Vegan Neapolitan Ice Cream Sandwiches

Nothing says “after school treat” like a classic Neapolitan ice cream sandwich!

We’re updating this classic with a vegan twist and baking the cookie wafers from scratch. We went with classic Neapolitan, but the possibilities are truly endless. Here we used Must Love’s Choco Choco Chip, Strawberry, and Banilla. Pick your favorite ice cream flavor(s), and let’s go!

First create your ice cream layer in another pan or dish. We used mini loaf tins, but anything will work. Keep in mind that the ice cream layer should be relatively thin (1/2-inch thick approximately). Freeze until the layer is solid, about 6 hours.

Meanwhile, you can pull together the cookie dough. It’s a basic recipe of all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, salt, sugar, vanilla, and some key plant-based substitutes. We use a chia seed-based vegan egg (see recipe notes below), Earth Balance vegan butter, and a splash of non-dairy milk of your choice.

Wrap your dough baby and refrigerate for about 30 minutes until set.

Roll out the dough into a 8-inch by 12-inch rectangle. You will be cutting out the wafers – they are each 2-inches wide and 4-inches long. See image below for an example of how to cut these out. You’ll also need to poke holes in the wafers.

Once cookie wafers have been baked and completely cooled, take out the frozen ice cream layer. Cut ice cream to size to fit the wafers and sandwich it between two cookie wafers. Place assembled sandwiches in freezer to set.

You can wrap these individually in parchment paper and keep them in your freezer for your next snack attack.

Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yield 6 sandwiches

Ingredients

• Ice cream flavors of your choice
• 1 1/3 cup (7.75 oz) all-purpose flour
• ½ cup (1.75 oz) cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp. salt
• ½ cup (3.5 oz) sugar
• 10 Tbsp. (5 oz) butter, room temperature (we used Earth Balance)
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. egg replacer (see Recipe Notes)
• 1 Tbsp. non-dairy milk of your choice

Instructions

1. Let (n)ice cream sit out on countertop until softened enough to scoop easily, about 5-10 minutes.
2. In a small rectangular container, layer the flavors side by side 1/2 inch high. Place back into freezer until solid, 6 hours or overnight.
3. To make the sandwich bars begin preheating the oven to 350F.
4. Sift together the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and salt and set aside.
5. Cream together the sugar and butter. We used an electric mixer, but you can do it by hand with some elbow grease.
6. Add vanilla extract, egg replacer, and nondairy milk to sugar and butter mixture.
7. Add in dry mixture and mix until just combined.
8. Wrap dough with plastic wrap or parchment paper and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to set.
9. Once chilled, roll out dough into a 8- x 12-inch rectangle. On the long side cut dough into 2-inch sections, there should be 6 sections. On the short side, cut in half. Should now have 12 4- x 2-inch rectangles.
10. Using the tip of a thermometer or chopstick poke holes into the top of the cookie wafers.
11. Transfer to parchment paper lined sheet tray and bake 10-12 minutes rotating halfway through. Completely cool.
12. Take ice cream out of molds, cut ice cream to cookie wafer size if bigger than cookie. Sandwich the ice cream between the cookie wafers and place back into the freezer until solid.

Recipe Notes:

We used a chia-seed based egg replacer. 1 Tbsp. chia seeds with 3 Tbsp. water, blended together.