Salted Caramel ice cream sandwich

Salted Caramel ice cream sandwich

One day you are “in” the next day you are “out” and so the salted caramel butterscotch pudding was old news and salted caramel ice cream was the new darling. Everyone was talking about it, and I wanted to try it. Bad. I googled salted ice cream, and then I made a few batches in my $19.99 ice cream maker. Didn’t love it. My friend Darnell went to Rose Creamery, in Brentwood, to pick some up and bring to me in the bu. Still didn’t love it. A couple of sleepless night later, I knew the problem. I didn’t like the way the ice cream was flavored throughout with the salted caramel. Instead, I imagined a swirl of salted caramel running through vanilla ice cream. Then I realized what I really wanted, needed, craved, hungered for, was a salted caramel, ice cream sandwich which meant I also needed a cookie…… 48 hr until class…..and I had no cookie…..and no ice cream. And then suddenly I knew exactly how to do it. I actually hate ice cream sandwiches, they are too thick, too much cookie, too much ice cream. I wanted a very thin, elegant, and edible, or rather eat-able, which means you are able to eat it, without straining your jaw muscles too much. Not too sweet. Not too salty, although salty is pretty nice, so you could sprinkle additional salt on the cookies, mid way through the baking process. I didn’t have a chance to make a sample sandwich before the class…..but I was pretty sure it would work.
Ingredients
  • Salted Caramel ice cream sandwiches
  • Salted Caramel
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 heaping teaspoon good sea salt
  • Cookie
  • 1 stick salted butter (i cant be bothered with unsalted butter)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup flour (maybe a touch more)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pint vanilla ice cream
Instructions
  1. First, melt the sugar in a dry heavy bottom pan. Pay attention. Not saying any names….(but there is no texting while caramel making) Don’t burn it, cause burnt caramel really tastes pretty bad. If it begins to burn around the edges, while the center is still not melted, lift the pan away from the heat for a few seconds, and swirl it around.You want it melted, and a uniform, medium dark caramel color.
  2. Take it to the edge of darkness, but step away from the cliff, before it burns. If you burn it, start over. You went over the edge, and your history. Burnt caramel can not be saved.
  3. Don’ t taste or touch it. Caramel is hot, and if you touch it, you are going to get hurt.
  4. Look at it, smell it, feel it. Don’t touch it.
  5. When you have reached the uniform medium brown color, then toss in the sea salt, and pour the whole thing onto a sheet pan. Let cool until hardened.
  6. Bang it, hit it, break it, into little pieces.
  7. Stir about 1/3 of the broken salted caramel pieces into the cookie dough and reserve the rest for the vanilla ice cream.
  8. Cookie dough
  9. By all means, use any chocolate chip cookie dough you like. I like this one, cause its super super thin. If you like a thicker dough, use another recipe.
  10. Beat together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. You may need to scrape the bowl, to get it to blend properly. In a small bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda, add to the butter mix. Blend until just incorporated. We are not making bread, so light and quick. Now fold in the salted caramel pieces.
  11. These babies are going to really spread out, and be super thin, and pretty much triple in size, so although it does not look like a lot of dough, resist the urge of trying to fit them onto one sheet pan. You are going to need two.
  12. Place small dollops (1 tablespoon) of cookie dough evenly spread out on the two cookie sheets. Its going to make about 12 to 14 cookies. Bake in a 375 degree preheated oven for 12 min.
  13. Ice cream
  14. pint vanilla ice cream
  15. remaining, salted caramel crumbles
  16. Take the ice cream out of the freezer and let it get soft for a few minutes, then stir in the reserved salted caramel crumbles, then return the ice cream to the freezer or if your cookies are ready, spread a small amount (or large amount, its your sandwich, you make it the way you want), of ice cream between two cookies. Eat at once or return to freezer.
  17. NOTE: To clean your pan or utensils after making caramel, just add really hot water, which will dissolve it.