Blondie Ice Cream Sandwiches

No churn, minimal fuss, maximum fun!

Ice cream sandwiches can be tricky to make at home. It’s not as easy as layering up your favorite cookies and ice cream, as most cookies aren’t designed to taste good (or even be edible) frozen. They’re also not sized to be shoved two-at-a-time into your mouth, with a puck of ice cream in between. Too much of a good thing, as they say.

But in the midst of a mid-June heat wave here in Ontario, I was determined to create a home baker-friendly version of a beloved summertime treat. (Was it just an excuse to plant myself next to the freezer? Probably yes.) With some special attention to proportions and a few basic kitchen supplies, ice cream sandwiches are not only possible — they’re a joy to make!

The cookie

One key I’ve discovered after a few rounds of not-very-good ice cream sandwiches is that they work best when the cookie part is THIN, like way thinner than you think it needs to be. I knew that I wanted to make an ice cream sandwich using my blondie recipe, since frozen blondies are actually pretty delicious — they don’t get completely rock hard thanks to the ratios of fat and sugar that give them their room-temp fudgy texture. However, even my regular blondie recipe at half the thickness put the sandwich out of whack. The blondies are still a lot harder to bite than the ice cream, which made eating them together challenging.

So I took a hint from Bravetart’s cookbook and spread the batter into a super thin layer on a sheet pan. Though I’d be sorely disappointed if anyone offered me a blondie that thin at room temp, it ended up being the perfect thickness (thinness?) in the context of an ice cream sandwich.¹

The ice cream

As much as I love my ice cream machine and look for any excuse to use it year-round, I wanted a no-churn recipe for these sandwiches for a couple reasons. First, I know not everyone has a machine, but I don’t think that should hold you back from making delicious frozen treats. Second, I wanted to make this project a little less time-consuming (even if much of the time in ice-cream making is nonactive). While you still need to respect the chill times, you eliminate the extra steps of chilling and then churning an ice cream base. You can easily make and freeze the blondie and the parfait one day, then cut, dip, and serve your sandwiches the next.

There are a few different routes you can go when making a no-churn ice cream. The simplest no-churns involve a can of condensed milk + whipped cream. While the ease is appealing, this style isn’t my favorite — a bit too fatty and sweet for my taste. Instead, I’m going for something between Italian semifreddo and French parfait. The lines between these two styles are blurry, but generally semifreddo involves Italian meringue (egg whites + sugar syrup) combined with whipped cream, while parfait uses pate a bombe (egg yolks + hot sugar syrup) and cream. The airiness from the beaten eggs helps lighten the texture of the frozen treat, with semifreddo being airer (beaten whites can expand more than the same quantity of yolks) and parfait being richer/denser.

I decided to make things simple and use whole eggs, which will give you plenty of volume while not orphaning any whites or yolks. I also wanted to make sure these treats were fully pasteurized, as a hot sugar syrup never truly brings up the egg temp high enough to pasteurize them. Heating the eggs and sugar over simmering water until it registers 160F prior to whipping offers this peace of mind.

The magic shell

You could stop with just the blondies and parfait, but why not gild the lily with a simple magic shell coating? All you need to do is melt some good chocolate with coconut oil. Coconut oil first thins the chocolate, which helps you get a thin, crackly layer of chocolate rather than a thick, tough one; then solidifies quickly once chilled (in this case, gets in contact with your freezer-cold sandwiches). I was on a little buckwheat kick with these sandwiches, so I folded in some toasted buckwheat kernels for extra texture. It’s not a make or break ingredient, though; you can keep the coating smooth or add in some finely chopped nuts if you’d like.

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Blondie Ice Cream Sandwiches

Makes 16 2”x2” sandwiches