Chewy chocolate cookies. Rich vanilla bean ice cream.
One of my childhood loves was ice cream sandwiches. You know the ones I mean. Wrapped in paper. Rectangles of chocolate cake-style cookie on the outside, with super-sweet faux vanilla ice cream inside. I loved to squish them slightly as they got melty, running my tongue around the edge to catch the ice cream.
For my second frozen treat of July, I updated that childhood favorite, making grain-free cookies from nut meal. And real vanilla bean ice cream, egg yolks and all. But no dairy. Instead, I used coconut milk, like the Culinary Coconut Milk from So Delicious. Once frozen, these taste remarkably like my childhood treat. Which is even more surprising as I used carob powder in place of cocoa powder, and no heavy cream.
If you wish to make the ice cream vegan, omit the egg yolks and substitute 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum or 2 tsp. organic cornstarch. Make a slurry with either of these and some of the coconut milk, then whisk into the coconut milk on the stove and heat until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon.
Migraine peeps: Use sunflower seeds ground into flour for the cookies, and carob powder instead of cocoa powder. While these do have a small amount of natural sweetener, they should be okay for an occasional treat.
Tips for making ice cream sandwiches without swearing a blue streak:
- Make sure your cookies are completely cool. Then freeze them for at least 30 minutes.
- Once you’ve churned your ice cream, scoop small, uniform scoops onto a frozen baking sheet covered in parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Freeze until very firm.
- Have a second frozen sheet ready for your sandwiches as you make them.
- Use an offset or metal spatula to move the ice cream scoops from the sheet onto the flat side of the bottom cookie. Smush ice cream a little as you top it with the second cookie.
- Put back in the freezer ASAP.
- If wrapping in waxed paper (recommended for longer-term storage), pre-cut all the paper and twine. Then wrap 2 or 3 at a time, returning to freezer ASAP.
Suitable for:
Vegan, vegetarian, paleo, grain-free, dairy-free, low-sodium, migraine, gluten-free, reduced-sugar diets
This is a Sweet entry in the So Delicious and Go Dairy Free Snackable Recipe Contest
You might also like:
Margarita ice cream sandwiches from Cooking Light (traditional)
Clean eating/primal Whoa! ice cream sandwiches from Clean Eating with a Dirty Mind
Raw ice cream sandwiches from Detoxinista

Vanilla-bean ice cream sandwiches {grain-free}
Ingredients
Flourless chocolate cookies
- 9.85 ounces almonds (2-1/2 cups) sunflower seeds, pecans, walnuts (use sunflower seeds for migraine diet)
- 2.1 ounces cocoa powder 3/4 cup (use carob powder for migraine diet)
- 3/4 cup agave syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Vanilla bean ice cream
- 2 cups coconut milk can use light canned coconut milk or Culinary Coconut Milk from So Delicious
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup agave syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 vanilla beans seeds only
Instructions
Flourless cookies
- Grind the nuts or seeds into a flour in a food processor as follows: Add about 1/3 of the nuts or seeds and 1/3 of the cocoa or carob powder. Process until the nuts or seeds are finely ground. Don't overprocess or it will start turning into nut butter. Dump out into a large mixing bowl. Repeat until all nuts/seeds are ground.
- Mix in the remaining ingredients, stirring until completely mixed.
- Preheat oven to 325F/165C/gas mark 3. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Drop batter in one tablespoon measures, then spread into a circle with your spoon. Try to make them as uniform in size as possible.
- Bake for 15 minutes until cookies are firm. Cool completely, then freeze.
Vanilla bean ice cream
- Bring coconut milk to a simmer in a medium saucepan.
- In a stand mixer (or using a whisk or hand mixer), beat egg yolks, agave syrup or honey, vanilla extract, and vanilla seeds until light colored. (See above for vegan instructions.)
- Slowly stream in the hot milk mixture while beating continuously.
- Chill overnight, then churn according to your ice cream maker's directions.
- See above for best results assembling the sandwiches. You will have more ice cream than cookies.
Notes
- 244 calories
- 16 g fat
- 7 g saturated fat
- 6 g monounsaturated fat
- 2 g polyunsaturated fat
- 0 g trans fat
- 35 g cholesterol
- 7 mg sodium
- 264 mg potassium
- 24 g carbohydrate
- 4 g fiber
- 18 g sugars
- 6 g protein
- 7 Weight Watchers Points Plus
[…] Vanilla Bean Ice-Cream Sandwiches: One bite is a taste of nostalgia. Recipe Renovator revamped your childhood favorite to be both […]
These look amazing Stephanie! A definite winner in my book :)
On behalf of all the nut-free folks out there, thank you for the nut-free option!
I made them nut-free and with carob and you would never know they weren’t chocolate and nuts. Yum. Now I want to make them again.