When I was growing up, hamantaschen meant two things–a dry, tough, pretty-much-flavorless cookie, filled with apricot, prune or poppy seed filling.
And that was that.
But now we all know that the sky’s the limit when it comes to riffing on this classic Purim dessert.
There’s cannoli hamantaschen, speculoos hamantaschen,rocky road hamantaschen. And even a sushi version!
So I thought it might be fun to really push the envelope on the traditional and make hamantaschen ice cream sandwiches. True, their only connection to the original is the triangular shape. But are you really going to argue with a crumbly brown butter cookie, vanilla bean ice cream and chocolate ganache? I didn’t think so!
Ingredients
8 Tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
2 egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
¼ tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
2 cups vanilla ice cream
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 13 x 9 x 2 pan and line with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook, swirling, till it’s golden brown and smells nutty. Remove from heat and add the brown sugar and corn syrup, whisking to blend. Whisk in the yolks and vanilla. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and stir till blended.
Transfer dough to your prepared pan and–using damp fingers or an angled spatula–press evenly. Bake for 16 – 18 minutes, till golden brown. Cool cookie completely in pan.
Use the parchment paper to lift the cookie out of the pan and transfer to a cutting board. Line the empty pan with plastic wrap in both directions, leaving an overhang on all sides. Cut the cookie in half crosswise and place one half back in the pan as shown.
Remove ice cream from freezer and when softened, spread evenly on the cookie in the pan. Top with the other cookie, press gently, and wrap with the plastic wrap. Freeze overnight.
Transfer the sandwich to a cutting board and cut into 12 squares. Cut the squares in half to make 24 triangles. Return to freezer.
Place the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Heat the cream in a saucepan over medium heat till small bubbles form. Immediately pour over the chocolate chips and let sit – without stirring – for 5 minutes.
Whisk till smooth and let cool till thick enough to pipe (pop in the fridge if you need to speed up the process). Transfer ganache to a pastry or ziploc bag and snip an opening in one corner. Pipe triangles atop each cookie. Keep sandwiches in an airtight container in the freezer till ready to serve.
