Lemon Rosewater Ice Cream Sandwiches

I love the idea of ice cream sandwiches.  Every time I’ve tried to make them at home, though, they are way too hard to eat.  It turns out that homemade cookies, when they’re frozen solid, are really hard to bite through.  So, when recently I had a hankering for ice cream, I started thinking about other things I could use besides cookies.  And then it hit me:  Why not try waffles?  I mean, everyone loves a waffle cone, right?

Sweet Lemon Poppy Seed Waffles

• 2 cups almond milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• zest from one lemon
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract (or zest from another lemon)
• 3 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1.  Preheat your waffle iron.  If it has variable heat settings, set it to medium-low.

2.  In a large mixing bowl, combine the milk, lemon juice and zest, lemon extract, oil, and agave nectar.  Whisk until well-combined (this might take a minute, since agave is pretty thick).

3.  Sift in all the other ingredients and stir until well mixed.  Cook waffles according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Set aside to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate for at least an hour.  Cut waffles into manageable pieces before filling.

At this point, you can either make ice cream from scratch or use store-bought ice cream.  Either way, make sure your ice cream is slightly softened before filling sandwiches.  I used a pastry bag to pipe the ice cream onto one waffle piece, and then gently placed the other waffle on top.  This is probably more trouble than it’s worth, and a knife or spatula would work just fine.

If you want to make homemade dairy-free ice cream, use the recipe below.  If you are planning on using store-bought ice cream, fold some rose water into softened vanilla ice cream before spreading on the waffles.  Or just pick a flavor of ice cream or sorbet that would go well with lemon waffles (raspberry, strawberry, lime, etc.).

Dairy Free Rosewater Ice Cream

• 1 can of full-fat coconut milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 6 ounces silken tofu (see recipe notes)
• 1 tablespoon rosewater (see recipe notes)

1.  Puree all the ingredients in a food processor or blender until very, very smooth.

2.  Refrigerate mixture for at least an hour, then pour into an ice cream maker.  Follow manufacturer’s instructions to freeze your ice cream.  Place the ice cream in the freezer for about 45 minutes to firm up slightly before filling sandwiches.

It turns out that waffles are much softer when frozen than cookies are.  So these sandwiches are way easier to eat.  And I know that this recipe may seem like a lot of work, but you can spread it out over a couple of days to make it more manageable.  Ultimately, the reward for your trouble is so worth it!  So go cool off with some ice cream sandwiches, and you can thank me later.

Some notes on this recipe

• The waffle recipe is not overly sweet.  I personally prefer the ice cream to be very sweet and the waffles to be less sweet.  If that’s not how you roll, you can add a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the batter to sweeten it up.  Taste the batter to see if it’s sweet enough.
• I only tried this recipe with standard, non-Belgian waffles.  I’m not sure it would be great with Belgian waffles, but it’s certainly worth a try.  If you do decide to try it, let me know what you thought!
• Silken Tofu can be found in the produce section of most grocery stores.  I prefer to use the shelf-stable aseptic packed tofu for this recipe (look for Mori-Nu brand at the health food store), but any silken tofu will work here.
• Rosewater can be found in several places.  If you are lucky enough to live near a Mediterranean market, you can find it there.  If not, it can be found at some Asian markets and well-stocked health food stores.  Try looking in the health and beauty section.

If you make this recipe, I’d love to know how it turned out for you!  And if you have any questions, I’d love to answer them.  You can leave a comment on this blog post, email me at info@papertuesday.com, or find me on facebook or twitter.