Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

This was the scene at our house last night.  I had sweets on the brain, so between watching X Factor and Modern Family, I whipped up a batch of homemade ice cream sandwiches.

I decided on a classic chocolate chip cookie with french vanilla, and then a chewy molasses spice cookie with salted caramel ice cream.  Not to toot my own horn, but they were AMAZING!!

A few tips: to get the ice cream evenly spread, let it soften for about 10 minutes before scooping on the cookie.  Don't spread it all the way to the edges - when you press the cookies together, the ice cream will spread out.  Also, don't even TRY to make these when the cookies are still warm.  It will turn into a (delicious) mess, as I learned on the first batch.  Yes, I ate more of these than I'd like to admit...

Keep reading for the cookie recipes!

Chocolate Chunk Cookies (adapted from Alton Brown):
Ingredients:
8 ounces unsalted butter
12 ounces bread flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ounce whole milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Melt the butter in a 2-quart saucepan over low heat. Set aside to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda onto a paper plate. Pour the butter into your stand mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk together the whole egg, the egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a measuring cup. Reduce the mixer speed and slowly add the egg mixture. Mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.

Using the paper plate as a slide, gradually integrate the dry ingredients, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Once the flour is worked in, drop the speed to "stir" and add the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and place racks in the top third and bottom third of the oven.

Scoop the dough into 1 1/2-ounce portions onto parchment-lined half sheet pans, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake 2 sheets at a time for 15 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Remove from the oven, slide the parchment with the cookies onto a cooling rack and wait at least 5 minutes before devouring.

**Note: The darker the sugar you use, the chewier your cookies will be.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies (adapted from Martha Stewart):

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup sugar; set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat butter and remaining cup of sugar until combined. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. 

Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in dry ingredients, just until a dough forms.

Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to 1 tablespoon. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat.

Arrange balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, 10 to 15 minutes 

**Note: cookies can be baked two sheets at a time, but they will not crackle uniformly. Cool 1 minute on baking sheets; transfer to racks to cool completely.

Fleur de Sel Caramel's

I've recently become totally and utterly hooked on salted caramel.  The Fleur de Sel caramel candies from Trader Joes... the salted caramel ice cream from BiRite (if you ever come to San Francisco, a stop at BiRite in the Mission is MUST - life changing I tell you).  This girl can't get enough!

Then, I came upon a recipe for homemade Fleur de Sel Caramels - from the Barefoot Contessa no less (god I love her) - and I am DYING to try these on my own...

Fleur de Sel Caramels (Makes 16 Caramels)

Ingredients:

Vegetable oil

1½ cups sugar

¼ cup light corn syrup

1 cup heavy cream         

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon fine fleur de sel, plus extra for sprinkling

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then brush the paper lightly with oil, allowing the paper to drape over 2 sides.

In a deep saucepan (6 inches wide x 4½ inches deep), combine ¼ cup water, the sugar and corn syrup and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil until the mixture is a warm golden brown. Don’t stir – just swirl the pan to mix. Watch carefully, as it will burn quickly at the end!

In the meantime, in a small pan, bring the cream, butter, and 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat and set aside.

When the sugar mixture is a warm golden color, turn off the heat and slowly add the cream mixture to the sugar mixture. Be careful - it will bubble up violently. Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon and cook over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, until the mixture reaches 248 degrees (firm ball) on a candy thermometer. Very carefully (it’s hot!) pour the caramel into the prepared pan and refrigerate for a few hours, until firm.

When the caramels are cold, pry the sheet from the pan onto a cutting board. Cut the sheet in half. Starting with a long side, roll one piece of the caramel up tightly into an 8-inch-long log. Repeat with the second piece. Sprinkle both logs with fleur de sel, trim the ends, and cut each log in 8 pieces. Cut glassine or parchment papers into 4 x 5-inch pieces and wrap each caramel individually, twisting the ends. Store in the refrigerator and serve the caramels chilled.

Pumpkin Doughnuts

I am fairly certain that after the amount of eating I've been doing for work (elaborate dinners, lunches out, cupcakes, cheese platters, and gallons of wine in the last week) that the last thing I need is a Pumpkin Doughnut, but after finding this recipe, I've become convinced that I need to make these tonight.

Try to tell me that these don't look life changing...

Yes... life changing indeed.

My first thought was, I don't have this special pan for them... what about muffins, but as I read through the recipe, they specifically said, don't try this as muffins.  Whelp, looks like a trip to Williams Sonoma might be in my future to pick up one of these...

As a side note, these are baked - not deep fried - so the recipe actually looks really easy!  Start by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees.  You'll need:

  - 1/2 cup vegetable oil

  - 3 large eggs

  - 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

  - 1 1/2 cups pumpkin purée (canned pumpkin)

  - 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, or 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus a heaping 1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and ground ginger

  - 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

  - 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Put all these ingrediants into a large mixing bowl, and beat everything together until it's smooth.

Add 1 3/4 cups + 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, stirring just until smooth.

Lightly grease two standard doughnut pans, and fill the wells of the doughnut pans about 3/4 full.  Bake the doughnuts for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of one comes out clean. If you’re using self-rising flour, bake for the longer amount of time.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after about 5 minutes, loosen their edges, and transfer them to a rack to cool.

While the doughnuts are still warm (but no longer fragile), gently shake them in a bag with cinnamon-sugar. Or better yet, pumpkin-spice sugar, made by combining the aforementioned pumpkin pie spice (or substitute) with granulated or extra-fine sugar.

You are welcome in advance. How AMAZING do these look?!