Gluten-Free Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

anniemade // Gluten-Free Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe

Oh my gosh so... when it came time for my birthday cake this year, I was very inspired again by Arrested Development. Fans of the show will know how big a part ice cream sandwiches play so I was super excited to actually make ice cream sandwiches as my birthday treat. It was perfect since as you may have already read, we celebrated with an Arrested Development-style themed evening complete with a Blue Man Blueberry Lemon Sangria.

Moreover, I'd never even thought about MAKING an ice cream sandwich before. I mean honestly, these things just come from the store in magic white wax paper wrapping right? Wrong! Oh my goodness.. now that I've tasted a homemade ice cream sandwich I may never go back to storebought. In fact, it might be time to get fancy with the spices and whip up some creative new twists on the traditional chocolate wafer and vanilla.

This recipe is also fantastic because it's also gluten-free. Gus hasn't had an ice cream sandwich in years due to his insensitivity to gluten so we were both over the moon about this snack and have since devoured almost the entire batch (they freeze amazingly as you'd expect).

If you make this, especially as gluten-free, make sure you have parchment paper and a rolling pin. Parchment is key as the dough is very sticky. You can make this with regular flour, just omit the xanthan gum.

So here you go- epic deliciousness at its finest!

GLUTEN-FREE HOMEMADE ICE CREAM SANDWICHES(From the recipe by Nicole at Gluten-Free on a Shoestring // Makes approximately 10-12 2" ice cream sandwiches)

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cup (245g) high-quality all-purpose gluten-free flour
• ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
• ½ cup (40g) Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
• ½ cup (109g) packed light brown sugar
• ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 6 tablespoons (72g) vegetable shortening, melted and cooled
• 2 extra-large eggs at room temperature, beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cups of vanilla ice cream
• (Make sure to have parchment paper, a rolling pin, and a bamboo skewer or toothpick to skewer holes in the cookie)

anniemade // Gluten-Free Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Line rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cocoa powder, brown sugar, granulated sugar and salt, and whisk to combine well. Add the butter, shortening, eggs and vanilla, mixing to combine after each addition. The dough should come together, and be smooth and pliable.
3. Divide the dough into two equal portions, and place each between two sheets of unbleached parchment paper. Roll each into a rectangle about ¼ inch thick, and place both rectangles in the freezer for 10 minutes or until firm.
4. Remove the rolled out dough from the freezer, and cut into shapes. I made them as rectangles but you can create them as squares as Nicole does. Place the cutouts about 1 inch apart on the preapred baking sheets. With a toothpick or wooden skewer, poke 5 to 6 evenly-spaced holes toward the center of each cutout.
5. Place the baking sheets, one at a time, in the center of the preheated oven and bake, rotating once during baking, for about 7 minutes or until the top of a cookie springs back when pressed gently. Do not overbake. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet until firm.
6. When the cookies have cooled, take your ice cream out and let it soften just a bit.
7. Spoon about an inch of ice cream between two wafers and sandwich them together.
8. Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze for 1 hour before serving.

anniemade // Gluten-Free Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe