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Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches

June 29, 2017 · Natalie 67 Comments

No baking, no churning, no spoon required for this easy dessert recipe–these vegan and paleo cookie dough ice cream sandwiches are a healthy summer treat!

There have been ice cream pops. And ice cream floats. Ice cream bowls. Ice cream in an instant. Ice cream, some patience required. Ice cream with chunks. Ice cream with sprinkles. And even ice cream that fell from the cone to floor and never made it to the blog. R.I.P chocolate chip strawberry swirl in a sugar cone.

And the frozen recipe family expands again! Because I’m certainly not done craving pretty much exclusively cold and creamy things, and hopefully you’re not either.

Today’s foray into a so-far-unexplored-on-the blog-this-year ice cream form is in collaboration with the always amazing Leah from Love Me, Feed Me. Because she’s been all about the chilly treats lately too with some crazydelicious pop flavors, not to mention much more on trend than I am since apparently I missed the #popsicleweek memo.

But who’s really surprised? Not me.

Enough about how I live under a rock oblivious to all the hashtag things though.

The truly pressing, deeply concerning matter on my mind today: If these are ice cream sandwiches, but ice cream betweeen two round baked cookies is also an ice cream sandwich, and “ice cream bars” are pretty much popsicles going by another name…WHY?

Because if you ask me, everything about this square-shaped layered ice cream situation screams “Call me an ice cream bar!” Yet it’s technically an ice cream sandwich. But this is coming from the girl who used to order a build-your-own triple layer froyo parfait with cookie dough and vanilla ice cream for all three layers every single time, so what do I know.

Sidenote: Is it weird to anyone else to think that froyo wasn’t always self-serve? That not that long ago there wasn’t the option to sample any/every flavor by awkwardly licking it out of a tiny white condiment cup? And you couldn’t concoct a hideous can’t-make-up-my-mind mess with a little bit of 5 different flavors, 7 different toppings, caramel AND fudge sauce, and a single piece of that chocolate chunk thing you can’t identify but skeptically placed on top anyways just because you can? Times have changed, we pick ice cream toppings by most delicious for the weight, and most of us suck at swirling froyo.

But back to vanilla + cookie dough…

Yep, I was boring like that. Or maybe genius like that – why mess with a good thing, right? Because cookie dough + vanilla ice cream is a very good thing. A thing I will never get tired of. A thing that has the perfect texture contrast of chewy and creamy and chippy. A thing that was worth forgoing all the other soft serve flavors and ignoring the rest of the topping options for. A thing I just turned from layered treat requiring an extra-long spoon into hand-held mostly healthy dessert sandwich.

Cookie dough. Baking cookies, waiting for them too cool, making the ice cream, and then having to scoop and smush each one individually sounded like a lot more effort than I cared to exert for my ice cream dessert-ing. So I simplified and streamlined the process.

No bake cookie DOUGH instead of cookies with only 3 essential + 2 optional ingredients. It just happens to be vegan, date-sweetened, and paleo too (a.k.a. make extra because it’s a scrumdiddlyumptious little treat all it’s own!)

No cooling time because no baking. Which means no heating up the entire house when it’s already a zillion degrees outside either, because your AC bill is very important to me.

And if you press it all into a pan, freeze, then cut into individual ~~bars~~ sandwiches you get 8 perfect servings but only have to smush once.

Ice cream. Now you could sandwich any kind of vanilla ice cream between those two layers of chocolate chip dough. I personally created a nice cream + coconut milk ice cream hybrid for the filling because it’s the perfect balance of creamy and fruity-sweet.

It’s just as simple as it sounds – frozen bananas blended with full-fat coconut milk and then stirred a few times as it’s freezing to prevent icy-ness. Because it will be quite liquid-y after blending, you want to give it a couple of hours head start on freezing before trying to add the top layer of cookie. Makes the whole stirring thing a lot easier too.

And if you’ve made it this far, firstly welcome to the True Ice Cream Sandwich Lovers Club. But secondly, you must see the epic ice cream sandwich-ing Leah is sharing today. So go, go, go → HERE for Ginger Rhubarb Mini Donut Ice Cream Sandwiches!

Happy sweet simple cookie dough / ice cream / cookie dough layering to you!

Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches

★★★★★ 4.8 from 12 reviews

Author: Natalie
Yield: 8 sandwiches 1x
Category: dessert
Method: freezer
Cuisine: american

Print Recipe

Description

No baking, no churning, no spoon required for this easy dessert recipe–these vegan and paleo cookie dough ice cream sandwiches are a healthy summer treat!

