Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream Sandwiches
Delicately perfumed & pleasantly soft frozen treats… The fluted edges of the ice cream are achieved by using a scalloped edge biscuit cutter to cut the ice cream from the pan.
These sandwiches are delightfully different and refreshing. The oatmeal cookies and the ice cream are laced with earl grey tea and orange blossom water for a delicate flavor remniscent of sweet, milky tea. They’ve been a big hit with the friends this summer!
COOKIES
Makes 12 Cookies for 6 Sandwiches
For these, I was inspired the Bonjon Gourmet’s teff-based oatmeal cookie recipe but took them a slightly different direction.
3/4 C (100 g) teff flour
¾ tsp fine sea salt
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ C (27 g) tapioca starch
¼ C + 2 Tbsp packed light brown sugar (80 g)
¼ C (50 g) granulated cane sugar
1 large egg, beaten
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp orange blossom water
8 Tbsp (113 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 heaping cup GF old-fashioned rolled oats (110 g)
1 Scoop Earl Grey tea, loose (standard coffee scoop measure)
½ C raisins
½ C walnuts, chopped
The evening before you want to bake, prepare the raisins. Boil water and steep tea (for 2-3 minutes) in a strainer, within a bowl large enough to hold the ½ cup of raisins, in addition. Add raisins and let steep for 10 minutes. Remove tea strainer, but leave raisins to soak in tea overnight, in the refrigerator.
Retain the tea leaves from the strainer and spread on paper to dry overnight. In the morning, when dry, grind the tea leaves in a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, into a powder.
Combine the first 6 ingredients plus the tea powder in a mixing bowl, and whisk to remove any lumps. Add beaten egg, vanilla, orange blossom water and unsalted butter, and blend to combine. Fold in the oats and chopped walnuts, and then the drained raisins.
Allow dough to rest for 1-2 hours to allow everything to combine.
Preheat the oven to 350◦ F.
Use #30 scooper or heaping tablespoons to form 2” balls of dough. Place them 2½ - 3” apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, until slightly darker than golden brown. You want these to be a hair overbaked to maintain a stronger structure for ice cream sandwich assembly later.
Remove cookies to cool on rack. If the cookies have spread and touched, please take this extra step. While cookies are still warm, take a 4” biscuit cutter (or pint glass or glass with a similar diameter), and cut the cookies into even circles and allow to finish cooling.
EARL GREY NO-CHURN ICE CREAM
2 c heavy cream
1 Scoop Earl Grey tea, loose leaf
1 can sweetened, condensed milk
1 TBSP orange blossom water
A minimum of 6 hours ahead of time, gently warm the cream in a saucepan with the loose tea in it for about 5 minutes. Cut the heat and allow to steep and cool for 10-15 minutes. Strain the cream to remove all the tea leaves and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 6 hours (or up to 2 days).
Whip the thoroughly chilled cream in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until fully whipped. Don’t overwhip as the cream will get grainy. Should you slightly overwhip the cream, you and add a tablespoon or two of heavy cream and blend in and lightly re-whip to smooth.
Gently fold in one can of sweetened condensed milk and the orange blossom water until thoroughly combined.
Pour the mixture into a metal or glass loaf pan to freeze overnight.
TO ASSEMBLE
When frozen, use a 4” biscuit cutter to cut out rounds of the ice cream, and quickly place on a small, metal tray to firm up in the freezer. You will get 3 rounds initially from the loaf pan. Mix the remaining ice cream and pace in the freezer for about five minutes to be able to cut the remaining 3 rounds.
Allow to freeze about 30 minutes. If you have a metal spatula or offset spatula, allow it to chill in the freezer at the same time.
To assemble, place a cookie, flat side up, on a square-ish piece of wax paper, parchment paper or plastic wrap. Use the chilled spatula to remove a disk of ice cream from the metal tray. Return the tray to the freezer. Top the ice cream disk with another cookie, and fold/wrap up the sandwich to freeze immediately. Repeat the process with the remaining 5 sandwiches. Allow to freeze for a few hours to overnight. The time in the freezer will firm up the ice cream and allow the cookies to adhere/blend with the ice cream.
