06.02.07
Cheesecake Ice Cream (Sandwiches)
When last we met, I was forlornly resigning myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to roll, cut, chill, bake and cool a batch of homemade graham crackers inside the space of an hour. The next day, I returned to the kitchen after work, already wilting from summer heat, and got to it.
The dough was easy to work with. I kept the counter sprinkled with flour and had very few issues with sticking. I ended up getting 17 sandwich cookie-sized crackers (about 2.5″ x 5.5″, but I wasn’t really measuring) out of the batch, and I think I could have stood to roll the dough out thinner. I popped the prepped cookies into the fridge (where the baking sheets they were on only just barely fit into my fridge…whew) and we went out with the pup for a walk and a frisbee session. When we returned, the cookies were ready to go in the oven. They baked up just right according to the recipe, so if I do roll them out thinner next time, I would reduce the bake time by a few minutes. I gave them just enough time to cool, and loaded them up with ice cream.
I think my ice cream sandwich technique needs work. First off, next time I will definitely have the cookies ready before I make the ice cream, because the texture is just right for spreading fresh out of the machine. That was initially my plan, but a heat-related emergency (read: our house was warm and we were uncomfortable) required an ice cream infusion, stat. As a result, the ice cream was really too solid for spreading, and melted all around the edges of the container because of the warm kitchen. Also, my first sandwich was made from a whole cracker, and Jeremy complained that the ice cream to cookie ratio was off. He was taking a bite, and all the ice cream squished out the back end. After that, I broke my cookies in half along their handy-dandy break line, tried hard to mound some (still rather solid) ice cream in between, and immediately got the finished cookie back into the freezer. I did six this way, and I think the size is more user friendly—the ice cream doesn’t quite melt before you finish eating one.
While they were freezing, I sampled the cookies with a scoop or two of ice cream on the side, for garnish, as it were. They’re very good: crisp and brown, just like a graham cracker should be, with a subtle sweetness and touch of cinnamon. If we finish off the ice cream before we get through them all, I’ll have to blitz them up for crumbs and make a key lime pie or something. Ooh, or I could make some homemade marshmallows and do S’mores with good dark chocolate. That would be fun! Oh, the possibilities!