The Ice Cream Flavor Anne Burrell Pairs With Molasses Cookies
Ice cream sandwiches are a dessert classic, promising the partnership of soft cookie bookends and compact slices of ice cream to create one nostalgic treat. You may be thinking of the traditional chocolate and vanilla combo you could order from the ice cream truck, but there are many other ice cream sandwiches to explore, including a black sesame variety. But if you're looking for an ice cream sandwich that celebrates old-fashioned charm, you should turn to celebrity chef Anne Burrell's recommendation.
In a video she created for Food Network, Burrell starts her ideal ice cream sandwich with soft and chewy molasses cookies. Warmly spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, these molasses cookies harken back to old-school favorites like gingersnaps. For the ice cream part, Burrell further doubles down on the ginger by adding a homemade batch of ginger ice cream. Both refreshing and decadent, this treat is like a sophisticated glow-up of your childhood favorite. Best of all, this sweet and spicy ice cream treat is easy to recreate at home.
The spicy sweetness of ginger ice cream
To make your own decadently spiced ice cream sandwich, first, choose a molasses cookie recipe that has a touch of spices so that the ginger ice cream won't feel out of place. The cookie itself should have some softness but be sturdy enough to hold together your sandwich, so avoid any cakey-style cookie recipes. This recipe from Tasting Table recipe developer Jessica Morone, which uses a bit of maple extract to drive home the warm molasses flavors, is a great place to start.
Next, you'll tackle your ginger ice cream. Burrell's recipe for the Food Network has a traditional custard base infused with freshly chopped ginger root, but there are other ways to make ginger-accented ice cream. Some recipes use candied ginger (also known as crystallized ginger) rather than fresh ginger to infuse their ice cream base, but the most flavorful varieties use a combo of both. These recipes infuse the dairy base with fresh ginger, discard that ginger, and then add finely chopped crystallized ginger during the churning process. Just note that if you add candied ginger to the mix, it'll add chewiness to your ice cream. Of course, you can always use store-bought ice cream and cookies — that'll be delicious as well.
Once you have your ice cream ready, you can scoop it onto the waiting molasses cookie and squish it together with a matching cookie. Just like that, you'll have an ice cream sandwich that is Anne Burrell-approved.