Ok so we have had some issues lately here at Ballerina Baker. I was just starting to get back on track with my recipes, and then I had a WiFi outage at my house for almost a week. As you could imagine, this put me behind because I wasn’t able to work on the blog. However, during this time I was able to finish filming all of my August recipes! So I am officially done with that part of my summer recipes.
However, that means that I have to write up about two months worth of drafts this week so that’s not ideal. But I’m still feeling pretty good. But anyway, this recipe was supposed to have been published like a week ago, but at least it gets to be published now!
I tend to struggle when it comes to summer recipes because working with fruits and florals isn’t my favorite. I’m more of a cozy, spices, coffee, kinda girl. Fall and winter is where I do my best work. However, I still enjoy baking in the summer and I find it an interesting challenge to come up with new and exciting recipes that still feel “summery”. And a big thing I’ve been coming back to this summer is ice cream. I don’t own an ice cream maker, so its fun to experiment with no churn ice cream. With that being said, this is the first of three ice cream recipes that will be headed your way and I’m going to be honest, this one is probably my favorite.
Describe these Sandwiches to me
Taste: These sandwiches have a couple of main flavors that compliment each other perfectly. The cookies have a unique toasty flavor from both the brown butter and the rye breadcrumbs, while the ice cream has a sweet hazelnut and bittersweet chocolate flavor.
Texture: The cookies have a slightly soft texture, although they do get a little hard when frozen. The ice cream is creamy and light, while still holding its shape. The sandwich is dotted with crunchy hazelnuts to add the perfect finishing touch.
Ease: This is a little more of a hands on recipe, just because we’re making both the cookies and the ice cream from scratch. But nothing is technically difficult, it just takes a little time. The hardest part is assembling the sandwiches because you have to move fast to keep the ice cream from melting, but it’s still perfectly attainable.
The Cookies
Now I’m gonna have to ask you not to judge these cookies because of the rye thing. A lot of people were dubious about that, but it really adds this special taste that really just brings the sandwiches together perfectly. Now typically, a rye cookie would use rye flour. But I really wanted to bring out the toasty flavors in the hazelnuts and brown butter, so I decided to use toasted rye bread crumbs. This again might sound unusual, but everyone who has tried these sandwiches says that the toasted rye is what really brings them together. Plus the oats and the brown butter, these cookies perfectly compliment the ice cream center.
The Ice Cream
This is a pretty straightforward no churn ice cream, but I did have some doubts about it when I first started testing. I knew I wanted to use Nutella, but I didn’t want it to be too sweet. Plus, Nutella tends to mess with the delicate structures of things in baking, so it was tricky to predict what would happen. In the end, I ended up adding some cocoa powder to offset the sweetness, and the Nutella actually just ended up making the ice cream a little thicker which made it easier to work with when making ice cream sandwiches.
Chocolate Hazelnut Ice Cream Sandwiches with Toasted Rye Cookies
Ingredients
Method
- Line a 9×13 inch rectangular baking dish with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using either a hand or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream on high speed to stiff peaks. Add the sweetened condensed milk, cocoa powder, vanilla bean paste, ½ cup of the Nutella, and salt. Whip until just combined.
- Pour/spread the ice cream into the previously prepared baking dish. Add the remaining ¼ cup of Nutella in dollops evenly on top of the ice cream and use a toothpick to swirl it around. It doesn't need to be pretty and it doesn't need to be even. Sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts on top. Cover the ice cream with cling wrap and place in the freezer until hardened, around 4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉.
- Start by tearing the rye bread into small chunks. Spread the torn bread in an even layer on a baking sheet. Toast the bread in the oven (it's ok if it hasn't completely reached temperature yet) until the bread is slightly browned and mostly dried out. This usually takes about 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Remove from the oven but keep it at 350℉.
- Pour the slightly cooled toasted bread into a food processor and pulse until broken into a powder. It can still have some small clumps. Set aside. Line the baking sheet you toasted the bread on, plus one additional one, with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper.
- Place the butter in a medium sized saucepan and melt over medium heat. Once melted, keep cooking while stirring occasionally and the butter begins to sizzle and foam. It will then start to turn an amber brown color and give off a nutty aroma. Once browned, remove from the stove and pour the butter into a large mixing bowl, and set aside to cool.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- To the bowl with the cooled brown butter, add the granulated and brown sugars and whisk until combined. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and, using a large spatula, fold the two together until mostly combined. Finally, add in the toasted bread crumbs and fold them in. The dough will be a little thick.
- Scoop the dough into balls, about 2 Tablespoons in size, and place on the baking sheets, roughly two inches apart. Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes or until browned on the bottom and sides but still a little gooey in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Remove the ice cream from the freezer. Using a round cookie cutter roughly the same diameter as your cookies (or freehand with a knife), cut out the ice cream into pucks. Sandwich the pucks between the flat sides of two cookies. Repeat with the remaining ice cream and cookies. Make sure to move quickly as the ice cream will start to melt. You may have some extra ice cream, just scoop it into a sealable container, and store it in the freezer to enjoy by itself.
- Place the assembled sandwiches back in the freezer for at least 2 hours to firm up before serving. You may need to let the sandwiches thaw for a couple minutes before enjoying. Leftovers keep sealed in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 3 weeks.