Ice cream sandwiches for my Valentine

The best thing about ice cream sandwiches are that they bring out the kid in all of us. I remember, growing up in Ceres, on Sunday afternoons the ice cream bicycle would always come past. My favourite ice creams where the chocolate milk ones and the ice cream sandwiches with the wafer biscuits.

Usually, I make desserts based on what the kids will love, but this one is for hubster. Yip, a little different and maybe not entirely the kids' cup of tea, but delicious nonetheless.

Ice Cream Sandwiches with Lemon Thyme Biscuits and Lemon Balm Ice Cream
(makes 10 biscuits)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 (160ml) cup good quality olive oil
• 1 cup (250 ml) sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 T (30ml) lemon or lime zest
• 2 t (10ml) vanilla essence
• 2 T (30ml) lemon juice
• 2 1/4 cup (560ml) flour
• 1/2 t (2ml) baking soda
• 1 t (10ml) baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 T (15ml) fresh thyme
• Sugar crystals

For the ice cream:

• 2 litre shop bought vanilla ice cream ( I use Woolworths)
• 2 T (30ml) lemon zest
• 2 T (30 ml) lemon balm or even mint – chopped

Method

Thaw the ice cream in a mixing bowl, so that it is mixable, but not completely melted. Add the chopped lemon balm and lemon zest and mix well. Scoop the ice cream into a rectangular dish that is lined with clingwrap and even the ice cream out so that it is about 2cm to 3cm thick. Freeze until hard.

Preheat oven to 180 C. To bake the cookies. Add the olive oil, sugar, egg, vanilla, lemon or lime zest and juice to your mixing bowl and mix well. Add the dry ingredients and mix through, but do not over mix.

Use a teaspoon to make 16 cookie dough balls. Roll the balls in the crystallised sugar and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Leave enough space between the cookies, because they do spread a little. Use the back of a fork to flatten the cookie dough balls.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are a light sandy colour. Cool the cookies.

To make the ice cream sandwiches, use a cookie cutter the same size as the cookies to cut out discs from the ice cream. Sandwich the ice cream between two cookies and keep in the freezer until you want to serve. You can individually wrap them and tie up with a pretty bow.

So for this Valentine's Day, order your favourite love story movie and send the kids to bed. Just you hubster and the ice cream sandwiches. Who knows?

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