Monday, July 25, 2011

Chocolate Dipped Ice Cream and Sorbet Sandwiches

It's no surprise that we're having a hot summer here. We always do. We have had an impressive 40 days of temperatures at or above 100 degrees F though, and it's only July 25. From the looks of the weather forecast, we're about to add seven more days to that total. What this means is that all I really want to eat is food that's cold and preferably frozen. Last August, there was a photo in Bon Appetit of a stack of chocolate dipped ice cream sandwiches. The sandwiches were all different flavors, one end of each had been dipped in melted chocolate, and then sprinkled with jimmies or toffee chunks or chopped nuts. This photo had been touched up with added vapor swirls around the sandwiches to further highlight their lovely coldness and perfection as a treat during the heat of summer. That pile of extremely cold sandwiches was something I needed in my freezer. You could use whatever ice cream or sorbet you'd like for the filling, but since I'd been waiting to find fresh, organic cherries for a few weeks, there were a couple I'd had on my mind. First, I made candied cherries and used them in white chocolate cherry ice cream, and then I cooked some cherries and pureed them for cherry sorbet. Both of those recipes are from The Perfect Scoop. The fillings were already delicious on their own, but the brown-butter cookies and chocolate coating with chopped almonds didn't hurt them one bit.

Yes, that was brown-butter cookies. And, the technique, found in the Bon Appetit recipe, for making these sandwiches was an interesting one. The cookie was baked in one solid layer in a nine by thirteen inch pan. I cut the sheet of cookie into four pieces horizontally. Two were filled with white chocolate cherry ice cream, and the other two were filled with cherry sorbet. In each case, the bottom cookie sat at one edge of the pan in which it was baked, ice cream or sorbet was piled thickly on top, and the other cookie piece was placed on top of that. With an off-set spatula, you can smooth the exposed edge. Then, each long piece of filled cookie sandwich was wrapped in plastic wrap, left in the pan, and placed in the freezer to firm up. After a few hours, the cookie bars were cut into separate, little sandwiches. The great news is that these brown-butter cookies cut easily with a serrated knife. They didn't break or chip apart as I feared they might. The cut apart sandwiches were placed back in the freezer once again before the next step. Last, chocolate was melted, one end of each sandwich was dipped into the chocolate and then into chopped nuts, and they set up in the freezer until dessert time arrived.

Almost any cookie would make a good ice cream sandwich, but some are easier than others to bite into after being frozen. The cookies used here performed perfectly for filling, cutting, and biting. The process of filling a long piece of cookie and then cutting the sandwiches after they were frozen and firm worked amazingly well. I haven't decided which filling, the white chocolate cherry ice cream or the cherry sorbet, I like better, but opening the freezer to find two different options for frozen treats is certainly making our hot summer a little more bearable.



31 comments:

  1. These are gorgeous. Just whatt I'd love but don't need. :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. A divine summer dessert! That sorbet must taste wonderful.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh my god!!! This is one of the most beautiful desserts I have ever seen!! Brown butter cookies + sorbet + chocolate?!? That must be divine! Gorgeous dessert, Lisa!

    ReplyDelete
  4. How gorgeous are these????
    I read the thru the B.A. recipe last weekend and decided to leave it to someone else. Wow, these turned out better than the magazine's!

    ReplyDelete
  5. My teeth hurt (in a good way) just thinking about biting into one of these ice cream sandwiches! Brown buttter cookies?!?! Yum!
    Store-bought ice cream sandwiches are a guilty pleasure of mine. I almost always have some in the freezer for a quick ice cream fix. Maybe I'd feel better about that if they were homemade.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Are you selling these? You should. Those look perfect! Honestly, the cookies alone would've been enough, but then you added ice cream...even better. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Fantastic frozen treats! Love the cherry flavor for both the ice cream and the sorbet - perfect with combination of chocolate!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I wish I had a stack of your gourmet ice cream sandwiches in my fridge! They totally rock!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I can't get over how perfect these look! I can only hope mine look as good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lisa, after getting an ice cream maker, I'm tempted to order The Perfect Scoop...

    seems like a must have for all things ice cream & related

    cherry sorbet, my beloved would go crazy for it, I'm sure

    wonderful post, I would not be able to pull this type of dessert in a million years, way too involved for me

    ReplyDelete
  11. This is out of ordinary. Extraordinary has even become ordinary when it comes to this dessert (cos it is much better than extraordinary)! Just super awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  12. So this is love at first sight.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The heat is coming to LA and I'm dreading it. This looks like a good way to cool off.

    ReplyDelete
  14. oh wowww that first phot especially is truly stunning! what a brilliant summer recipe :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. OMG .. pure divine! I can't take my eyes off it .. looks so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wow Lisa, these ice cream sandwiches look delicious, perfect for the warm days. Now that I have an ice cream maker, will be able to make this. Beautiful pictures!
    Hope you are having a wonderful week :-)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Those are so beautiful! I'm so inspired - I can't wait to try something similar!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Whoa, so fancy! If you sold these, I'd buy a dozen -- easily. And probably eat them all myself. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. oh my, these look beyond amazing!!!

    ReplyDelete
  20. These look fabulous! I can't be sure I would go through all the trouble to make the ice-cream plus the cookies, probably will buy one or the other but the total effect is "WOW!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Wow, this is the best idea ever! And the perfect way to elevate ice cream sandwiches for a party :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. OMG Lisa, these sandwiches are absolutely amazing!! Brown butter cookies, I love them. Never had white chocolate ice-cream but i'm already in love with the idea.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Lisa, these are gorgeous! I simply love cherry sorbet - I always order a scoop with a scoop of milk chocolate ice cream at our local pizza joint. Perfect combo! But these sandwiches are just fabulous! - seems like all your readers want a box of them. Add me to the list!

    ReplyDelete
  24. You've taken ice cream sandwiches to a whole new level, Lisa! Fun to use the two kinds of cherry-based ice cream and then to dip them in chocolate and nuts as well! Oh my.
    I made some cherry pecan ice cream last week and while the base was delicious, the cherry part was not successful. Will definitely check The Perfect Scoop to see where I made my mistake, 'cause yours looks perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Wow! They look so beautiful! I would like at least one..

    ReplyDelete
  26. I am so impressed. These look amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I find myself speechless - wow! Talk about the perfect summer treat (and so beautifully photographed as well!)

    ReplyDelete
  28. Ok....these just look incredible! Pretty sure I would demolish the entire batch. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  29. OMG! That's a super idea. Looks so inviting.

    ReplyDelete
  30. when i think of ice cream sandwiches, i visualize those black and white novelties that a)stick to your fingers like glue, and b)melt all the way down your arm. these are so much more elegant and delicious. nice work!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oh my Lisa, this is insanity! Yours are so gorgeous I'm not sure I would even be able to take a bite. OK, I would for sure but really beautiful job on these. Better than Bon Appetit for sure.

    ReplyDelete

Blogging tips