Hugh, my husband, has strong opinions about circles; he finds them satisfying to look at in any form of design. I thought he was odd until I spent some time with an ice-cream sandwich and found myself, like a car (or circle) enthusiast, fawning over the arcs and appreciating the loveliness of a double round cookie housing a cylinder of ice-cream. Unlike a car, however, you can eat the ice-cream cookie and rejoice in the crunch giving away to cold cream – and that, in my opinion, is proper satisfaction.
Malted ice-cream and peanut cookie sandwiches
The soy sauce gives a subtle salted effect here and helps to sharpen the other flavours in the ice-cream. You’ll need to make the cookies ahead of time and chill before eating. The ice-cream, meanwhile, is not made the traditional way and will therefore melt very quickly, so work fast!
Prep 15 min
Freeze 5 hr+
Chill 30 min+
Cook 30 min
Makes 10
For the ice-cream
300ml chilled double cream
2 tsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp Milo chocolate malt drink
397g tin chilled condensed milk
For the peanut cookies
200g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp fine sea salt
125g golden caster sugar
125g roasted salted peanuts, roughly chopped
85g good-quality sunflower oil
2 tsp vanilla paste
First, make the ice-cream. Pour the cold cream, soy sauce and Milo into a bowl and whip to soft peaks, ideally with an electric whisk. Drizzle over the cold, condensed milk and whip again for about two minutes more, until the soft peaks return. Pour into a suitable container, seal and freeze for at least four hours.
Now for the cookies. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Add the peanuts and mix again.
In a small bowl, briskly whisk the oil, vanilla and four tablespoons of water until emulsified. Pour this into the bowl of dry ingredients, stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until everything comes together into a dough, then pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6 and line two large oven trays with baking paper. Using a small scoop – for example, a tablespoon measuring spoon – spoon rounds of the dough on to the sheets, spacing them 10cm apart (if you don’t have a suitable scoop, gently break off small pieces of dough and roll into balls the size of ping-pong balls and weighing about 30g each), then press down on each cookie to flatten it a little. Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies have a crisp, golden edge and are not wobbly to the touch in the centre. Remove and leave on the trays to cool completely.
To make up the sandwiches, cut 10 pieces of greaseproof paper to wrap each sandwich in, and put a large tub in the freezer to stack them in. Working one sandwich at a time, scoop a decent amount (roughly 50g) of ice-cream on to the flat side of one cookie and press gently to spread it out evenly over the base. Lay another cookie flat side down on top, then wrap tightly in greaseproof paper and put in the tub in the freezer, so it starts to freeze immediately, before moving on to the next sandwich. Repeat with the remaining ice-cream and cookies, then leave to freeze for at least another hour before serving.