Salty Brownie Ice Cream Sandwiches

I know it's a little on-the-nose to make brownie ice cream sandwiches immediately after making Claire's "forever" brownie recipe. However, I'm ultimately basing the order I make these recipes on what I have on hand and what's most convenient for me. This was one of the recipes I had prepared for by buying all the ingredients, and to be honest, I've been in a brownie kind of mood, so I figured why not?

This is a recipe from What's for Dessert. It's essentially an ice cream sandwich made with a homemade, slightly chewy layer of brownie encasing the ice cream. Yes, the ice cream is store-bought. I actually have made a homemade ice cream before - I want to say it was a Nigella Lawson recipe for miso caramel ice cream. It was a no-churn method that used condensed milk and was chilled in a loaf pan, and while I remember it being pretty good, I generally don't believe making your own ice cream is that worthwhile of an act. When I want ice cream, I want a pint from the store, and that's it. 

Most people are probably familiar with Claire through her Gourmet Makes series on Bon Appetit back in the day. Although you can tell she did not have much fun in that series, and since leaving Bon Appetit she's been trying to rebrand her image a little bit, it still seems like she has a strong penchant for giving nostalgic childhood desserts a more sophisticated or contemporary twist. That definitely seemed like her goal with this recipe. The two brownie layers get baked separately in very thin sheets for around 10 minutes each. Considering I had made Claire's forever brownies just a day before, I was apt to notice the similarities and differences between the two recipes. This brownie recipe did not use cocoa powder, only melted semisweet chocolate. It also used an equal amount of egg whites and yolks (the forever brownies used two yolks and one whole egg), and used only granulated sugar (the forever brownies used both granulated and dark brown). Overall, I found that these tweaks resulted in a cakier, less intensely chocolaty brownie. I'm not sure why these changes were made - maybe it was more similar to the store-bought ice cream sandwiches Claire intended to emulate, or maybe it provided a better structure for holding the ice cream filling or freezing. Maybe this difference in texture was simply due to the fact that the brownies were baked in such thin layers that they didn't have the chance to develop a fudgy, gooey center.

One of the brownie layers is sprinkled with flaky salt before baking (hence the "salty" in the title). The flaky salt seemed to melt and sink into the brownie slightly, but there were still pops of saltiness in the final product. The filling is literally just vanilla ice cream with some crushed Oreos mixed in, so basically cookies and cream. Again, there must've been a reason why Claire didn't just call for store-bought cookies and cream ice cream, but I'm not sure why. I guess with these types of semi-homemade desserts you need to feel like you're making more things yourself than not. Claire advises to work really quickly when assembling the ice cream sandwiches because the ice cream has a tendency to melt and make everything really messy. I didn't necessarily have this problem until after the sandwiches were done freezing. I noticed that some of the ice cream had oozed out the sides of the brownie a little, and I had some difficulty cutting them into neat sandwiches without the brownie layer tearing a little, but it wasn't a total disaster.

Overall, I have some mixed feelings about this recipe. The sandwiches tasted really good - I mean, it's ice cream in between brownie, how bad can that be? However, I didn't really feel like it was the type of dessert worth putting in the extra effort and making myself. I said before that I don't really have any interest in making my own ice cream, and I have a similar sentiment towards recipes that incorporate store-bought ice cream. I know, I sound like a snob, but I just think ice cream is ice cream and there's not really a point in fancying it up. That's not to say I don't like ice cream sandwiches - growing up, my mom would get the really all-natural brand from Sprouts with the soft chocolate cookies, and those really hit the spot. But again, I would just buy those from the store rather than make my own version. I also thought that the brownie layer, while still delicious, wasn't as good as Claire's forever brownie recipe. Overall, I think these are a very fun dessert if you're into these sort of things. It's great for summer, but also seasonally agnostic, and I think kids would really love them. They're also easy enough that you could make them even if you don't feel particularly confident baking. It's just not the type of dessert I particularly enjoy making, and that's fine.

Verdict: 7/10

Would I make again? Probably not, but that's a me issue.

Trigger warning: in this next section, I'll be discussing topics relating to eating disorders. If you're struggling with one or sensitive toward the topic in any way, I highly discourage you from reading further.

I've been worrying a lot about this project's effects on my health lately. I started it because baking was one of the few things that brought me genuine joy, and I knew I needed to develop a better relationship with food. However, I've realized that when I have access to readily prepared food, it's not that I have trouble eating it - quite the opposite. I usually snack on things periodically and end up consuming a lot more than I should, then feel extremely guilty about it and vow to cut down on my food intake the next day, and then repeat the cycle over again. I've struggled with both undereating and binge-eating in the past - sometimes it would alternate every few weeks. During my lowest point, from around November to February, I got into the habit of throwing up what I ate if I felt like it was too much. It's been about a month, more or less, since I last did that, but on Wednesday, as I kept taking one ice cream sandwich after another out of the freezer, I thought about whether or not that would be a solution to dealing with all of this food I'm making.  Of course, I know it's not, but I can't help but feel like I'm setting myself up to fail by doing this and just feeding into these habits. It would probably be a lot healthier for me to just focus on making myself one solid dinner a day, and have that be it. At the same time, I've put so much effort into this project so far, and I'm confident that there's a way for it to be a healthy part of my life. Maybe I need to let go of the pressure I'm putting on myself to make as many things I can with the time I have and just focus on quality over quantity. For now, I'm going to keep going through with what I have planned, and after that, if I notice I've gained more weight than I should be, I'll reevaluate my approach to this whole thing.