Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches

March is starting to feel like the most do-or-die month, and I sort of totally love it. I'm besickened with the worst cold I've had in over a year and one day from my organization's giant, fancy gala for which I'll be up all night barking into a walkie-talkie, yet all I can think about are ways to start a bicycle cafe and names for my weekend doughnut business (Dough-Zone Layer!). I've been staying up late to make earrings for Ginger Root, DC's most awesome custom clothes, jewelery, and design store, and am squeezing in a visit with my sister that has been full of SVU (pasttime numero uno), good food, and chest hair jokes. Joey and I are planning our symphony date and our vacation to San Diego, and right now even, I'm waiting for an assignment at work to come through and using my spare minute to blog. I'm straddling obligations and compulsions–and not really balancing them–but instead of making me feel crazy and weird, it's making me feel excited. I'm totally pumped for what's in store in the next few weeks, and hopefully these ice cream sandwiches are some indication of what will filter through this manic month!

Coffee Ice Cream

Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups cream, divided

1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans

3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used turbinado)

Pinch salt

5 egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon instant espresso or superfinely ground coffee

1.  In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, stir the milk, a half-cup of the cream, whole beans, sugar, and pinch of salt until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is steaming (not boiling!). Cover and let steep for one hour.

2.  Fill a large bowl with ice, and place a medium metal bowl inside it over the ice. Pour the remaining cup of cream into the metal bowl and put a fine mesh strainer over the top. Whisk the five yolks in a separate large bowl, and then reheat the milk and beans until the mixture is steaming (not boiling!). Slowly pour the milk into the egg yolks to temper, whisking vigorously the whole time. Pour the yolks and milk back into the pan, and. stirring the whole time, cook over medium heat until the mixture has thickened into a custard, seven to ten minutes. You'll know the custard is ready when you can run your finger across the back of a spoon dipped in the custard and it leaves a clear trail.

3.  Pour the custard through the sieve into the cold cream, pushing on the beans to extract as much custard as possible. You'll need to clear out the strainer every now and then so that it doesn't overflow. Mix the vanilla and superfinely ground coffee into the cold cream mixture, and stir the whole thing until it's cool. Allow the mixture to cool completely in the fridge, preferably overnight, and then process according to your ice cream maker's directions.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

I made these sandwiches using cookies that were leftover from last week's thin mints. Any not-too-crispy cookie will do though, and a stay in the freezer overnight will soften them up a little bit for perfect ice cream sandwich texture. The coffee ice cream goes really well with the chocolate wafers, but I think that a chocolate chip cookie with toffee would have also been amazing!

1.  Make half of this recipe to get about 35 cookies, or enough for 15 or so sandwiches. Once the cookies have cooled completely and the ice cream has hardened in the fridge for about an hour, scoop 1 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of coffee ice cream (or however much) onto a cookie back, then sandwich it with a second evenly sized cookie.

2.  Wrap the sandwiches in waxed or parchment paper and let them hang out in the fridge for a few hours or overnight to soften the cookie somewhat. Take them out about ten minutes before you're ready to serve, and enjoy!

Homemade Thin Mints

During the first of the only two seasons where I ever sold girl scout cookies, my dad bought 30 boxes of Thin Mints so that I could "earn" the super seller girl scout patch that had a harp seal pup on it. An additional prize was in the mix too, but I was really into harp seals, specifically, and my earnest patch-wantin' tears coaxed my dad into footing the bill for a freezerful of cookies. Not like he complained though, because as much as the rest of us, my father the girl scout hero could totally eat a whole tube of thin mints in one sitting. And then three summers ago my mom was leaving Safeway and decided to confront a cookie-selling scout about the hydrogenated oil and corn syrup that were standard (at the time) in girl scout cookies. The girl was most likely an eight-year-old do-gooder with no idea what my mother the girl scout villainizer was talking about, but still, Mom had a point. Enter:  homemade thin mints! 

I made them a little too large, a little too thin, and none too smooth, but they are so very, very good, that they might permanently thwart your craving for actual Thin Mints. Plus, the chocolate wafer that they use also makes an excellent snacking cookie and a phenomenal sandwich cookie for ice cream and filling (more on that later). 

Homemade Thin Mints

Adapted from Alice Medrich, Bittersweet

This wafer recipe makes approximately 70 cookies. I divided the dough in two and used one half for these thin mints and the other half for the tops to ice cream sandwiches. You could either halve the recipe below or double the chocolate coating recipe to make a whole batch of thin mints.

1 1/2 cups (6.75 ounces) flour

3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder (I used the fancy shit)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

14 tablespoons (1 3/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.  In the bowl of a food processor, put flour, cocoa, sugar, salt, and baking soda, and pulse a few times until blended. Cut the butter into 12 chunks, add it to the bowl, and pulse it a few times. Combine the milk and vanilla in a small bowl and with the processor running, add the liquid and continue to process until dough clumps together. Transfer the dough to a large bowl and knead a few times to ensure that it's thoroughly mixed. 

2.  Divide the dough in two, and roll each into a log that is 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter (I used the smaller diameter for the thin mints, larger for the ice cream sammiches). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour, or up to a day as needed.

3.  Preheat the over to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Slice your cookies into thins that are 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thin, and space one inch apart on the sheets. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. Cookies will puff up and deflate as they bake, and they are ready about 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate. They should crisp as they cool, and if they don't, you can pop them back in the oven for a few minutes so they finish baking. Cool cookies on their sheets on top of cooling racks. When completely cool, being the chocolate-coating process!

Chocolate Mint Coating

This makes enough for 35 to 40 thin mints, or about half of what the recipe above yields. You can either halve the cookies, double this chocolate to make a huge she-bang, or keep the wafers in the freezer and use them as needed for ice cream sandwiches or snackin'.

12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chips or chopped

2 to 3 teaspoons peppermint extract, or to taste

1.  Prep your station by lining cooling racks or cutting boards with waxed or parchment paper.

2.  Place the chocolate in a metal bowl set over gently simmering water. Stir frequently until chocolate is melted, smooth, and glossy. Start by mixing in a teaspoon of peppermint extract, and increase by half-teaspoons until you reach your desired level of mintiness (I used a full three teaspoons). 

3.  Using a fork or clean fingers, dip the cookies in the chocolate one at a time, coating both sides with a thin layer. Let the excess drip off, and place the dipped cookies onto the wax paper to set. If the dipping chocolate ever gets too thick, put it back over simmering water for a minute to thin it out. Place the finished cookies in the freezer or fridge for 20 minutes to speed up the setting of the chocolate. I kept my thin mints in the freezer the whole time because frozen thin mints are the best, but they'll keep stored in an airtight container at room temperature too.