I love cakes. Baking them, eating them, looking at photos of them. They’re extravagant and delicious. But my boyfriend prefers cookies, and it’s long been a source of tension between us. For his recent birthday, however, we came up with a compromise. An ice cream sandwich the size of a cake. All the extravagance of a cake, even layered almost like a cake, yet really just two giant cookies with ice cream. We tossed around flavors for a while before settling on chocolate and caramel, a classic combination. Baking two very large cookies was as simple as filling two cake pans; this also resulted in a denser and chewier cookie, although I imagine you could just drop the batter on two cookie sheets for thinner and more traditional cookies. The rest of the logistics were a little more difficult than expected. I made the mistake of attempting to layer the ice cream sandwich while the ice cream was freshly churned and very soft which ended up with the bottom cookie absorbing much of the ice cream. I re-filled the cookies with more ice cream after it hardened up in the freezer with better results (only to later discover the ice cream soaked cookie on the bottom with pleasant surprise). The cookies then started to crack when I was re-assembling the giant sandwich (as you can see in the photo), and that’s when I realized: making a giant ice cream sandwich is about having fun and being playful with food. Sometimes you have to try cooking something new, something fun, even though you make mistakes along the way. This has long been how I’ve felt about baking extravagant cakes, and suddenly I’m feeling that way about cookies, too.
Giant Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream Sandwich
Yield: 1 10″ ice cream sandwich
Ingredients:
- 1/2 batch brownie cookie batter*
- 1 batch salted brown butter caramel ice cream**
*Or your favorite cookie batter – preferably cookies that are softer and moister as they will harden up in the freezer.
**Or your favorite ice cream, of course. Homemade or store-bought, make sure it is thoroughly frozen.
Method:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Butter 2 10″ round cake pans (or 2 8″ or 9″ pans for thicker cookies). Line the bottoms of the cake pan with a round of parchment paper.
- Divide 1/2 batch brownie cookie batter evenly between the two pans.
- Bake, rotating halfway through, until firm on the outside and losing their sheen with slight crackling on top, about 15 – 25 minutes. It’s okay if they’re a little undercooked or overcooked.
- Remove from oven, and let cool completely in pans on cooling racks.
- Carefully invert the cookies onto a plate, and remove the parchment paper. Wrap them individually in plastic wrap, and move them to the freezer for at least 1 hour.
- Remove the cookies from the freezer. Unwrap both, and place one on a plate or cake stand, then top with 1 batch salted brown butter caramel ice cream, followed by the other cookie. Return to the freezer for at least 1 hour before serving.
