When I lived in San Francisco, my friend Mark introduced me to the city’s greatest contribution to the dessert course: It’s-It frozen cookie sandwiches. These little numbers are practically perfect—two oatmeal cookies with a thick scoop of ice cream in between, all thinly coated with semisweet chocolate. Mark preferred the kind with mint-flavored ice cream and so do I, but you can nix the mint in this recipe if you must. To sweeten this with agave, replace the natural cane sugar with 2/3 cup agave nectar, add an extra 1/4 cup all-purpose gluten-free flour, remove the chocolate chips, and use Agave-Sweetened Chocolate Glaze (page 124).
Recipe information
Yield
makes 12 to 15 ice-cream cookies sandwiches
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Step 2
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, arrowroot, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt. Add the coconut oil, applesauce, peppermint flavoring, and vanilla and stir with a rubber spatula until the batter is smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Step 3
Drop the dough by the tablespoonful onto the baking sheets, leaving 1 inch between cookies. Using the palm of your hand, gently flatten each cookie. Bake for 10 minutes, rotate, and bake until the cookies are slightly golden, about 4 minutes more. Let stand on the baking sheets for 30 minutes. Don’t proceed until the cookies are thoroughly cooled or they will break.
Step 4
Meanwhile, clear space in the freezer for a baking sheet. Remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 minutes before making the sandwiches to allow it to soften slightly. Flip half the cookies wrong side up. Spoon 1/4 cup ice cream onto each, then top with the remaining cookies. Using chopsticks or two forks, dip each sandwich into the chocolate sauce halfway or to cover entirely. Transfer to a baking sheet and repeat with the remaining sandwiches. Place the cookies in the freezer for about 30 minutes, or until the chocolate coating hardens. Remove from the freezer and individually wrap the sandwiches in a double layer of plastic wrap.
