I still remember the tune of the Ice Cream man back in my hometown of Des Moines Iowa. We’d tumble down the grassy hill from the pool or sprinkler once the do-da do-das hit our ears. Uncle Al made the treats on his farm, with the milk of his cows and the help of his wife Sue. This isn’t one of his recipes, but I still think of him each time I make them. His deep hearty chuckle, white moustache, round belly, and disgusting yellow teeth. He knew all of us by name, and would save our favorites if he was running low.

Neither of us are all that big on sweets. I’ll never turn down a choco-taco, but 90% of the time my cravings revolve around vinegar. We were sort of stumped when it came to post-sandwich menu items.

We’d tossed around the idea of serving kitschy, 50s style sweets. You know — jello, dirt, etc. I liked the idea, but after thinking about who actually wants to eat jello, I realized the idea didn’t seem to resonate as anything more than a gimmick. For now, we decided to stick with our strong suit…sandwiches.

My brother made these earl grey tea cookies for christmas a few years back and they were a huge it. It also seemed like a good base to test out flavor pairing. I modified his recipe a bit to gain a better texture once frozen. We went store-bought on the raspberry jam (because of time constraints) and went a little spooky on the ice cream (in spite of time constraints)…

So we don’t actually own an ice cream maker. We were also preparing these for the first time while making a six course dinner. While I was content with buying a cheap ice cream maker, my other half insisted that I was missing the obvious solution — dry ice. I was a bit skeptical, but it was his birthday, so we went to an ice store a few minutes from our house that carried the stuff. While we waited, several of the staff members asked what we were using it for, why would we do that, and why weren’t we making it ‘the olde fashioned way’ (like “you know, with the ice and the salt, man that takes forever”). I felt their concern.

We followed the recipe to a pretty basic vanilla ice cream with a bit of lemon juice and zest. We added some xanthan for good measure to make sure it wouldn’t curdle. We poured the mixture into the kitchen aid with the paddle attachment, crushed the dry ice into powder, and slowly sifted it into the stirring mixture. Make sure to follow the proper safety instructions in handling the dry ice, and if you go overboard and freeze your cream mixture to the bottom of the bowl, just hit the outside of it with a torch briefly.

I’ll admit, my initial apprehension was unnecessary. The whole process was a lot faster than using an ice cream maker, fairly simple, and a really good party trick. The quick rate of freezing leads to smaller ice crystals which yields a smoother ice cream. Honestly one of the best ice creams I’ve ever had. The ice cream sandwiches as a whole seemed to maintain a good texture for atleast a week, as well.