Dirty Chai Ice Cream & Brown Butter Spiced Cookie Sandwich

Summer isn’t over just yet! There’s still plenty of time for sunshine and ice cream, and these DELECTABLE dirty chai ice cream sandos with the softest, spiciest cookies are no exception. We promise you’ll want to continue making these well into autumn.

Dirty Chai Ice Cream & Brown Butter Spiced Cookie Sandwiches

Yields 6 cookie sandwiches (or 1 quart ice cream and 1 dozen cookies)

FOR THE COOKIES

½ cup butter, melted, browned and cooled

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup all purpose flour

2 Tablespoons ground ginger

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground clove 

⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

FOR THE ICE CREAM

¾ cup whole coffee beans

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup Tanglewood Ginger Spiced Chai

1 ¼ cups granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

7 egg yolks

2 Tablespoons ground coffee

Cook’s Note: To prepare the ice cream you'll need to freeze the drum of your ice cream maker sufficiently. If the drum isn’t frozen enough, the custard base will not churn. I place my ice cream drum about 3-5 days beforehand in the freezer and ensure that the temperature is low enough. 

In a small saucepan, heat the cream, chai, coffee beans, sugar, and salt. Once simmering, remove from the heat. In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks and ladle a cup of the heated chai cream mixture into the eggs, whisking vigorously to avoid curdling. Now slowly add in that tempered mix into the heated chai cream and adjust the heat to medium. Whisk constantly to cook. Once the cream and egg mixture have thickened slightly, do the spoon test, by running your finger along the back of the spoon that was dipped in the cream. If the mixture is no longer runny, it’s done. Turn off the heat completely and transfer the cream into a large bowl. Allow the chai coffee cream to cool to room temperature for about an hour. 

Once cooled, strain the coffee beans and discard. Stir in the ground coffee. Reserve the chai coffee cream and cover tightly with plastic and refrigerate overnight. 

The following day, churn the mix according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Cover and freeze.

To prepare the cookies, preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. Now with a hand mixer or electric mixer with a paddle attachment, mix the browned butter and sugar. Add the vanilla and egg. Next, add in all the dry ingredients until combined. 

Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to completely cool before proceeding to the next step. If the cookies are even a bit warm, you’re sure to have a literal mess in your hands!

To assemble, scoop a generous amount of ice cream onto the backs of 6 cookies. Sandwich the cookies and place all on a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and into the freezer for at least 3 hours to fully set.