Sweet, salty, nutty and dripping in vanilla ice cream and salted caramel. These salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches are an amped up version of a classic chipwich.
Let me paint the picture of these salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches for you. We’ve got a tahini chocolate chip cookie base sandwiching vanilla ice cream and a smooth tahini salted caramel. They’re nutty, sweet, salty and truly addictive.
If you’ve never had tahini (aka sesame paste) in a dessert before, your world is about to be rocked. The tahini tastes kind of like peanut butter in this recipe, but with a more complex, umami flavor.
As a lifelong lover of chipwiches (it was my go-to ice cream truck order, and frankly still is), I honestly love these salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches even more than the original. And I have a feeling you and your friends will, too.
Get ready for salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches.
Salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches
What is tahini?
Tahini — sometimes called tahina — is a paste made from ground up sesame seeds. It’s nutty, savory and smooth, and basically like peanut butter but for sesame. It’s traditionally used in Middle Eastern cuisine, and you might know it best as an ingredient in hummus, baba ghanoush and shwarama sauce. It’s also used in sweet dishes like halva.
It’s definitley gaining steam outside of traditional dishes — you may have seen tahini salad dressing or tahini making its way into the dessert scene.
So why would I put tahini in an ice cream sandwich? Is it good?
Oh heck yeah it’s good. In salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches, the tahini tastes kind of like peanut butter, but a bit more complex and umami. We use tahini in two places in this recipe: first as a replacement for some of the butter in the cookie dough, and second in a tahini salted caramel that really puts these sandwiches over the top.
The nutty flavor of tahini paired with chocolate, salted caramel and vanilla ice cream is truly a dream combination.
Ingredients
- All purpose flour
- Almond flour (this helps make the bars more tender, but you can sub for all purpose flour if you need)
- Baking soda
- Baking powder
- Coarse salt
- Unsalted butter
- Tahini (hulled or hunhulled, raw or roasted is all fine)
- Granulated sugar
- Brown sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Mini and regular size chocolate chips (I recommend a mix of the two, since it’s easier to eat a frozen mini chocolate chip than a large one)
- Vanilla ice cream
- REAL maple syrup (this is an important ingredient for the tahini salted caramel — make sure to use real maple syrup or the caramel won’t set up the same way)
Tips for the best salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches
- Plan ahead. These cookie ice cream sandwiches require a few different chill times between the cookie dough and setting up the sandwiches. As a rule of thumb, you should start making the recipe the morning of the day before you want to eat them to give enough buffer for chill time. But you can also make the cookie ice cream sandwiches ahead of time and store in the freezer.
- Make sure to stir your tahini before using it. Tahini often separates in its container. Giving it a good stir will ensure you’re getting full tahini and not just oil.
- Sprinkle some extra mini chocolate chips on top of the dough before baking it. This really helps the chocolate chips pop visually in the sandwich.
- Underbake the cookies slightly. This is super important. Since we’re freezing these cookies, we want them to be soft so they’re easy to slice and chew.
- Assemble the ice cream sandwiches quickly so the ice cream doesn’t melt. Working with ice cream can be difficult and it’s best to work quickly before it melts. If the ice cream does get melty when you’re assembling or slicing the sandwiches, just stick them in the freezer and come back once the ice cream is set again. If you have a particularly warm kitchen, make sure to follow the tips in the “if you have a warm kitchen, read this” section.
If you have a warm kitchen, read this:
Assembling these salted tahini cookie ice cream sandwiches in a well air conditioned, cool kitchen, is pretty easy. But if you have a warm kitchen or no air conditioning, it is much more challenging. I’ve made these bars in both strong air conditioned homes and my poorly air-conditioned Brooklyn kichen in 90° weather, and the hotter it is the more challenging it is.
The number one rule when you’re assembling ice cream sandwiches in a warm kitchen is to keep everything you can as cold as possible.
