Frozen Yogurt Cookie Sandwiches with Brown Butter Streusel Cookies

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There are a few things I am kinda mad I missed out on eating as a kid. It's not that I was deprived - we just do food differently in New Zealand. And Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches are one of them. The only type we ever had was slabs of vanilla ice cream sandwiched with these bright pink wafers. They simultaneously gave you brain freeze and caused you to choke on wafer crumbs at the same time. So my little mind was blown the first time I tried a proper cookie sandwich at a food market when I first moved to NYC. When I got an ice cream maker last year I knew that cookie sandwiches were going to be fairly high on the list of things to make, and they quickly became my favourite thing to take for a dessert if I'm going somewhere for dinner - you can make the cookies ahead of time, and then either make ice cream or pick some up on the way. They are super easy to put together, and always a huge crowd pleaser. 

One thing I wasn't able to nail with my ice cream maker though, was frozen yogurt (Or frozen yoghurt, we spell it differently in NZ!). I always had issues with it being too icy, or having a weird texture once it was frozen. This year I decided I wasn't going to let it get the better of me, and set out to nail the perfect frozen yogurt cookie sandwich. And I had the best base to start with - Brown Cow Yogurt. Brown Cow Yogurt is delicious and creamy, with this dreamy layer of cream on the surface of the yogurt. It comes in loads of different flavours, and it's creamy texture makes it perfect for the smoothest, tangiest, creamiest frozen yogurt. 

I did a load of research before I started recipe testing, and found a few things that can be done to avoid the dreaded ice, which can ruin the texture of your frozen yogurt. The main one was to strain the yogurt before using, to remove any excess water. I wanted to avoid that step if possible, as I found it made the process more labour intensive and time consuming than it needed to be. After a few tests, I was able to find a workaround which eliminated the straining, while still giving you a creamy end product. I ramped up the fat content of my mixture slightly by adding some mascarpone and a tiny bit of heavy cream. These helped reduce the likelihood of ice forming, but didn't mask the yogurt flavour, and still left a light mouth feel. The addition of sugar and an invert sugar also helped with the final texture. I used golden syrup to help compliment the taste of the cookies, but light corn syrup, honey, or glucose would work well here too. I think that's enough science for now - I promise I did all the testing, so you don't have to! Six batches of frozen yogurt later, and I managed to find a winning ingredient combination. I'm obsessed, and I think you will be too. 

Once I had a base recipe nailed, I experimented with flavouring the yogurt. Brown Cow has some super delicious flavours, which work perfectly for incorporating some flavour into your froyo. I ended up going a little overboard in the best way possible, and ended up making blueberry, raspberry, coffee and vanilla batches to go with my cookies - all each as delicious as each other.

Another thing that is so perfect about this frozen yogurt is that, unlike ice cream, it doesn't require making a custard base. I think that the work involved making an ice cream base is what puts lots of people off. Because there is no straining or cooking involved with this recipe, all you have to do is choose your flavour of yogurt, whisk all the ingredients together, rest the mixture in the fridge for an hour or so, then churn in your pre-frozen ice cream maker, spread into your container of choice, and after a second freeze, it will be perfect for scooping, or for making the best frozen yogurt cookie sandwiches ever. 

Seeing as I had four different flavours of fro-yo in my freezer, I decided to keep things simple-but-a-little-fancy with the cookie. I went with a coffee cake inspired cookie - a brown sugar cookie, loaded up with brown butter streusel, which Kate and I made last year, and is quite possibly one of my favourite things ever. The balls of cookie dough are rolled in the streusel before baking, then given another generous sprinkling just as they are finished baking to ensure maximum cookie to streusel ratio. They are perfect on their own, but become something special when used to sandwich a disc of creamy frozen yogurt. I think I am going to have to keep a stash of these in my freezer for sneaky treats on hot days, all summer. 

A few wee tips:

• I ended up making four batches of frozen yogurt - the vanilla was made with Brown Cow plain whole milk yogurt, whilst the coffee, blueberry and raspberry flavours were made using several of the smaller flavoured containers of yogurt. I still can't decide which flavour is my favorite!
• I added a little freeze dried fruit powder in the raspberry and blueberry flavours, and a little espresso powder in the coffee, just to help enhance colour. It is totally an optional step!
• I included ingredients for all four flavours (the method for each is essentially the same), but you only need one quantity of frozen yogurt for this recipe.
• Note that I made a double batch of cookies so I could show off all of the flavours - the final recipe makes about 10 large ice cream sandwiches.
• Feel free to scale these down, as they are fairly large. Just adjust the size of your cookies, bearing in mind they may need a little less baking time, then cut smaller discs of yogurt using a smaller cookie cutter.
• A cookie scoop will be your friend here! I used a 2 Tbsp one.
• I prefer to cut discs of yogurt because it can be a little tricky to scoop. If you would like the discs to be thinner, freeze the yogurt in a larger tray. If you would like to scoop the yogurt rather than the discs, freeze it in a loaf pan.
• Don't forget to freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker!

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