Picture this: a vanilla chocolate chip ice cream sandwich half covered in chocolate almonds on one end and delicious cookies on the other.

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

If you have spent summers in Spain, you may have had one or two Maxibons – and if you haven’t tried them, this is your sign to do it. Maxibons are one of my favourite ice creams and I am genuinely annoyed I am unable to get them in the UK, so I just had to give them a go at home.

The concept is simple, a vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips sandwiched between 2 plain cookies on one end and coated with chocolate almonds on the other one. They are really easy to make, don’t take a lot of time, and are genuinely one of my favourite things.

So, what do you need?

Ice creams needs to be simple, and that is what we’re going for here. All you’ll need is:

• Rectangular biscuits – I used plain butter biscuits from the supermarket, if you are in the UK, malted milk biscuits are perfect for this
• Double cream
• Chocolate chips or chunks
• Condensed milk
• Milk
• Vanilla extract
• Almonds

A few tips for success

• Make sure all your ingredients are cold – this is key for a creamy ice cream
• Soak your cookies in the milk quickly – you don’t want your cookies to break, so just soak them quickly on each side now allowing them to go soft
• When dipping in the chocolate, keep the ones you’re not dipping in the freezer – that way they won’t melt or break when you dip them in the chocolate

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 20 rectangular biscuits – I used malted milk, but any plain butter biscuit will do
• 30 ml of whole milk
• 500 ml of double cream
• 120 ml of condensed milk
• 1 tsp of vanilla extract
• 100 gr of dark chocolate chips or chunks + 150 gr to dip the ice creams
• 20 gr of almonds – you can add more if you like

Method

1. In a bowl, beat together the double cream, condensed milk and vanilla extract until stiff peaks – this means stiff little mountains will appear when you lift your mixer.
2. Fold in the 100 gr of dark chocolate chips or chunks until combined. Set aside.
3. Line a 30 cm x 25 cm baking tray with baking paper and pour your whole milk in a wide bowl and dip both sides of each biscuit quickly making sure the biscuit doesn’t go soft or breaks.
4. Form two rows of 5 biscuits placing each biscuit along the long sides of the baking tray forming 2 parallel lines, you will end up with 5 biscuits on each side and a gap in the middle between each row.
5. Add the ice cream mix and smooth it out with a spatula. If you move your tray to ease this process, make sure you know where your biscuits are so the next step is correct.
6. Place the remaining biscuits on top of the ice cream mix, the biscuits need to be in the same position as the ones at the bottom of the tray so the ice cream is sandwiched in between both.
7. Place the ice cream in the freezer for at least 6 hours, preferably over night.
8. Once ready, prepare the chocolate mix by melting the chocolate and allowing it to come to room temperature, chop the almonds with a knife into small pieces and mix them into the chocolate.
9. Take them out of the freezer and let them rest for 5 – 10 minutes. Then, make a cut in the middle of the ice cream mix and then in between each ice cream, so you’ll end up with 10 individual sandwiches.
10. Dip each sandwich in the chocolate mix and place in the freezer to set. If it’s warm, I would advise keeping all the sandwiches in the freezer, taking them out to dip them and placing in the freezer again.