As I wrap up my last day of vacation with my family, I am feeling grateful and happy and relaxed. It is so rare that Pete and I get to spend this kind of time with our kids and together.
Also- I am tired. Sun Valley is really active, and let’s just say I haven’t been in a really long time!
Swimming, biking, river rafting, ice skating (ha!) and lots and lots of walking.
Also- if you count eating large meals and consuming lots of wine as “active”- I have done that too.
In celebration of my last day of vacation, I am posting a rather celebratory recipe. At least it involves Chocolate and ice cream and more chocolate which seems celebratory enough to me.
Pia loved these. Chewy Chocolate Brownies. Slathered in a thick layer of Cookie Dough and then drowned in chocolate ganache. Rich enough for you?
Other Brownie recipe variations that you could use for the base: Espresso Brownies, Chocolate Peanut Brownies, Fudgy Brownies (or if you are in a rush- just use box brownies!)
This is how you make them:
Coat an 8×8 pan with two sheets of heavy duty foil that have an overlap of 2 to 4 inches on all four sides. ***It has been brought to my attention that using a larger pan (9×9) may help, as depending on the brownie recipe you use and how much they puff up, there may not be enough depth for the ganache on top.
Make half the recipe for “Brownies” (or inversely, double the ice cream and ganache for a larger recipe). Bake and cool.
Meanwhile, bring the cream to a simmer. Remove the cream from the heat and add the chocolate pieces. Let sit for 5 minutes.
Whisk the chocolate until smooth and shiny. Set aside.
Empty the softened ice cream to the top of the brownies. Try to spread it around with an offset spatula the best you can and place the Brownies and the ice cream in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Spread the ganache over the top of the ice cream and immediately place back in the freezer for 1 hour.
Pull the brownies out by the tin foil overlaps and transfer to a cutting board and trim the edges and slice the brownies into rectangles. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe: Cookie Dough Ice Cream Brownies
Ingredients
- -1/2 a recipe of “Brownies” (I had to cut it in half to fit an 8×8 pan)
- -1 Quart of Cookie Dough Ice Cream, softened
- -2 cups heavy cream
- -12 ounces semi sweet chocolate, chopped
Instructions
- 1. Coat an 8×8 pan with two sheets of heavy duty foil that have an overlap of 2 to 4 inches on all four sides.
- 2. Make half the recipe for “Brownies” (or inversely, double the ice cream and ganache for a larger recipe). Bake and cool.
- 3. Meanwhile, bring the cream to a simmer. Remove the cream from the heat and add the chocolate pieces. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- 4. Whisk the chocolate until smooth and shiny. Set aside.
- 5. Empty the softened ice cream to the top of the brownies. Try to spread it around with an offset spatula the best you can.
- 6. Place the Brownies and the ice cream in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- 7. Spread the ganache over the top of the ice cream and immediately place back in the freezer for 1 hour.
- 8. Pull the brownies out by the tin foil overlaps and transfer to a cutting board.
- 9. Trim the edges and slice the brownies into rectangles. Serve and enjoy!
- 10. I stored the extras in Tupperware in the freezer for a cold, chewy chocolate treat.
Preparation time: 5 minute(s)
Cooking time: 2 hour(s)
Number of servings (yield): 12
Print Recipe
That is a serious treat, Heather! The girls must be singing your praises!
you stop this right now.
OMG.
Lol! I can’t.
oh my goodness. these are going to happen.
If I gave this to my kids they’d bounce off the walls after so much chocolate! Well done you for going all out x
This is pure genius! Love it!
Oh Heather, this ice cream treat looks amazing!! So happy to hear how much FUN you all had as a family 🙂 xo
I’m with Pia! I would definitely LOVE these.
omg, heather! these would put me into a happy coma!
here is a True Story that happened to our family when we were in Sun Valley skiing one year. It was my son’s 11th birthday and we were eating breakfast at the Kneadery and Sylvester Stallone and Shakel o’Neal (sp) were eating there with their families. The waitress brought my son his pancakes with a candle on them. Those guys sang Happy Birthday to him! He is now 20 years old, but we have never forgotten it.
That is so awesome. I have had many serious star sightings there- it is always so fun!
If I can find a quality ready-made brownie, I will make this soon. it is way too hot to bake, but this sounds right up my alley.
Oh, I know Esi- yuck. Do you have Ghiradelli in Chicago? Those boxed brownies are not bad.
Hi, I am in the middle of making these brownies. I have two 8×8 pans filled with a quart of ice cream each (one with cookies and cream and the other with cookie dough). My problem and question to you is there is no room for the ganache in these 8×8 pans. Two cups of cream and a bag of chocolate chips makes a very large amount of ganache. How do you suggest pouring the ganache into these pans? I am in a pickle! 🙂 I am a huge baker and follow numerous blogs and just found yours yesterday. Very excited about it! Please help!
It just means that the brownies puffed way up. I’m so sorry. I think that the colder everything is, the better. Maybe you can pull the edges of the foil up around the edges to support the ganache? I did not have this happen- but appreciate the feedback. Perhaps people would be better off with a 9×9 pan in order to get a thinner layer of everything. Please let me know how these worked out- sorry for the too big brownies! (which recipe did you you use?)
I actually split my 8×8 amount of brownie batter in half (as you suggested) and placed into two different 8×8 pans. They didn’t puff up a lot at all. I think that the ice cream quart amount should have been lessened for the height of the pan to accommodate the ganache. I also think that I should have built up the walls with aluminum foil – like you said. With all that said, they are a huge hit! They taste like little ice cream brownie sundaes!!! Love them!
Thank you for all of the input Lorna- I totally appreciate it 🙂
Yum! What a great way to combine some all time summer favorites!
I am in the middle of making these, and I was wondering, why the brownies and icecream are in the freezer for 20 minutes, do you leave the ganache on low or do you just let it sit in room tempature
Sit at room temperature!! Sorry I saw this so late today- hope they turned out great!!
Cookie dough, ice cream and brownies all rolled into one! Amazing!
Oh my gosh do these ever look amazing!
Swoon…. if only I could blink and make them appear in my kitchen.