Let’s just say I had my fair share of treats this last week. The most enjoyable of them all were these fantastic little ice cream sandwiches! They were inspired by a friend who recently opened a healthy snack and lifestyle boutique in South Orange County, The Hive & Co. They have GIGANTIC (think IT’s IT) dairy-free, gluten-free ice cream sammies in 4 flavors; Mint Chip, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip, and Double Chocolate.

Well, I couldn’t get them out of my mind… so I set out to find a good paleo cookie recipe and recreate this yummy summer treat for a dear friend’s birthday.

Danielle Walker, of Against All Grain fame, has a “REAL DEAL” chocolate chip cookie recipe that I settled on as the base of my sandwich experiment. I swapped and added a bit, but her recipe is fantastic without the changes.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/4 cup palm shortening
1/3 cup coconut palm sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
11/3 cups cashew meal (purchased at trader joes… or use regular ol’ almond flour)
2 tablespoons tapioca, potato, or arrowroot starch
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips*
1 pint coconut milk ice cream **

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a bowl or food processor beat shortening and sugar until well combined.
3. Add egg and vanilla.
4. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients (minus the chips).
5. Add dry to the wet mixture and mix until well combined.
6. Stir in chocolate chippys.
7. Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, place dough balls on parchment lined baking sheet. (about the size of a walnut)
8. Bake about 7 mins. You want them to be a little “underdone” so they are soft  to the tooth when coming out of the freezer.
9. Let the cookies cool and then place them in the freezer so they get cold. Take out your ice-cream to thaw a bit (dairy-free ice cream tends to freeze rock solid).
10. Using your cookie scoop, place 2 scoops of semi-melty ice cream on the cookie and smooth it out with the back of a spoon. Place another cookie on top and wrap quickly with parchment or wax paper. Place back in the freezer until ready to eat!

*I like using these because I have a pet peeve about large pieces of frozen dark chocolate. These chips are mini so you don’t have to break a tooth eating the sandwich straight out of the freezer AND you get to taste the chocolate instead of a chunk of frozen darkness.)

** I like Coconut Bliss, even though I’m not jazzed about the agave nectar. I’ve also discovered a new dairy-free brand called Steve’s. It looks legit (ingredient-wise) but I haven’t bought a pint yet (taking a break from the sugar-fest that was last week). So Delicious Coconut is ‘meh. Again, not a huge fan of all the gums and thickeners. I also experimented with the Almond milk one… didn’t taste good and had too much crappy stuff. You could also go hardcore and make your own ice cream. That would solve the problem of crappy ingredients. Speaking of DIY, this recipe looks AMAZING! It will be my next project.