Working with one sandwich at a time, dip half of sandwich in melted chocolate,allowing excess to drip back into bowl.
24. Press sandwich into decorations on a plate, and return to baking sheet in freezer. Repeat for each sandwich.
25. Freeze until chocolate sets and freezes, about 1 hour.

#44 - Stracciatella Gelato

Remember how we told you our Villa friends came over tonight? Well, we had to feed them dessert, and those cookie bars would be perfect if they had something creamy to go with them.

Homemade gelato anyone?

Stracciatella Gelato

From Bon Appetit
Stracciatella is kind of the Italian version of chocolate chip ice cream, so in the ingredients, we needed bittersweet chocolate to get those swirly chunks. Also, we decided to break the bank with this recipe and use real vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract.
Making the gelato is similar to making ice cream, where you start off making a custard that will need to be chilled before churning. The main difference is the fat content as gelato has more milk than heavy cream.
While the custard is chilling, we had time to get the chocolate ready. We melted the bittersweet chocolate chips down and made this super delicious looking sauce.
Then while churning the gelato, we poured that stuff in in little batches, and watched as it froze into thin strips of chocolate.
Back in the freezer for a bit, and we're done!
This gelato was pretty tasty, and it went perfectly with those pecan cookie bars. The chocolate swirl was pretty neat, and we think we might have to steal that technique for a creamier ice cream in the future.
If you made the cookie bars, make this to go with it:

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, chilled
• 1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
• 2 tsp vegetable oil

Preparation

1. Heat milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean to the milk, and add the bean.
3. Bring milk to a simmer, whisking often.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, yolks, and salt for 1 minute, until well-blended.
5. Gradually whisk the hot milk into the yolk mixture.
6. Return to saucepan and stir over medium-low heat until the custard thickens, about 5 minutes.
7. Strain custard into a medium bowl.
8. Stir in the chilled cream and cover.
9. Chill custard until cold, at least 2 hours.
10. Stir chocolate and oil in a small saucepan over low heat until melted, and let cool.
11. Prepare your ice cream maker for use.
12. Pour chilled mixture into your ice cream maker and stir for 15 minutes (on Speed 1 of your KitchenAid).
13. During the last 30 seconds of churning, slowly add all but 1 tsp melted chocolate to the ice cream.
14. Transfer to a bowl and drizzle the remaining chocolate over gelato in zigzag lines.
15. Return ice cream to freezer for several hours before serving.

#11 - Super Bowl Sundae

When we got married, we registered for an ice cream maker KitchenAid attachment. We've used it a lot, and we know that it takes eight egg yolks to whip up a good batch of ice cream. So when we made the Pavlova a few days ago, and our double recipe called for eight egg whites, we knew we were in business.

And since tonight's Super Bowl Sunday, we thought it would only be appropriate to turn our ice cream into a Super Bowl Sundae.

Super Bowl Sundae

A Hungry Hundred Original Recipe
Since we invented this recipe, the picture below of our mise en place is a little mise-d up. We ended up using canned whipped cream instead of homemade, and we didn't use any caramel sauce.
We like making our own ice cream from scratch (and a lot of people ask us to bring some for special occasions), but if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can still make this sundae with store bought peanut butter cup ice cream.
Or if you want to be adventurous, you could do a hybrid, by starting with store bought vanilla ice cream, and adding in the extra stuff that what we put in along the way. Kinda like Sandra Lee, but without the tablescape.
To turn vanilla ice cream into peanut butter cup ice cream, we added chopped peanuts and Reeses' Peanut Butter Cup Miniatures. Then we swirled in some chocolate sauce and homemade peanut butter sauce.

From our experience swirling things in our Snickers ice cream in the past, we've learned that pouring sauces in all at once and stirring usually leads to a big mess. The heavy sauces sink to the bottom, and if you stir it too much, everything get all mixed and you can't pick out individual flavors. So we learned that it works better if you layer the ice cream and sauces and try not to stir too much.
This sundae was absurd. It was really tasty, and the peanut butter-chocolate combination was delicious. The ice cream and whipped cream were the perfect balance to the gooey-ness of the brownie, and the whole thing was ... a touchdown.

It was the perfect ending to our dinner of chicken nachos, pigs in a blanket, and mini quiches served on a wonderful Packers tablescape.
Here are all the recipes you need.

Homemade Peanut Butter Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

Preparation

1. Mix together the sugar and water in a small saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
   
2. Boil the mixture for one minute, and remove from heat.
3. Stir in the peanut butter until melted and well blended.

Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cup half-and-half
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 4 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt
• Homemade peanut butter sauce (from above)
• Chocolate Sauce
• Handful of cocktail peanuts, chopped
• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures, quartered

Preparation

1. In a medium pan, heat the half-and-half over medium heat until very hot but not boiling, stirring often. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar for 30 seconds (on Speed 2 of your KitchenAid).
3. Gradually add half-and-half while continuing mixing.
4. Return the mixture to medium heat until very hot and steaming, constantly stirring. Do not boil.
5. Remove from heat and transfer mixture into a large bowl and stir in whipping cream, vanilla, and salt.
6. Cover bowl and chill for at least 8 hours.
7. Prepare your ice cream maker for use.
8. Pour chilled mixture into your ice cream maker and stir for 15 minutes (on Speed 1 of your KitchenAid).
9. While still mixing, add in chopped peanuts and Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Miniatures, and stir for an additional 5 minutes or until the ice cream is thickened.
10. Pour ice cream into a freezer safe air-tight container, and freeze for 1 hour.
11. Remove ice cream from freezer, and add the chocolate sauce and homemade peanut butter sauce, swirling to lightly combine.
12. Return ice cream to freezer for several hours before serving.

Super Bowl Sundae

Ingredients

• 1 package of brownie mix (and additional ingredients according to box)
• Peanut butter cup ice cream (from above)
• Homemade peanut butter sauce (from above)
• Chocolate sauce
• Whipped cream
• Reese's Pieces

Preparation

1. Bake brownies according to the instructions on the package.
2. Starting with a brownie as the base, top with one scoop of peanut butter cup ice cream.
3. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and homemade peanut butter sauce.
4. Top with whipped cream and Reese's Pieces.