Author : Chef Caitlin Howington
It’s coming. Cue Glen Danzig’s voice in my head: “Halloweeeeen Halloweeeeeen Halloween!” And while everyone goes pumpkin picking, wanders through corn mazes, and puts up orange and black decorations, I’m at home making these: Pumpkin Gingerbread Ice Cream Sandwiches.
Fall is officially upon us now, when we can all turn our ovens on and actually enjoy the fact that it warms up our home. These soft chewy molasses cookies are perfect to hold the spiced pumpkin ice cream. Don’t try and use gingersnaps instead – you’re asking for a structural disaster!
With Halloween coming, I’ve been listening more to one of my favorite genres: psychobilly. And one of my favorite bands of this genre, The Creepshow, goes so perfectly with these ice cream sandwiches. With all of the sugar and spice in them; it only makes sense to listen to a powerful female singer.
Fronted by the haunting yet sexy voice of Kenda Legaspi, The Creepshow’s songs entail common themes when it comes to psychobilly – horror, creatures of the night, vengeance, sin. It turns out, not all girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice; some are made of demons and rock and roll. If you ever get the chance to see them live – take it. I’ll be singing about zombies eating brains while munching on one of these ice cream sandwiches. Get ready to go on a a trip to a Halloween underworld – it’s going to be a helluva ride. Rock the fuck on, sister.
Yields 12 Large Ice Cream Sandwiches
Pumpkin Ice Cream
-3 cups cream
-1 cup whole milk
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/4 cup brown sugar unpacked
-6 egg yolks
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 cup canned pumpkin
-2 tsp pumpkin spice
In a medium saucepot, bring the cream, milk, and half the sugar to a boil. Temper with remaining sugar, egg yolks, and salt. Strain. Blend in pumpkin and pumpkin spice with a hand blender or in a tabletop blender on low power just until incorporated. Cool and then chill in fridge for at least 4 hours. Spin in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze for at least 2 hours.
Gingerbread Cookies
-1 stick butter
-1/2 cup shortening
-1 ½ cups sugar
-1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
-2 eggs, lightly beaten
-4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
-1 tsp salt
-2 ¼ tsp baking soda
-2 ¼ tsp ground ginger
-1 ½ tsp ground cloves
-1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
Granulated sugar, to coat cookies.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar until soft and fluffy. On low speed, add the eggs and molasses in two stages; scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl in between.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. Add to the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment or wax paper to ¼” thickness. Place the sheets of rolled dough on a cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350F. After chilling, remove the top layer of paper and cut with a 3” round cookie cutter as many as you can get from each sheet. Place the cut out cookies onto a greased cookie sheet two inches apart. Sprinkle them with sugar.
Bake in pre-heated oven for 11-12 minutes; rotating halfway through. They should get just a touch of brown on the edges but stay soft. Cool on a wire cooling rack.
Note: you can re-roll the dough one more time with the scraps and get more cookies out of it!
To build the ice cream sandwiches:
Working quickly, scoop about ½ cup of the ice cream onto an upside down cookie. Place another on top, smoosh lightly, and place in the freezer. Work through until all the ice cream has been used. If your ice cream is rock hard, stick it in the fridge for about 10-15 minutes or until it’s easier to work with. And if it’s too soft and runny, stick it in the freezer till it firms up.
You can either A) enjoy as-is or B) go over them with a knife or mini offset spatula dipped in hot water to smooth out the edges and make them look prettier. This is totally your call.
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