It’s July, which is a Very Important Month as it’s National Ice Cream month, my birthday month (you’re welcome, world), and the middle of summer. I absolutely love ice cream. Not as much as brownies, of course, but it’s a close second. I think it was passed down from my mom who despite being lactose-sensitive, frequently bought ice cream bars and fudgsicles. I approved of the fudgsicles but I wasn’t a huge fan of the ice cream bars. I felt that the ice cream to cookie (?) ratio was off. The cookie thing (seriously, what is it called exactly?) is too thin and the ice cream is always a sort of a generic, boring vanilla or a colorful, but still generic Neapolitan. And every time you eat one, you end up with the cookie gunk all over your fingers because it’s so soft. Obviously, I am never ungrateful because, hey, free ice cream, but I’d rather eat a dusty road (ice cream with chocolate sauce and malt).
Fast forward many years and many ice cream bars to this week: I’ve found the perfect ice cream bar. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this because it’s absolutely genius. How do you make the best ever ice cream bar? You combine the best thing in the world with the second best thing in the world and you make a brownie ice cream sandwich. BOOM.
I, of course, came across this idea on Pinterest. I was skeptical at first because brownies are meant to be warm and gooey or chewy and not frozen. But how wrong I was. The brownie is, in fact, chewy and doesn’t stick to your fingers. You can make the ice cream as thick or thin as you want and you get to pick your ice cream flavors. I chose Tillamook Mudslide and Vanilla Bean because I saw it in the store and it made me miss my home state of Oregon. And it just so happened to be on sale.
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Brownie Ice Cream Bars
(adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Ingredients:
6 oz 100% cacao Ghiradelli bars (or other decent chocolate), broken up into pieces
1 cup butter
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
5 to 6 cups ice cream
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 9×13 inch baking pans with parchment paper, extending it up two sides. (I always skip lining but in this case, you can’t, so resist the temptation to skip this step!) Grease the parchment and exposed sides of the pan.
Melt the butter and chocolate in a microwave in 30 second intervals so the chocolate doesn’t burn. In a mixer, add sugar and melted chocolate. Then add the eggs one at a time and vanilla. Add salt and flour until just combined.
Divide the batter between the two prepared pans and spread evenly. Bake on different racks for 12 to 15 minutes, rotating once top to bottom and front to back, until a toothpick inserted into the center of each pan comes out nearly batter-free. Let cool about 10 or 15 minutes and then transfer to freezer. You can pull out one of the brownies and stack it on top of the other so you don’t have to make room for two 9×13 inch pans. Just be sure to keep the parchment paper between the two brownies. Chill until cold and firm, about 30 minutes.
Remove pan from freezer and, working quickly, cover the first brownie layer with ice cream. If using multiple flavors, alternate them so you get a good mix in each sandwich. Be sure to use small scoops of ice cream so they soften faster. This makes it so you can spread the ice cream more easily and quickly. Add second brownie layer and press down (you can use your hands or the bottom or the empty baking pan). Freeze for a couple hours or overnight.
Run a knife around brownie stack to make sure it’s not stuck, and use the parchment sling to transfer the ice cream sandwich block to a cutting bard. With a large knife, cut into squares and devour before they all melt.
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As I said above, these are amazing. The brownie has the perfect amount of chew and the ice cream complements it nicely. It is hard to cut so be sure to use a large knife and put your weight behind it (with fingers safely out of the way).
brownietheory 
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