Vegan coconut and oat cookie ice cream sandwiches
This recipe is only for the cookie portion of the sandwiches.
I paired the cookies with Connoisseur's Plant Based Mango Passionfruit ice cream (100% not sponsored, but it is 👌). I came up with this idea as there are oat cookie pieces throughout the ice cream. I also thought, what better flavour to go with those tropical fruits than coconut?
This is a super simple recipe that is based on the method for making ANZAC biscuits, which are basically just oat and coconut cookies that we eat here in Australia, as well as in New Zealand (ANZAC stands for 'Australian and New Zealand Army Corps').
Usually we would use golden syrup and butter, but to match the plant based nature of the ice cream I decided to make these cookies vegan.
I knew I wanted to use oil instead of a vegan butter or margarine or even coconut oil, since those are not ingredients I generally have lying around and may thus alienate non-vegans. I wanted to make it approachable to all.
Since you melt the butter when making ANZAC biscuits, I thought the ANZAC biscuit method would be a good place to start.
As such, you can substitute the oil for melted butter (vegan or dairy) or coconut oil (which I think would pair nicely in terms of flavour).
I prefer the flavour that maple syrups adds to the cookies, but you can use honey, golden syrup, or agave syrup if you prefer.
You could also use coconut sugar or any other similar kind of sugar (I haven't tried using sweeteners though) instead of brown or castor sugar if you'd prefer.
Adding water to the mixture allows you to easily shape the cookies, though it works perfectly fine water if you press the cookies into shape by using a cookie cutter as a mould.
If you like your cookies slightly more crumbly and crunchy, I'd suggest omitting the water and pressing the cookies into shape using the help of a cookie cutter and/ or baking them for longer.
For crisp, yet slightly chewier cookies, I'd suggest using the water (allows you to form the cookies without compressing them as much) and/ or baking them for a shorter time.
Cup measurements for dry ingredients are only rough. I would implore you to get yourself a scale. 1 cup of flour can be very different depending on who scoops that cup of flour.
Also side note, I just legitimately love this ice cream??? I like trying vegan ice creams because I'm just curious, and so far this one is the creamiest (imo), though of course I haven't tried that many. One person can only eat so much ice cream.
Recipe
Makes ~35 6cm round cookies
INGREDIENTS:
- 85g rolled oats (1c)
- 140g plain flour (1c + 1 1/2 tbsp)
- 60g desiccated coconut (1c)
- 80g castor sugar OR brown sugar (I did 40g each) (1/2c altogether)
- 1/2c light flavoured oil (105g)
- 1/2tsp baking soda
- 2tbsp maple syrup (33g)
- 2tbsp water
METHOD:
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 2 large baking trays.
2. Combine the oats, flour, coconut, and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Ensure there are no sugar or flour lumps.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the oil and maple syrup. Stir over a medium heat until you see it start to bubble. Turn off the heat and add in the baking soda. Stir. It will bubble up slightly.
4. Pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients mixture and stir to evenly combine. If the mixture looks a little dry, add in the water a tablespoon at a time, depending on the effect you'd like (see my notes above).
5. Roll and press the mixture into 20g balls (roughly 1 packed and heaped tbsp). Use the cookie cutter that you intend to use to cut out the ice cream rounds (if you plan on making them into sandwiches) to help you flatten them into circles if they are too crumbly. This also ensures your cookies are the same size as your ice cream.
Bake them for 10-13 minutes or until the cookies have been lightly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the pans until fully cooled and until they have hardened up.
To assemble
Note: ingredient amounts are vague because it depends on how thick you'd like them to be.
INGREDIENTS:
- Your desired amount of ice cream, softened for a few minutes at room temperature (approximately 225g for 5 sandwiches)
- your desired amount of cookies (10 cookies for 5 sandwiches)
METHOD:
1. Scoop out your desired amount of softened ice cream onto a baking pan and smooth out to create one even layer of ice cream. My layer was just under 2cm tall. Place it into the freezer for a few hours (depending on how much you softened it) or until it has firmed up again.
2. Use the cookie cutter that you used to help shape your cookies to cut out rounds of ice cream. Place back into the freezer if necessary. Otherwise, sandwich one round of ice cream between two cookies.
Repeat until you have your desired amount or have used up all your ice cream.
3. Place back into the freezer until you are ready to eat it.
That's it!
Best enjoyed after sitting at room temperature for a minute or so.