Bank holiday baking: ice cream sandwiches

These vanilla ice cream cookie sandwiches take a little time and effort but are so worth it, and make the perfect treats for children’s parties or play dates in the sunshine.

Vanilla ice cream cookie sandwiches
Makes 15 

Preparation: 40 minutes
Chilling: overnight
Freezing: 2 hours

Ingredients

For the vanilla ice cream

• 4 vanilla pods
• 1 litre whole (full-fat) milk
• 200ml light whipping cream
• 150g egg yolks (approximately 7-9 eggs)
• 150g caster sugar

Method

1. Split the vanilla pods and scrape out the seeds. Heat the milk, cream, vanilla seeds and pods in a saucepan. When it starts to boil, remove from the heat and cover with clingfilm. Leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
2. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until creamy and pale in colour. Strain the vanilla milk, return it to the saucepan and bring back up to the boil. Gently pour over the egg yolks.
3. Stir and return to the saucepan over a low heat. Cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon. It is ready when the custard coats the spoon (83°C with a food thermometer). Transfer the custard into a container, cover with clingfilm and leave in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Pour the custard into an ice-cream maker and churn for 20-30 minutes. Freeze in an airtight container for 2 hours.
5. Take two cookies and insert one scoop of ice cream between them with the tops of the cookies facing outwards. Press the cookies to spread the ice cream to the edges.

Extracted from Cookie Love by Jean Hwang Carrant (Hardie Grant). Photography © Akiko Ida.