Gingerbread Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich
Spiced cookies baked at home, ice cream from the cooler, assembled at the picnic table before it runs.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 200
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Softened butter | 110 g | home kitchen only |
|---|---|---|
| White sugar | 100 g | |
| Brown sugar | 100 g | |
| Chopped chocolate | 150 g | dark or milk, coarsely cut |
| All-purpose flour | 190 g | |
| Egg | 1 | |
| Vanilla sugar | 1 tsp | or 1 tsp vanilla extract |
| Baking powder | 1 tsp | |
| Baking soda | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1 tsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1 tsp | |
| Ground cloves | 1/2 tsp | |
| Flaky salt | 1 tbsp | for the tops |
| Vanilla ice cream | 500 ml | packed in the cooler, hard-frozen |
Method
- At home: beat the butter with both sugars until pale. Switch to a paddle or spoon and work in the flour, egg, vanilla sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and chopped chocolate.
- Scoop balls onto a lined sheet with wide gaps between them. They spread. Scatter flaky salt over each one.
- Bake at 180 C for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool on the sheet a few minutes, then move to a rack and cool completely.
- At camp: dip the ice cream container in cold water for a few seconds so the block slides out. Cut slabs about 3 cm thick on a board or a clean lid.
- Cut rounds from the slabs with a wide-mouth cup or a cookie cutter and press each round between two cookies.
- Eat immediately. There is no holding step at ambient temperature.
This is a car-camping dessert because it depends on a cooler, and no amount of adapting changes that. The cookies are the only part that survives the trip on their own: butter, two sugars, and a gingerbread spine of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, baked short so the middles stay soft. Bake them at home. A camp stove will not do this.
The brown sugar and the underbaking are what keep the cookies pliable in the cold. A fully baked, crisp cookie shatters the moment you press it onto frozen ice cream. Cut the ice cream in slabs rather than scooping it, so the sandwich is flat and holds together while you eat it. Assemble one at a time, in the shade, and hand each one off as it is made.
Packing
Cookies travel in a rigid container, not a bag, or you arrive with crumbs. The ice cream goes in the coldest part of the cooler, buried under block ice, and comes out last.
Variations
- Bake the cookies a day ahead and freeze them. Frozen cookies buy you a minute of assembly time.
- Swap the ice cream for a firm frozen coconut dessert if the group is dairy-free. The cookies still have butter and egg.
- Skip the sandwich and pack the cookies alone as a backpacking dessert.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/kos/cookies-is-sandwich