Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches
My inspiration to make this recipe was from a frozen peanut butter pie I made years ago. It was so peanut-buttery, and contained cream cheese for a Peanut Butter Cheesecake flavor! I loved it so much, I decided to make a hand-held version of that frozen treat!
The super-chocolatey, tender, not overly sweet wafer recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart. I found the dough a little sticky, so instead of rolling it out and shaping, I scooped and smashed the dough for baking. You could also pat it into a baking sheet then cut into squares once it is baked.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Wafers:
- 5 oz. (142g) Semi-sweet chocolate
- 4 oz. (114g) Unsweetened Chocolate
- 3/4 c (170g, 1 1/2 sticks) Butter
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 c (290g) Granulated Sugar
- 3 Large Eggs
- 2 1/4 c (270g) All-Purpose Flour
- Extra sugar for pressing the cookies
For the No-Churn Ice Cream:
- 14-oz. (396g) Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 1 c (256g) Smooth Peanut Butter – I used All-natural, stirred well
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 8 oz. (227g) Cream Cheese – ROOM TEMP
- 2 c (1 pint, 473 ml) Heavy Whipping Cream
- 4 Tbsp (25g) Confectioner’s Sugar
Instructions
Make the Wafers:
- In a heatproof bowl, set over simmering water, melt together the semi-sweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate and butter until completely smooth. Whisk (or stir) in the salt and sugar until nicely incorporated, and remove the bowl from the heat.
- Add the eggs in, one at a time, until completely incorporated. Fold in the flour. Let cool to room temperature. Then cover with plastic and refrigerate an hour. (If you refrigerate longer, the dough will be too stiff to roll or press.)
- Heat oven to 350F (Conventional) or 335F (Convection/Fan)
- Using a Medium Cookie Dough Scoop (#40, or 2 Tbsp), Scoop balls of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, around 8 per sheet. Sprinkle a pinch of sugar over the top of each ball, and press down with the bottom of a cup or glass to around 2 3/4″ – 3″ diameter. (See Note 1 for other methods)
- Bake in preheated oven 11 minutes. Remove to cool a few minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the No-Churn Peanut Butter Ice Cream:
- Place the bowl in which you will be whipping the cream in the freezer to chill. In the meantime, stir whisk together the Sweetened Condensed Milk, Peanut Butter, Salt, and room temperature cream cheese, until smooth.
- Into the chilled bowl, pour the cold whipping cream and confectioners sugar. Whip until cream is fluffy and peaks are nearly stiff.
- Take about a quarter of the cream and gently stir it into the peanut butter mixture. This will “lighten” the mixture a bit. Then gently fold the rest of the cream into the peanut butter mixture until incorporated and very few streaks, if any, are visible. You’ll want it to retain as much “fluffiness” as you can.
- Pour the finished mixture into a loaf pan, bowl or container that holds around 2 liters. Cover and freeze 3 hours before scooping onto fully cooled wafers.
Make the Ice Cream Sandwiches:
- Using a large scoop (1/3-1/2 cup, (80-120ml), place scoops of chilled, but not completely firm ice cream between 2 wafers. Press gently to make a sandwich. Wrap each sandwich individually or place in covered container to freeze completely, preferably overnight, before serving.
Notes
- Instead of scooping and pressing, there are 2 other options. First, you could roll out the dough and cut into shapes using cookie or biscuit cutters. To do this, sprinkle your surface with SUGAR, roll the dough to 1/4″ thick, then cut into desired shapes and bake as directed. Alternatively, you could press the dough into a half-sheet pan, or 2-13×9 baking pans. I lined mine with parchment for easy removal. It ends up being about 1/4″ thick. Bake 14 minutes. Once baked, let cool 10 minutes, remove from pan, and slice into squares or rectangles. Let cool completely.
