Chipwich Ice Cream Cake
High on the list of cooking things that I’ve got far more opinions on than anyone has ever asked of me (and may have even, at times, prayed I’d stop yapping about), are homemade ice cream sandwiches. Why? Because it’s devastating when you realize something that should bring us nothing but incandescent summer joy — ice cream! cookies! — rarely work as well as promised. Most cookies become so hard once frozen, you feel like you’re breaking a tooth with each bite. Unyielding cookies also squeeze the ice cream out the sides, leading to drips down your arms and an immediate bad mood (for adults; kids, naturally, love it). Recently I've become obsessed with creating a deeply nostalgic homemade chipwich-style ice cream sandwich that did everything right and I had three big a-ha moments along the way.
And while I am truly as obsessed with the Blondie Chipwich recipe now as I was in 2022, when a chipwich-loving friend had a birthday, I realized the next best thing to individual blondie chipwiches was a one cake-sized one we serve in wedges. Do I need to tell you what a commotion a giant chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake causes? Especially when you’re not even lying when you said it was “easy peasy” because it has a one-bowl, hand-whisked cookie batter that bakes quickly and storebought ice cream? It’s happy, retro, and speckled with so many chocolate chips, well, I found some melted into the kitchen floor the next sunny morning. But, uh, you’ll make sure they all get in mouths first, okay? I’m counting on you.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup (4 ounces or 115 grams) unsalted butter, any temperature, plus extra for coating the pans
- Scant 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup (215 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) milk, any kind, cold is fine
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups (9 ounces or 255 grams) miniature chocolate chips, divided
- 3 cups (1 28-ounce container) vanilla ice cream