These are my warm kitchen tips:
- If you do have air conditioning, make your life easier and crank it!
- Assemble the bars in a shaded part of your kitchen, rather than in hot direct sunlight.
- Freeze the cutting board you’re going to assemble on (unless it’s wood). Alternately, place an ice pack over you’re workspace 10 minutes before you’re ready to assemble.
- To assemble these bars, we basically turn two 8×8-inch cookies into one huge cookie ice cream sandwich, then cut it into 9 small sandwiches. If you have a warm kitchen, you will want to freeze the full sandwich again for a few hours or overnight before trying to cut it. If ice cream oozes out when you try to slice, don’t muscle through — just put it in the freezer and come back in a few hours.
Looking for other chocolate chip cookie recipes? Check out salted brown butter chocolate chip cookies, edible cookie dough for 2 and brown butter miso chocolate chip cookie bars.
If you make these salted tahini chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, be sure to tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such and please leave a rating and review below!
Salted Tahini Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
9
ice cream sandwiches40
minutes16
hoursDough adapted from Julia Moskin and Danielle Oron at The New York Times.
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
- For the Dough
3/4 cup + 2 TBS. (105 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (24 grams) almond flour (can sub all purpose if needed)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup tahini, at room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (107 grams) brown sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups chocolate chips (I recommend a mix of mini and large —- 3/4 cup mini, 1/2 cup large)
Optional: sea salt to top
2 cups (1 pint) vanilla ice cream
- For the Tahini Salted Caramel
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 TBS. (21 grams) unsalted butter
1/4 tsp. coarse salt
Directions
- In a medium sized bowl, stir together the flour, almond flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, tahini, granulated sugar and brown sugar. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, cream on medium speed for 3-5 minutes until fluffy and lighter in color, scraping down the bowl as you go.
- Mix in the egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- Switching to a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet until there are only a few streaks of flour left. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap so it doesn’t form a skin and refrigerate for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
- After the dough is chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F.
Line an 8×8-inch pan with parchment paper. You can grease it instead, but it’ll be more difficult to remove the tahini bars.
Press half the dough into the 8×8 pan and sprinkle some extra mini chocolate chips on top (this helps them really pop visually). - Bake for 16-20 minutes, until the edges are brown but the top is still a tad underdone (so they’ll be easier to cut when frozen). Let cool for 5-10 minutes, then remove from the pan and repeat with the second half of the dough.
*Note: if you didn’t use parchment paper, you can remove the bars by running a knife along the edge of the pan, putting a flat plate or thick cutting board on top of the pan, flipping it over, and then tapping the pan get get the bars loose. - Let the bars cool until they’re close to room temperature, then wrap them and place in the fridge to cool completely (this may take a couple hours).
- While the bars cool, make the tahini salted caramel. Add all the ingredients except the salt in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir ocassionaly until the butter melts, then stir continuously until the caramel thickens slightly. The whole process should take 5-7 minutes.
Stir in the salt, and then remove from heat and pour into a separate bowl. Let cool to room temperature (it will continue to thicken as it cools). You can also put the caramel in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble the sandwiches and then take it out and let it reach room temperature. - Let’s assemble these sandwiches! If you don’t have AC in your home or you have a warm kitchen, please read the “a note on temperatures” section above.
To assemble, you’re going to take one of the 8×8-inch squares and place it top side down. Spread the room temperature tahini salted caramel over the 8×8-inch square, going all the way to the edges. Using a spoon or an ice cream scoop, space mounds of vanilla ice cream around the square. Using a spoon or your fingers, even them out into a layer of ice cream.
Gently press the other 8×8-inch square top side up on top of the ice cream, so you can see the beautiful chocolate chips. Sprinkle flaky sea salt on top if you’d like. Using a bread knife or a very sharp chef’s knife, cut the bars into 9 large squares. If you’d like, you can also press mini chocolate chips into the ice cream on the sides.
Eat immediately or store in the freezer. Enjoy!