Ice Cream Sandwiches

We have a rule at our house that we do not buy sweets if we want a sugar treat/dessert we must make it our selves. So this summer the kids asked for ice cream sandwiches and I was happy to help them make some. These are absolutely delicious and can be made as big or small as you would like. They take a bit of time and are fairly messy but well worth it in the end. We ended up with about 20 of them which I think is just enough to last us most of the summer.

Chocolate Sandwich Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup salt
2 cups all purpose flour

In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs and then the vanilla. In a separate bowl mix together the cocoa powder, flour, and salt. Slowly beat into the butter mixture. Beat until well combined gather into a ball cover and refrigerate about 1 hour.
Roll out the dough onto a well floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Using the shape cutter from an ice cream sandwich mold* cut out and even number of shapes. Be sure to ave a top and bottom for each sandwich.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 8 min at 375º. As I took the hot cookies off of the baking sheet I gently pressed the shape cutter back over them to be sure they were still the correct shape. Some needed a little trimming before cooling and I put the mold impression on half the cookies before they cooled. Allow the cookies to cool completely.

Putting together the sandwiches
This is where I am happy I had the molds. Using very slightly softened ice cream, it must not be too hard or too soft or you will end up with a big mess, follow the mold instructions to put together the cookies. Place them in a single layer on a freezer tray and freeze till solid. I put the tray in the freezer and the ice cream in a large bowl filled with ice. Each time I made a sandwich I would put it on the tray in the freezer. This way nothing melted during the process.

*We used some Tovolo Ice Cream Sandwich Molds to create ours. I am not one for using many fancy gadgets but these made the sandwich making quite easy and I would recommend them to any one making these. The recipe for the molds came with a brownie type cookie but I like these better. They took a bit more work but I think it was well worth it since I like a crunch in my Ice cream Sandwich.