Once again I’m going to make a specific sweet treat my entire insufferable personality. For the last two years, I was all about my shaved ice machine and the many varieties of bingsu, kakigori, and bao bing. For this season, I’ve decided on ice cream sandwiches and for the foreseeable future, I will be living, breathing ice cream sandwiches.
I took out my ice cream maker less than a month ago and I’ve already made many batches of ice cream — we kicked off ice cream season with a new and improved version of my blackberry ricotta ice cream, which was transformed into a sandwich with a digestive biscuit crust, then we venture to familiar territory and made these strawberry matcha neapolitan cookies inspired by the cookie, and we make a few more batches which include a shortbread ice cream with a shortbread crust (!!), a creamy and bright lemon meringue pie sandwich with toasted meringue, and what will soon be a ritz cracker ice cream sandwich. I’ve never had to buy so much heavy cream and have had so many egg whites leftover from making creme anglaise before.
I was going to start sharing the ice cream sandwiches in the order I made them, but it only seemed right to share these matcha neapolitan ones first because the matcha neapolitan sugar cookies is your favourite recipe in this blog and it only seemed right to share the ice cream inspired by your favourite cookie. The ice cream is a classic creme anglaise based flavoured with vanilla, then we divide the base into two to flavour half of it with matcha green tea. I tend to use culinary matcha when it comes to baking, but found ceremonial matcha (despite being a bit more of an investment) works beautifully in ice cream. Between scoops of vanilla and matcha ice cream, homemade strawberry compote is swirled in to bright brightness and tartness to the ice cream. You can easily use store-bought strawberry jam for this, but since we are in peak strawberry season right now, I always have strawberry compote in the fridge, ready to be used as a cookie or cake filling, or in this case, an ice cream mix in. After the ice cream has churned, it’s all sandwiched between a digestive biscuit crust. You can use any cookie of choice, but I love the flavour of digestive biscuit or graham cracker for an ice cream sandwich. Once the ice cream sandwiches have set overnight in the freezer (I know, patience is an important ingredient when making ice cream), cut into bars and enjoy.
Strawberry Matcha Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients
Creme Anglaise
- 5 large egg yolks
- 240 ml (1 cup) whole milk
- 150 g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 480 ml heavy cream
- 2 tbsp matcha powder, I used ceremonial but baking matcha also works
Strawberry Compote
- 200 g strawberries , chopped
- 67 g (1/3 cup) granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
Digestive Biscuit Crust
- 350 g digestive biscuits
- 113 g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
- 40 tbspg (3 tbsp) granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Creme Anglaise
- Separate five large eggs and place egg yolks in a large bowl. Lightly whisk egg yolks and then set aside.
- In a medium pot, combine milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Heat over medium heat until it reaches a very light simmer.
- Remove 3 tbsp of the hot milk mixture and place in a small bowl. Whisk to combine the milk and matcha powder. Set aside.
- Gradually pour the remainder of the milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.
- Cook over low heat, whisking constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Pour the custard into a large bowl or measuring cup. Whisk in the heavy cream.
- Divide the mixture into two equal portions. To one potion, add the matcha paste from earlier and mix until fully combined.
- Refrigerate the ice cream bases to chill thoroughly, at least four hours, preferably overnight.
- Once thoroughly chilled, churn ice cream based on ice cream maker's instructions, after making the digestive biscuit crust below.
Strawberry Compote
- Add strawberry, sugar, and salt to a medium pot.
- With a rubber spatula, gently stir and continue to cook over medium heat, until strawberry is tender and juices become thick (10 – 15 minutes). Remove from heat and let compote cool before using.
Digestive Biscuit Crust
- Line a square baking pan (both 8×8 and 9×9 are okay) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Blitz digestive biscuit in a blender or food processor until it becomes a fine crumb. Transfer crumbs to a medium bowl.
- Add melted butter, sugar, and salt to the biscuit crumbs and mix until mixture resembles wet sand.
- Transfer half of the biscuit mixture to the lined pan. Using your hands or the back of spoon, press down the mixture until it forms a flat layer.
- Place the pan in the freezer to firm up. Keep the bowl with the remaining crumb mixture at room temperature for later.
- Once the biscuit layer has firmed up (about 20 minutes in the freezer), carefully remove the crust and transfer to a baking sheet and return the crust to the freezer. With the remaining crumb mixture, repeat the steps above. This second layer will be our 'bottom crust.'
Assembly
- Once the vanilla and matcha ice creams have been churned, remove the pan with biscuit crust layer from the freezer.
- Alternating between vanilla and matcha flavours, transfer the ice cream onto the biscuit base using a large spoon or ice cream scoop. Add dollops of strawberry compote to the ice cream. Using the same large spoon, press down the scoops of ice cream to make sure there are no gaps in the ice cream layers and gently swirl in the strawberry compote.
- Remove the first biscuit layer from the freezer and place on top of ice cream. Gently press down to make sure there are no gaps between ice cream layer and crust.
- Transfer to freezer to freeze overnight.
- Gently run a knife around the edges of the pan. Lift the ice cream sandwich block out of the pan by lifting it up with the parchment paper overhang. Cut into desired sizes.
![day two: sparkly matcha neapolitan shortbread cookies ✨
the instructions might seem confusing, but if you watch the video to see how the different flavour layers are stacked, it will make much more sense! these slice and bake cookies freeze extremely well so you can make the dough now and bake them off when you want to gift them. (makes 40-44)
vanilla dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
matcha dough:
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g (6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp culinary matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
strawberry dough
85g (1/3 cup + 2 tsp) unsalted butter, room temp
45g 6 tbsp) powdered sugar
90g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg white
coarse sanding sugar
for the vanilla dough, combine butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. mix until smooth. add vanilla. add flour and salt and mix until no dry streaks remain. do the same for the matcha and strawberry doughs in separate bowls
place one portion of the dough between two pieces of parchment paper and roll into a 5 x 9-inch rectangle that is about 1/4-inch thick. slide rolled out dough onto a baking sheet and freeze for 10 min until firm. repeat this step with the other portions of dough
remove the top piece of parchment from each slab and stack the strawberry, vanilla, and matcha dough layers. cut the slab down the middle the long way to form two 2.5 x 9-inch rectangles. with one half, carefully swap the order of the layers (example: if the first half of the dough is stacked svm, swap the second half so it’s msv. this will ensure that same flavour squares don’t stack on each other). stack the halves. press the layers gently to adhere them. return the stacked dough to the freezer for another 10min
[recipe cont’d in comments]
#christmasbaking #christmascookies #holidaybaking #holidaycookies #cookiedecorating](https://constellationinspiration.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)
dont copy says
you copied succulentrecipes.com!!!!
pay attention says
Actually “dont copy” if you paid attention, you’d see that Amy posted this recipe an entire year before Succulent Recipes…