After learning to bake sourdough bread, it did not take me long to desire to incorporate my sourdough starter into every recipe that I could. I began to make chocolate chip cookies with my sourdough starter and they were simply incredible. We brought them to picnics, parties, and gatherings. It was second nature to wrap them up in some parchment and drop them off at friends porches on a hard day. I delighted in baking them by candlelight for a movie in. They became a staple.
A friend made the recipe and told me they were easily frozen. She said they were still chewy even out of the freezer! I never knew this, as they simply would not last that long in our household. The summer months arrived and the days stretched long and warm. Parks with long green grasses begged us for picnics, as did my belly for ice cream. And so, the Summer Sourdough Ice Cream Sandwiches were born.
Recipe Notes
I love baking with sourdough starter because I find it can be forgiving and creative, unlike traditional baking recipes. The following recipe will have variations depending on your starter hydration, humidity climate, oven, and size of your eggs. I recommend baking a couple batches to find your preferred cookie doneness.
You will want to bake the cookies and start checking at 6 minutes. Keep adding an additional 1 minute until you reach the desired doneness. For this recipe, I have found that 7 minutes is perfect for my starter and climate. It provides the perfectly soft dough like cookie with enough structure to add the ice cream once cooled. I used a 2- tablespoon scoop of dough and suggest 6-8 minutes at 350°F. A mere minute can be the difference between a softer, chewier, and flatter cookie to the fluffier, more cake-like cookie.
Keep in mind, the cookie will look too soft in the middle, but it will continue to bake and be cooked throughout after being out of the oven for a few minutes. Allow for the cookies to cool completely then put them in the freezer for a few hours on a flat baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Once chilled, store them in a zipped freezer-safe bag. Cookies will stay fresh for up to 3 months. See Recipe Instructions for adding ice cream!
Summer Sourdough Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches
Prep Time 10 minutes
Resting Time 15 minutes
Bake Time 6-8 minutes
Cooling Time: 20 minutes
Servings 8-10 based on cookie size
Wet Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons salted grass-fed butter, slightly softened • 1⁄2 cup granulated cane sugar
- 1⁄2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 large organic pasture egg, room temperature
- 1 cup sourdough starter (see Starter Tip)
- 1 heaping tsp of vanilla bean paste OR 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon redmond real salt (unrefined mineral salt) • 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1⁄2 cups large 60% dark chocolate chips
Other
- Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
- Optional For topping: maldon sea salt flakes
Ingredient Notes
Grass-fed, organic, unbleached...I believe the quality of the ingredients in a simple recipe makes all the difference. Use what you have on hand and substitute as needed!
Starter Tip
I like to make a levain in the morning by taking 50g of starter + 125g of water + 125g unbleached flour. Since my starter is quite active and strong, I let this double and it is typically ready for me to begin to make a sourdough loaf around 1pm. I use 125g of the doubled levain for my loaf and allow the remaining to sit on the counter at room temperature until I am ready to make my cookie dough. This is typically around 4pm which allows time to have warm cookies or ice cream sandwiches after dinner. I find the starter discard is the perfect consistency for use in the cookie recipe by giving it around 2-3 hours after its at it’s peak rise. This timing will vary dependent on your starter and feeding rhythms. You can use unfed starter in this recipe as well. If using peak rise levain note that you will want to use a lower cook time, around 6 minutes, for a softer chewier cookie. Embrace the beauty of sourdough here and allow the variation to be fun and encourage some experimentation to find your own recipe notes for the perfect batch.
Recipe Instructions
- Prep your ingredients by placing levain, egg, and butter on the counter for an hour. Egg will come to room temperature and butter will be slightly softened.
- Combine the softened butter and sugars by hand in a large bowl.
-
Add the egg to the mixture and stir until it is well mixed and smooth but not over-
mixed. - Fold in the sourdough starter and vanilla bean paste.
-
Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a separate bowl. Fold in dry mix to
the wet ingredients 1 cup at a time. Fold by hand with a rubber or wooden
spatula being careful to not over-mix. - Add the chocolate chips and gently stir to evenly distribute chips.
-
Cover and let the dough refrigerate for 15 minutes. Dough can be refrigerated
overnight to bake the following day. -
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F and let the refrigerated cookies come to room
temperature. -
Drop 2 tbsp spoonfuls of dough onto a silicone baking mat or parchment-lined
baking sheet. It is helpful to use an ice cream scoop for evenly sized cookies. - Set timer for 6 minutes. At 6 minutes, begin checking cookie doneness, adding a minute to the bake time until cookie is baked to your preference. See Recipe Notes for bake time recommendations.
- Allow cookies to sit for a few minutes out of the oven before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Once cool enough, let cool on cooling rack for 20 minutes.
-
Optional: sprinkle a few maldon sea salt flakes to the cookies if saltiness is
preferred. -
Assemble ice cream sandwiches using an ice cream scoop to place
approximately 3 tbsp of ice cream onto cookies. Sandwich cookies together with
palms of your hands and then place on a parchment lined baking sheet. -
Repeat the process and then place baking sheet of ice cream sandwiches in
freezer to chill. -
Once chilled, store them in a zipped freezer-safe bag. Ice cream sandwiches will
stay fresh for up to 3 months. - Enjoy!