Ingredients

Scale

Cookie Dough

1 cup date paste
2/3 cup coconut flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips

Ice Cream

3–4 frozen bananas
1 can full-fat coconut milk
Optional: more chocolate chips

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Combine all the cookie dough ingredients. Mix. It should just barely hold together, if it’s too dry add more date paste.
Divide into 2 equal parts.
Press half of the dough into the bottom of an 8×5″ pan (or a loaf pan or even a tupperware container) lined with parchment paper.
Blend the frozen bananas and coconut milk until smooth. Add the chocolate chips (if using) and blend briefly to combine.
Pour on top of the cookie dough.
Freeze for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes to prevent ice crystals.
Press the other half of the cookie dough into a rectangle.
Once the ice cream is firm enough, add the top layer of cookie dough and gently press.
Freeze overnight (or at least 8 hours).
Once frozen, slice into bars and enjoy! Keep in the freezer.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 1 ice cream sandwich
Calories: 247
Sugar: 27g
Fat: 9g
Saturated Fat: 7g
Carbohydrates: 40g
Fiber: 7g
Protein: 4g

Keywords: no bake, frozen, dessert, easy, vegan, dairy-free, nice cream

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Grain-Free Banana Flour Waffles

June 26, 2017 · Natalie 72 Comments

The best vegan + paleo waffles made with banana flour for a delicious healthy grain-free, egg-free, nut-free, AIP-friendly breakfast!

Ever since I started experimenting with fewer grains in my life, I have been on the hunt for a good waffle recipe. Well when the hunt began it was a good pancake recipe actually, but I’ve discovered waffles to be much better suited to this tricky oat-less and egg-less mission. And besides the storage and post-breakfast pain of cleaning the waffle maker, I actually prefer waffles with all their crispy corners and cavities anyways.

The truth is, there’s not a lot out there.

If you search for vegan waffles to avoid eggs, then it’s oat and wheat flour every which way. And lots of bananas too.

If you search for paleo waffles to avoid grains, then it’s eggs almost every time in conjunction with almond or coconut flour. Almond or coconut flour with the help of starches can work, but the texture is never amazing in my experience and once you need 3+ dry ingredients it’s just too complicated for me to want to whip up on a morning whim.

Now there is this one recipe that if you have done any googling in the realm of AIP waffles you’ve probably come across. It uses plantains as the base of the batter with just a few small additions like coconut oil and baking soda and cinnamon.

I’ve heard success stories. I’ve watched in-process youtube videos. But every single one of the four times I’ve tried it has been a massive flop. Like burnt but somehow still uncooked gooey batter disaster flop. I think the issue has to do with plantain ripeness, but honestly plantains are a produce item I have very little experience with. So while I probably will try again eventually, I wanted waffles now!

My friend Alison from Food By Mars actually just posted a waffle recipe that could’ve solved all my problems. She used a combination of tigernut and cassava flour, and they look marvelously crispy so I will be trying them soon too.

But I’ve been testing/tweaking/eating for dinner the recipe I’m about to share for over a month now, and it uses banana flour. Because if you hadn’t noticed I kinda love the stuff. They are crispy and tasty and require no eggs or other flours/starches. They also turned out an unusual could-fool-you-into-thinking-there’s-chocolate-involved color, but that’s just what banana flour does when baked. It also takes on this rich, sweet, cake-like flavor that I cannot even put into words. But it’s so good I would happily slather them with frosting and pretend it’s my birthday.

The recipe is pretty simple, but it comes with some options…

Applesauce OR yogurt OR pumpkin. You will need one of these three ingredients for moisture and binding, but it’s up to you which one. All of them come out almost identical in terms of texture, the yogurt version is a little bit less sweet though. Since they can vary slightly in thickness/moisture, you may need a tablespoon of non-dairy milk to adjust the overall thickness of the batter depending on which you choose. The batter will be VERY thick though, as you can see in the video. You want it that way otherwise the waffles will turn out mushy not crispy.

Coconut oil OR nut butter. Again, it’s up to you. And again which you choose will affect the overall thickness of the batter, so adjust with a tablespoon of non-dairy milk if you opt for the nut butter unless your nut butter is very runny. The nut butter adds more flavor in my opinion, but the coconut oil makes them extra crispy.

Aside from those options, the rest of the ingredients are simple and straight-forward: green banana flour (the Let’s Do Organic brand is my personal preference), lemon juice + baking soda for leavening, and vanilla extract. You could also add in cinnamon or whatever fun flavor additions you like.

The recipe does call for a tablespoon of maple syrup to sweeten the waffles but it is optional. The banana flour is subtly sweet naturally, so I often skip it or save it for drizzling on top.

This recipe makes two medium waffles – perfect for one person. Feel free to double or triple if you wish, or even freeze and re-toast meal prep style.