cheddar cheese & peanut butter ice cream sandwiches
For the August Bucket List Bake Club challenge, I was a bit stuck. I had no idea what I wanted to do or make. I’m not reallyyyyyy an ice cream girly. I would much rather eat a cake or donut. If the dessert menu only offered ice cream options, I probably would just skip dessert altogether. I just don’t find a similar joy in eating ice cream. I would much rather eat a lot of other things. Give me cake. I’ll be happier that way.
So, what was I going to do about this month’s bucket list prompt? Skipping it was not an option because at 8 months in, I am committed to finishing out the entire year. I just can’t stop in the middle because I don’t love ice cream. I mean, I could but I don’t want to leave this unfinished. That would bother me even more than eating ice cream. So, what was I thinking and how did I get here?
What inspired this?
I was stuck for awhile. Since i’m still in my orange era, I knew that the world was not my oyster. In most cases, baking by color is both limiting and helpful. What was orange that I wanted to eat in an ice cream sandwich? Orange, eh no. Peach? maybe it would work for the summer. Mandarin? meh. Papaya? I don’t really crave papaya and didn’t feel like eating it. Carrot cake? maybe? Cheese? Yes!
If you’ve been following me for awhile you know that I love cheese. Specially in baking. I love how unique it is and it reminds me of a lot of Filipino desserts (ensaymada, ube queso, etc). So it was going to be cheese something something. Here are the different permutations that I went through:
Cheddar cheese cookies with vanilla ice cream
Cheddar cheese cookies with cheddar ice cream
Cheddar cheese cookies with corn ice cream
Cheddar cookies with flan ice cream
Corn cookies with cheddar ice cream
Vanilla shortbread with cheddar ice cream
Brown butter cookies with cheddar ice cream
I liked a lot of the other contenders on the list and could have easily gone with any of them. But, they all seemed a little too sweet? Also a bit not interesting enough. Cheddar with vanilla? Ok, that seems straightforward enough that I could imagine what that would taste like without having to move an inch in the kitchen. When I bake, I seek out new experiences or flavors. If it doesn’t fill that, what is the point? But mostly, they all leaned a bit too sweet. What would balance out the cheddar and add a bit of welcome saltiness to the mix? PEANUT BUTTER! And so this creation was born.
In an alternate reality of brainstorming for this bucket list bake, I could probably have been on the couch snacking on a Keebler cheddar cheese and peanut butter cracker packet. That could’ve been the moment of inception and creation. But, in this reality, it started with wanting a cheddar cheese cookie and iterating on the pairings to land on the final flavor profile.
cheddar cheese & peanut butter swirl ice cream sandwiches
Ingredients
- 7oz sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 80g peanut butter
- 120g heavy cream
- 113g butter, room temp
- 120g sugar
- 200g AP flour
- 20g cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 tsp cheddar cheese powder
- drops of orange food coloring, optional
Instructions
- In a bowl, combine condensed milk, salt, vanilla bean paste, and peanut butter. Mix thoroughly so that all of the ingredients are well combined.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, add the heavy cream and whip on high until firm peaks form, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add 1/2 of the whipped cream to the condensed milk to the peanut butter mixture. Be careful to fold in gently. Once this has been folded the mixture should feel lighter. Add in the last 1/2 of the whipped cream by also folding gently. Optional: for a stronger peanut butter flavor, swirl in some more peanut butter at this stage.
- Transfer the mixture into a flat, freezer-safe pan. Flatten out the mixture to about 1-1.5 inches in thickness. If you would like a thicker ice cream sandwich, use a smaller pan. Cover and freezer for a minimum of 6 hours. Set aside until ready to build ice cream sandwiches.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the softened room temp butter and sugar. Cream for 2-3 minutes on medium until it doubles in volume and sugar granules dissolve.
- Add AP flour, cornstarch, salt, and cheddar cheese powder. Mix for a few minutes until cookie dough comes together. Optional: add a few drops of orange food coloring to achieve desired color. Once the cookie dough has come together, transfer the dough onto plastic wrap and flatten to about .5 inches (or your desired ice cream sandwich cookie thickness). Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.
- Unwrap the rolled out cookie dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out your desired shapes. Transfer the stamped out cookies onto a sheet tray lined with parchment paper, leaving 1 inch in between each cookie. Once you've stamped out all of the cookies, transfer the cookies again to the fridge. Chill for 30 minutes to an hour. This will help the cookies retain their shape during the bake.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the cookies for 4 minutes. Drop the temperature to 325 degrees and finish baking for another 6-8 minutes (depending on your oven, it might cook more quickly). Let the cookies cool completely before ice cream sandwich assembly. You will likely have more cookies than you will need for the ice cream sandwiches. Enjoy the snacks!
- Grab your ice cream tray from the freezer. Moving quickly, use your cookie stamp to cut out ice cream shapes. Transfer each cut out onto another sheet tray lined with parchment paper. Cut out as many ice cream shapes as you can. When you're done, transfer the ice cream cut outs back into the freezer for a minimum of 1 hour.
- Grab your cooled cookies and ice cream cut outs. Place an ice cream cut out in between 2 cookies to build each sandwich. Repeat until you've finished all of your ice cream cut outs. Enjoy a few and freeze the rest to enjoy at another time!
