Remember the paper-wrapped ice cream sandwiches of your childhood? They accompanied every field day or ice cream party at school, letting them melt a bit before ripping off the wrapper in strategic strips. You wanted the ice cream to be just melty enough, the cookie to be just soft enough, all held together with the zigzag-edge paper. I equate ice cream sandwiches with the best part of summer: the leisure, the indulgences, the sticky weather forcing you to reach for the ice cream over and over and over. But since I’ve outgrown those elastic waist gym shorts of my youth, I decided it was time I outgrew the ice cream sandwiches that went along with them!
These healthy vegan ice cream sandwiches are the byproduct of a mad scientist moment, piecing together inspiration from recipe after recipe, pushing how delicious it could possibly sound to me. It went something like this… Healthy vegan ice cream sandwiches? Yas. On it. Doing it rn. Wait, healthy vegan ice cream sandwiches…. with chocolate chip ice cream? Ohhhh girl, you stop, you stop right now. No, don’t stop, make that shit right away. SHOULD I DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE WAIT WHY AM I ASKING OF COURSE I SHOULD DIP IT IN CHOCOLATE MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
…or so an internal text message conversation would have gone. With myself, of course. With myself. But the insanity? Worth it. These treats come together quickly using a food processor, relying on almost entirely healthy ingredients: dates, cacao or cocoa powder, bananas, almond flour, coconut oil, and a few others. What’s that you say? Health food? I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Truly, though, I’ve been noshing on these little chocolate-dipped cubes of deliciousness for over a week now, and I can’t get over how the chocolate chip banana nice cream melts perfectly, just like the kitschy snack we craved as kids. The chocolate cookie is chewy but tender, and the chocolate shell is crunchy but so rich. In short? They’re kind of perfect for warm weather, especially if you’re trying to rev up your summer bliss: indulging in things that make you feel good, not just things that taste good. They’re versatile, too: fill them with pretty much any nice cream recipe you’ve got, and you’re set! You could also dip the entire damn thing in chocolate, with little-to-no judgment from me. Or dip none of it in chocolate, with a lot of judgment from me. Hey… if someone sanctions chocolate-dipping, you always dip. You heard me?! OK, now run along and make these. To make these healthy vegan ice cream sandwiches, I used…
