Matcha Mint Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream Sandwiches

I’m most confident that our favourite ice cream flavour is established by the time we are eight years old.

At least mine was.  Mint Chocolate Chip.  I knew it was my favourite when we were in the most glorious ice cream shop with my parents, and there was a cornucopia of flavours to choose from, and I wavered between the cherry, the chocolate with a hot fudge sauce, the maple walnut with huge pieces of walnuts, and so many others I had yet to try: Tiger Stripe, Spumoni, Strawberry Cheesecake, Pistachio and on and on.  And I still went with my gut: Mint Chocolate Chip.  I just loved how the flavours kept flipping from the bright tart mint, and the sweet chocolate chips.  Such a contrast in flavours in one cone.

Through the years it continued to show up as a sweet treat theme.  Next to Coffee Crisp, my favourite candy bars were Peppermint Patties, and Aero Mint bars, both of which I would store in the fridge- the flavours were even better when chilled.  And remember going to the corner store and getting an ice cream sandwich from the cooler- I always chose the mint one.

And all these years later, it is still a most favourite of mine.  And thankfully Jim loves it just as much.  So when I came across this recipe for Matcha Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream by Alanna from The Bojon Gourmet (if you follow along regularly, you know that she is a favourite blogger of mine) I knew I just had to get an ice cream maker!!  Up until this point I was making the blender ‘nice creams’ that use frozen bananas.  Yeah, they’re alright.  But just not the same.  So when I was trolling Pinterest and came across this recipe, I knew it was time to invest in an ice cream maker.  We have never looked back!  You will find that my creative juices have flowed liberally, with all the ice cream and gelato recipes on this blog in the last few years!

Up until now, all the mint chocolate chip ice cream recipes I had found, used food colouring to get the green hue in the ice cream.  Yuck.  So fluorescent and fake.  But Alanna uses matcha powder.  Brilliant.  You see, this was back in 2015, and I was still a newbie when it came to cooking with matcha.  But I knew deep down that this was the recipe for me.  And yes, while there is a faint matcha flavour for subtle depth, it is not the predominant flavour.  The mint really does shine in the end.  But the colour is so gentle and natural.

The recipe has a few steps, but for the most part, it is easy and hands off.  There is more time spent waiting while the custard chills than actually making the ice cream.  It starts with blending matcha powder and heavy cream.  Use 35% or even 40% if possible.  I love using 40%, it creates such a rich and creamy result.  Then you heat up some milk and then slowly temper egg yolks and sugar with it.  This all gets blended with the matcha cream, and then into the fridge for chilling.  

To get the mint flavour and colour, a large bunch of fresh mint leaves gets scalded with hot water and then chilled in an ice water bath.  Dry in a tea towel and then add to a heavy duty blender with the chilled custard.  It all gets puréed together till the mint leaves have practically disintegrated.  The whole batch gets pushed through a fine mesh sieve to capture the last bits of mint leaf and any matcha powder that didn’t dissolve. Here is my extra addition: mint bitters.  You will really get the mint flavour full force if you add bitters or a mint extract of sorts.  Do both, I do!  Back into the fridge to chill overnight.  

The next day you’ll pull out your ice cream maker, turn that custard into ice cream and prep some chocolate while it’s happening.  Melted and slightly cooled chocolate is drizzled over the ice cream as it is ladled into your container.  There will be chocolate in about four layers of the ice cream.  Because you have a great ole time drizzling it around and over, it creates thick and thin patches of chocolate.  Later when you go to scoop some out, the best sound happens as the chocolate cracks and shatters into the scoop!

So we could leave it here and call it a day.  Life is good.  I have my favourite ice cream.

But how about we take it to the next level?  Ice cream sandwiches.  Using bourbon laced brownie cookies.  I knew I’d get you with this one!!

This is a fabulous cookie adapted from a recipe from the Smitten Kitchen.  I’ve used it as a base for all sorts of recipes and desserts throughout the years.  It is tender and soft, does not shatter, and has the perfect chocolate flavour. It’s a simple rolled out cookie dough, that you use cutters to shape the cookies.  I decided to add bourbon (because it goes so great with mint) and chocolate bitters, to bring out the chocolate flavour a bit more.

The recipe makes about 60 1 1/2 inch cookies.  I do make them all and freeze some afterwards, or you could even freeze the dough and make some up as you want.  For regular cookies, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch, this will give a lovely puffed, soft texture to the finished cookie. Because the dough rests in the fridge and solidifies a bit, I then take the bowl of dough and divide it into quadrants.  It’s easier to take one quadrant and roll it out and cut the cookies.  And I know that I should be able to get at least 15 cookies per section.

For these sandwiches, I roll them out to 1/6 inch, a bit thinner than the usual 1/4 inch.  I want to be able to actually take a bite of the sandwich and fit it into my mouth.  I used a 2 1/2 inch cutter.  But before I cut them, I pulled out my embossed rolling pin, just for fun.  In no way is this a necessary part of the recipe.  But it sure is fun!  So I have embossed cookies for my sandwiches.  And since I used my embossed roller, I did flour the top of the dough a bit more than usual, but no worries, the flour basically bakes off in the oven.

Tip: Cut out a couple more cookies than you need to make the sandwiches.  When you are assembling, you may in your enthusiasm crack a cookie when pressing them over the ice cream.  Best to have a couple of back ups.  And of course, use a gentle hand and slightly softened ice cream.  Having said this, these cookies really don’t crack- they are so tender.  But I can’t account for your strength!! ;D

When I actually form the sandwiches, I scoop some lightly softened ice cream onto some plastic wrap.  Then I use the plastic wrap around the ice cream to form the scoop into a patty the same size as the cookie, smoothing it around the edges.  Re-freeze wrapped in plastic, and then pull them out to sandwich between the cookies.  Then re-wrap again and freeze to just hardened.  Or else eat right away!!  I like to finish by rolling them in chocolate sprinkles, but I guess this is just gilding the lily. 

Of course, you could just scoop some ice cream out and sandwich it between the cookies, pressing down to get it to spread out.  And this is where a cracked cookie could happen.  But be daring, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of the wrapping in plastic and re-freezing steps.  Especially if you just want to get on to the matter of eating them!

For you guys, you can make as many cookie sandwiches as you want.  Do you want to use all the ice cream? Then you will probably get about 8-10 sandwiches, depending on how large you make your cookies, and how thick you decide you want the ice cream patty to be.  So this recipe is totally up to you.  Make all the cookies and turn some into sandwiches.  Freeze some of the dough and use them for other sandwiches later on.  Save some of your ice cream to eat with a spoon on a sultry summer’s eve out on the deck.  It’s all good.

Love Jen