This has been a tough week for others, and so it feels odd and out of touch to continue to look for recipes or to post anything on a food blog to me. And yet here I am. And there you are. And I’m fine. And Ben is fine. I wish the world could say the same. The changes in my life are minimal and doable and haven’t really affected me as it has for others. I feel extremely lucky and grateful of all that we have in our life right now. And I think it helps to continually look on the brighter side of things and to be thankful for what you still have in life.

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This recipe is something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years now. The first time I tried using wasabi peas as a topping for strawberry ice cream, I could not get over how well the two flavors worked together. The wasabi peas also kept their crunch very well in ice cream. So I knew it would work well not only as an ice cream topping but as a component or add-in to the ice cream. Et voilà! I hope you enjoy!

strawberry wasabi pea ice cream sandwiches (adapted from this  BA recipe)

ingredients 

1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 ounces unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons minced ginger (optional)

1 quart strawberry ice cream (or other flavor of choice)

1-2 cups of wasabi green peas

method

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl and stir with a whisk several times to combine thoroughly. Set aside.

In another bowl, cream the butter with the sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and ginger (if using) and beat again. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl as needed.

Slowly add the flour mixture while beating on low to combine and stop when barely mixed in. Finish folding the flour with a rubber spatula. Form dough into a disk that has a thickness of about 1/2 inch. Chill until firm, about 2 hours.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Let the disk of dough sit at room temperature until softened slightly, about 5 minutes. Roll out the disc on a lightly floured surface into a roughly 8.5” by 12.5″ rectangle that’s between 1/8th-inch and 1/4th-inch thick.

Cut out an even number of equal portions of squares, rectangles, or circles. The shape and how many cookies determines how much ice cream you may need to use. I initially made cookies as rectangles that were about 4” by 2” each, but later decided to cut each of them in half to double the amount of ice cream sandwiches, but in a smaller size. So I initially had 12 cookies that were 4” by 2” each, in order to make 6 ice cream sandwiches. I then cut each sandwich in half, making 12 (2” by 2”) square half-sandwiches. 

Chill in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes if dough is too soft or sticky.

Transfer the 12 cookies onto a baking sheet, spaced about 1” apart and prick each of them with the tines of a fork several times over the length of each cookie. 

Bake for about 12-15 minutes. Cool on baking sheets. Turn half of them over. Let cool.

For the ice cream part, you’ll need to calculate how many rectangles of ice cream you will need for each sandwich, so what I needed was a 8” by 6” rectangle of ice cream about an inch in height. 

I placed 2 pieces of plastic wrap over an 8” by 8” square pan letting the plastic overhang on all sides.

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Transfer a quart of strawberry (or other flavor) ice cream to a large bowl and let sit until slightly softened, about 5 minutes. Using a large spoon or spatula, stir the ice cream until it is roughly the consistency of a thick cake batter. Stir in about a cup (or more, if desired) of the wasabi peas into the ice cream and continue to stir until sufficiently dispersed throughout the ice cream. 

Scrape all the ice cream into the lined square pan so that it is about 1” in height, smoothing and leveling the top surface with a small offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Place back in the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

When ice cream is firm, cut into 8 rectangles that are 4” by 2”. You only need 6 of the 8 rectangles of ice cream, so you’ll have two extra rectangles that you can either eat later or re-purpose.

Place each of the 6 rectangles of ice cream on the 6 of the cookies that were turned over. Top each piece of ice cream with one of the remaining cookies. Cut each sandwich in half if desired.

Cover all cookies with plastic wrap and freeze at least 8 hours before serving. You can assemble these ice cream sandwiches 5 days in advance, kept covered and frozen.