Quite a mouthful

I've been making ice cream for a long time.  I got my first ice cream maker shortly after college, and it served me well for a long time.  But it finally died, and I got a new one about three years ago.  I've actually used that one a lot more, in part because it came with two freezer canisters.  One has a permanent spot in my freezer.  Whenever I take it out, I replace it with the other one.  Well, this weekend I went a little crazy and crammed both canisters into the freezer so I could make more than one flavor on the same day, in anticipation of my Ice Cream Week plan.  

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe fit nicely with my plan.  Spike of spike.does.stuff picked Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Cookies for us to make this week.  How's that for a long recipe name? =)  I wasn't originally sure if I was going to make these, but then I read the P&Q.  Several people mentioned using the cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  Perfect!  Amazingly enough, with all the ice cream and cookies that I've put on this blog, I've never actually put the two together.  It's about time. =)

I can understand why the cookies turn out cake-like, because you end up making more of a batter than a dough.  You cream butter with regular and brown sugar, then add vanilla and melted chocolate.  Next in are a couple eggs.  Then you alternate adding dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder--no spices in mine) with sour cream.  I used my #40 disher to scoop out the cookies, and ended up with 45.  I baked them for 12 minutes.  Once the cookies were cool, I paired them up and froze a bunch of them before making the sandwiches.  

As for the ice cream flavors, I made The Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream in the World (another impressive title) from my new cookbook.  (Some are also filled with Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream, but that's another post.)    For the chocolate ice cream, you first make a chocolate syrup, using coffee, cocoa powder, sugar and bittersweet chocolate.  I'm used to chocolate recipes calling for coffee or espresso powder to enhance the chocolate flavor.  We don't usually have coffee on hand, though.  Rather than turn to instant espresso powder the way I usually do, I tried something new.  I've read on several blogs about Starbucks VIA instant coffee.  So I picked some up at the grocery store.  Since I needed half a cup of coffee, I used half the packet in half a cup of water.  It worked well, but the finished syrup tasted strongly of coffee, more than I wanted it to.  I'll definitely use the VIA powder again, just less of it.  For the chocolate, I used one of my favorites, Scharffen Berger 62%.  (I would have used 70%, but didn't have any.)  I used Scharffen Berger for the cocoa powder as well.  

The verdict?  The ice cream sandwiches were a big hit with the girls.  The cookies worked great, since they don't get super hard, even when frozen.  Since I had a lot of cookies, I also sandwiched some with chocolate-hazelnut spread and took them to a friend as a treat.  They were quite well received.  

If you'd like to try the dark chocolate ice cream, you can find the recipe here.  For the cookie recipe to make these yummy sandwiches, head over to Spike's blog.  To see what everyone else did with this week's recipe, check out the Links.  And don't forget to check back for more of Ice Cream Week!