http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nutritious-ice-cream-sandwich.html
Nutritious Ice Cream Sandwich
I have always loved eating ice cream sandwiches, especially growing up as a child. For a recent cooking class on Healthy Desserts, I decided to replicate a healthy ice cream sandwich that would contribute nutrients and fiber to ones diet while avoiding the debilitating effects of white sugar and flour. The challenge was to create a cookie that was wheat and refined sugar free, with a cake like consistency and a low glycemic sweetener to balance out the sweetness of the ice cream.
Due to the high cost of some store bought cookies I opted instead to make them from scratch. After experimenting with a few alternative sweeteners and finding them unsatisfactory I settled on using a date sugar, made from dehydrated, ground dates, to provide a mild sweetness with an essence of brown sugar. For the base of the cookie I used spelt flour, a member of the wheat family, but without the sensitivities often caused by Triticum wheat. Spelt provides protein, fiber, magnesium, niacin and manganese in good quantity and with the addition of oats for extra fiber and antioxidant properties, plus a handful of omega-3 loaded walnuts, this cookie was fast becoming a nutritious dessert.
In consideration for my vegan students I chose a non-dairy ice cream made with coconut milk and sweetened with agave syrup for the sandwich filling. I also substituted coconut oil in place of the traditional butter. Coconut oil is a medium-chain saturated fatty acid that has antiviral, antimicrobial, and antifungal properties. It has also been reported to stimulate the metabolism and promote weight loss. It contains 28.5 grams of fat per half cup serving compared to 92 grams for butter.
When frozen together the cookies are the perfect frame for the ice cream. With the addition of carob or chocolate chips each bite provides a satisfying crunch, a good chew, with the texture of sweet cream. A delicious, nutritious summer dessert your whole family can enjoy.
Nutritious Ice Cream Sandwich
Makes 2 dozen cookies (12 sandwiches)
1 1/2 cups spelt flour
1 cup date sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
11/2 cups regular oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup hot water
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan carob or chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 pint coconut milk ice cream
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, and spray a cookie sheet with oil.
2. In a large bowl combine flour, date sugar and cinnamon.
3. In a medium size bowl combine oats and baking soda.
4. Add the hot water to the oats stirring well.
5. Add the oil and vanilla to oat mixture and stir to combine.
6. Pour the oat mixture into the flour mixture and stir well, then fold in the carob or chocolate chips and the chopped walnuts.
7. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet, and flatten with a fork.
8. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool before moving to a wire rack.
9. When cool place half the cookies upside down in two 9×13 casserole pans with lids.
10. Spoon ice cream onto each half and cover with another cookie. When done cover casserole with lid and place in the freezer for 24 hours. Remove sandwich as needed.
Delia Quigley is the Director of StillPoint Schoolhouse, where she teaches a holistic lifestyle designed to achieve optimal health and well being, based on her 28 years of study, experience and practice. She is the creator of the Body Rejuvenation Cleanse, Cooking the Basics videos and classes, and Broken Bodies Yoga. Delia’s credentials include holistic nutritional counselor, natural foods chef, yoga instructor, energy therapist and public speaker.
Quigley is the author of seven books on health and nutrition, including:The Body Rejuvenation Cleanse, The Complete Idiots Guide to Detoxing Your Body, The Everything SuperFoods Book, and Empowering Your Life With Meditation, available on Amazon.com. To view her website go to: www.deliaquigley.comÂÂ
related stories
-
(6 comments)
- deliaq
-
(6 comments)
Robyn
Melissa
Deepak
Eric
Dave
Dr. Brent
Isha
Susan
Delia
Michelle
Wendy
Megan
Hilary
Ann
Judi
Ronnie
Kelly
Lily
Terri
Betsy
Cait
Andrew
Jana
Annie B.
Veronica
14 comments
add your comment »I tried this! It was great! Good job with the ingredients!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
This looks wonderful but I had to pass on it because four of the ingredients are not available within a 10-mile drive
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
If you know a good gluten free cookie recipe, I'd use that one instead. If not, it would be worth your time researching & finding one because cookies are just worth it!
As for coconut ice cream, I love coconut in COCONUT ice cream, but NOT in chocolate or something else. Yes, it's a good combo, for me, still, but I'd like some freedom from it. I personally can't stand those coconut ice creams, though I wish them well. If you do like it, that also makes an awesome replacement for whipped cream, just get the can & whip.
Me, I like cashew. YUM! I found the recipe online. Take roughly chopped cashews, sprinkle in some date sugar, just cover with water overnight, then blend. The flavor, consistency; everything is awesome! The downside is that I can't get mine to blend out all the little nut chunks, nor have I tried it in a machine as an ice "cream", but I'm sure it'd be awesome. There's some cookbook that's devoted to it, Nice Cream? Vice Cream? Sorry, can't remember the title.
But if you don't want to avoid the soy, there's some awesome ones there for sure, & other types of "milk" (hemp, oat, rice, almond etc.), that I'm sure it'd be worth playing around with.
I was shocked at how amazing the date sugar was in my cashew whipped "cream", but other amazing sweeteners are agave nectar, xylotol, maple syrup, rice syrup etc. Bummer they're all more expensive! I love sucanat too, but it's worse than the others, still a tad costlier, but at least not as bad as r
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Nice recipe i do this at my home, thanx for sharing this sweet recipe with us..
Vitamins
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
The ice cream I use is made by Purely Decadent using coconut milk and sweetened with agave syrup. It comes in a variety of flavors and is truly delicious.
Gluten free store bought cookies can be substituted for the home made listed in the recipe. If using a crisp cookie make into ice cream sandwiches and freeze for a day or two. This softens the cookies so they won't crumble on the first bite.
I buy my ingredients in a local health food store, but the neighborhood A&P carries the Purely Decadent brand of ice cream.
Hope this helps.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Please tell me what the name of the ice cream you used was! I ahve been trying to configure a non dairy/non soy icream sweetened with stevia for a long time, and now I might actually be able to just go buy one!? Oh joy, oh bliss, please answer me, ASAP! Thank you, Tatiana :)
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I'm pretty sure you could use sorghum flour in place of the spelt.
It subs for wheat in many recipes.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
I love ice cream sandwiches the only thing I didn't like is when the ice cream got so soft it would come out when bit down on them but I really loved them. They some how really filled you up but you always seemed to have room for one more!!!
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
It would be nice if you'd tried it with a gluten-free flour. Maybe next time? Anyway, my son would not eat these because he can't stand coconut.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Sounds incredible, but I wonder about the availability of all the ingredients. I do a lot of vegan cooking, but I've never had a recipe with spelt flour or date sugar. I don't have a decent health-food store nearby - I wonder if Whole Foods (or even Wegman's) carries those.
send green star | flag as inappropriate
why is this inappropriate?
Facebook account: