When Elizabeth from Twin Cities Live went to visit The Chew she showed the chefs some of Minnesota’s foods and they told her what they would make with the food products.  Elizabeth showed Mario Batali dried cranberries and he suggested using them as a topping for ice cream.   I kept true to Batali’s idea to incorporate ice cream but instead opted for making cookies with the cranberries and then making ice cream cookie sandwiches.  A perfect dessert for the summer!    

We’ve had some great weather lately here in Minnesota.  It has cooled off considerably from the week we had of 90s!  So before this “cool” front ends, use this time to bake and stock your freezer full of yummy ice cream sandwiches so when the 80s come back, (they are supposed to this week) you’ll be ready!

Click here to watch the May 18, 2012 Twin Cities Live segment when I made this recipe: http://twincitieslive.com/article/stories/s2623932.shtml?cat=10931

Double Chocolate Cherry Cranberry Ice Cream Sandwiches 

Ingredients:

2 sticks Butter (unsalted)

¾ cup Brown Sugar

½ cup White Sugar

½ cup Ghirardelli Ground Chocolate

2 eggs (room temperature)

2 ½ cups Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

5 ounce bag dried Cranberries (Cherry flavor)

10 ounce bag Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips

Breyers Cherry Vanilla Ice Cream

Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream butter, brown sugar, white sugar and ground chocolate.  Add eggs one at a time.

Blend flour, baking soda and salt.  Add to mixture and stir to combine.  Once mixed, add cranberries and chocolate chips.

Place spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets and flatten.  Bake for 8 minutes.

Makes 60 cookies.

For ice cream sandwiches:

Once cookies have cooled, place 2 spoonfuls of ice cream between cookies and gently press so ice cream is visible on sides.  Roll sides of ice cream in mini chocolate chips.

Store ice cream cookie sandwiches in freezer or serve immediately.

Makes 30 ice cream sandwiches (2 cookies needed for each sandwich).