Hello and welcome to an episode of what I think about before falling asleep at night…
Recently I mentioned to my husband when we were laying in bed about to fall asleep that I tell myself that the sooner I fall asleep, the sooner I can wake up and eat, and I honestly thought he would say he thinks the same way because it’s completely logical thinking. Instead he just looked at me and laughed. I really did think everyone thinks this way but apparently not.
Anyways, moving along to these delicious chocolate chunk cookies, smeared with nutella and stuffed with homemade honey pretzel ice cream. A dreamy ice cream cookie that is not only amazing in flavor combination, but fun to make. The chocolate sea salt on the outside with the nutella on the inside really just completes any chocolate craving that you could ever have. Then to tie it in with sea salt pretzel and honey ice cream, you are getting all of the sweet, savory, umami flavors in one bite.
I recently volunteered to do a live cooking video for a friend who works with a lot of children. I knew I wanted to make something kid friendly that both the kids and the parents would want to make. So I decided some chocolate on chocolate cookies were the best call. On their own they are amazing to have and take only 15 minutes to make. A win win on all ends. Then when I had some of the chocolate cookies left over, I knew I had to do something fun with them.
If you look close enough to the pictures, you can see that the first batch I made a bit differently because I only used granulated sugar and put them in a hotter over. They turned out flatter and crispier. A great way to eat a cookie on their own. But with the second batch, I knew I had to aim for a softer fluffier cookie so that when the ice cream is in the center of them, you can still bite through without squeezing all of the ice cream out. That’s when I came up with the perfect combination of sugar, brown sugar and flour. The portions of the recipe below are an exact measure of how to get the fluffy soft cookie perfect for making ice cream sandwiches.
I’ve always wanted to make my own ice cream. I even have an attachment for my stand mixer so that I can make ice cream easily at home. Except I think it takes up too much time. When there is actually an easier way to make homemade ice cream.
All you need to do is buy your favorite brand of vanilla bean ice cream. Then toss the whole pint into the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl if you don’t have one. Then mix the ice cream until it softens. Add whatever ingredients you want to the vanilla ice cream. Here I added some Dots Homestyle Pretzels (thank you Emily for the reco) and lots of good quality honey. I first mixed in the pretzels until all were incorporated. Then I swirled in the honey making sure not to incorporate all the way because I wanted the swirls to show throughout the ice cream and not just flavor the whole batch. Then I take the same tub that the ice cream came in and add the ice cream back in it and freeze it for at least 2 hours. Up to overnight. You want the ice cream to get back to its solid state before slicing otherwise you have a mess on your hands.
Then when you have let your cookies cool, you can take the ice cream pint out of the freezer, cut with scissors along the seam and slice perfect rounds of ice cream for the center of the cookies. Depending on what size slices you make and how many cookies you have will determine how many ice cream sandwiches you make. I had 8 cookies leftover so I made 4 cookies. They ended up being so big, I cut them in half and shared with all of the brew boys.
If you don’t have time to wait for the ice cream to freeze, simply use the vanilla ice cream without adding your favorite treats inside, or you could even buy an already made mixture of your liking to use. I think cookie dough would be a good one to use with this recipe! Or even a mint chocolate chip would be such a good combination (if you’re a fan of mint chocolate chip that is).
If you make a batch bigger than you can eat, I recommend wrapping them individually in plastic wrap tightly so no air can get in and then store them in the refrigerator up to a week. That way, you can have a sweet treat ready at any minute just waiting for you in the freezer.
Now that I have figured out the perfect way to make these cookies soft enough so they can be turned into an ice cream sandwich without breaking your teeth, I think I’ll make these a lot more! Playing around with all of the flavors that I can think of. I know Chris is very happy with all of the ice cream sandwich idea’s I’m starting to come up with. But it’s a good thing summer is right around the corner because these will be perfect for snacking on at night on the front porch.
Chocolate Chunk Nutella Pretzel Ice Cream Sandwich
Ingredients
Pretzel Ice Cream
- 1 pint vanilla bean ice cream
- 1/2 cup salted pretzels
- 1/4 cup honey
Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- 1 1/4 sticks butter (10 tbsp)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup flour
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Extras
- nutella
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Start by making the Ice Cream. If you are making your own, start by emptying the ice cream into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the pretzels and mix until incorporated. Next add the honey and only mix 1 or 2 times so that there are honey swirls and not all incorporated. Put ice cream back in the original container. Freeze at least 2 hours or until solid again. Eat melted ice cream that doesn’t fit in the tub.
- Next Make the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the butter and sugars until smooth. About 2-3 minutes. Next add the egg and vanilla and mix until creamy. Finish by adding the four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix on low until dough forms. Sprinkle in Chocolate chips and mix just until incorporated then stop. You don’t want to over work the dough at this point.
- Portion out 7-8 balls of dough with your hands, I typically get 7 and that makes 3 ice cream cookies with 1 test cookie for me to eat. Then place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. I use my Silpat here.
- Bake until golden and fluffy, about 10-12 minutes. Sprinkle with the sea salt. Let the cookies completely cool before making the sammies.
- Finally Assemble. Take the ice cream out of the fridge and cut along the seam of the pint, then take the cylinder of ice cream out of the pint and cut into pieces creating 3-4 circles of ice cream. Next, quickly take two cookies and spread the bottoms of both with nutella, then place the ice cream circle in between the nutella sides creating a sandwich. Repeat with the rest of the cookies/ice cream.
- To store, wrap in plastic wrap and keep in the freezer up to 1 week.