Chocolate & Salted Caramel Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients

Chocolate cake Cookies:

• 2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (60 g) regular cocoa powder (not Dutch process)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup (200 g) packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup (125 mL) neutral oil (I prefer sunflower)
• ½ cup (125 mL) buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup (125 mL) hot tap water

Assembly:

• Salted Caramel Ice Cream
• Chocolate Sprinkles (jimmies), optional, for decorating

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C) and line three baking trays with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, buttermilk, egg and vanilla together. Add this all at once to the batter along with the hot water (the water is not whisked into the other liquids so that it doesn’t curdle the buttermilk) and stir until smooth – the batter will be somewhat thick.
4. Use a ¾ -oz (22 mL) (#40) mechanical scoop to portion out the batter onto the trays for modestly sized cookies (or a #24 scoop for larger ones). To make the cookie shapes precise, level each scoop of batter by scraping the scoop on the edge of the mixing bowl and then drop the scoop straight down onto the tray, trying to avoid an angle. Leave plenty of space between the cookies, since they double in width. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until they lift easily from the baking tray.  Cool the cake cookies on the trays on cooling racks before assembling.
5. Sandwich large, round scoops of salted caramel ice cream between 2 cake cookies, pressing gently to push the ice cream to meet the edge of the cookies. Roll the ice cream edge into chocolate sprinkles if you wish, then serve, or freeze the sandwiches until ready to serve.