Summertime dreams

When we decided to make a homemade version of ice cream sandwiches, we thought it would be as easy as smooshing some ice cream between two chocolate chip cookies. But all that gave us were rock-solid cookies that we struggled to bite through while we squished the ice cream out the sides. The takeaway: Cookies that are best eaten with a glass of milk are not perfect in an ice cream sandwich.

To make cookies that were easy to cookie so we could still use a good bite through, we focused on an ingredient amount of ice cream without making rarely considered in cookie the sandwich the frozen-dessert composition: water. Our recipe equivalent of a New York deli sandwich. includes almost twice as much water To do that, we dropped the than most chocolate chip cookie baking temperature to a relatively recipes. That may sound counterintuitive low 325 degrees so that the dough — you’d think frozen water had more time to spread before it set. would make cookies harder — but And to compensate for the freezer’s it works because the sugar in the flavor-dulling effect, we packed the dough lowers the temperature at cookie with deep toffee notes that which water freezes, keeping it fluid. came through even when frozen. By increasing the amount of sugary The result? An infinitely customizable, water in the dough, we were able perfectly engineered version of to make cookies that were sturdy this summertime dessert. Fill them enough to sandwich the ice cream with the ice cream flavor of your but tender enough to bite through choice or press mini chips around with just a hint of snap. the rim of each sandwich for a dose

We also wanted a thinner, flatter of Chipwich nostalgia.