When your friend gives you a bag of Dandies Pumpkin Marshmallows, you do something with them. Hopefully these ice cream sandwiches qualify as “something.”
There’s quite a bit of nitty-gritty details on the what’s and how’s of this recipe, so uhh, let’s get to science-ing, shall we?
First let’s talk cookies! This recipe is based off of our recent feature with Melt Organic in VegOut LA’s fall magazine. If you had no idea No Eggs Or Ham has a magazine spread, check that out here! In both that recipe and this recipe, marshmallows are melted into a sticky goo, then quickly whipped into the cookie dough. The result is marbled strands of sweet & chewy marshmallows throughout. Yyyyuummmm.
This dough is based off our previous cookies recipes, albeit tweaked to make them softer, thiccer, and cakier! How did we do this? Well, we swapped out baking soda for baking powder, boosted the quantity of VeganEgg, refrigerated our dough, and reduced the baking temperature. Let me explain:
- Baking soda results in a flatter, chewier cookie, whereas baking powder results in a softer, cakier cookie. Since these are paired with soft ice cream, we don’t want the cookies to have a hard crust (if they did, ice cream would squeeze out the sides with each bite).
- Extra VeganEgg means extra moisture. Extra moisture means more hydration for your flour. Extra hydration means a more refined crumb (opposed to the dense crumb you’d see in chewy cookies).
- Refrigerating the dough leads to thicker cookies. This explanation’s as simple as it gets, because if the butter and sugar ample time to firm up, they’ll have less time to spread out during baking.
- Reduced baking temperature lets our treats cook through before their bottoms caramelize. Caramelized bottoms = ice cream spilling out everywhere. Soft bottoms = not that ^.
We also reduced the size from 2 ounces to 1 ounce per cookie, that way we can stack the ice cream high, making for pretty towers of joy. Other than that, making these is standard cookie procedure—you got this.
Alright, let’s get to the dense stuff: ICE CREAM. Vegan ice cream recipes are a maze to navigate, and I’ll be honest, most of them aren’t worth the tastebuds you’d waste on them. Any recipe that uses soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, or any other light milk without added fats are going to be icy, icy, and more icy. As far as I’m concerned, the only recipes worth entertaining are those made with coconut milk and/or cashew cream, as these are the only plant-milks that have enough fat to make a decent ice cream.
We have quite a few ice cream recipes on the blog, all of which call for coconut milk to be reduced ’til it reaches a velvety state of enhanced fat content, but I have to admit… the taste of coconut in ice cream is getting old. That’s exactly what led me to try Van Leeuwen’s signature vegan ice cream formula, which is comprised of coconut milk, homemade cashew cream, coconut oil, and cocoa butter. Cashew cream and cocoa butter neutralize some of those strong coconut flavor while the added oils make for a rich custard, akin to French-style ice cream with tempered egg yolks.
These ingredients should be relatively reasonable to source, however, two things are worth expanding upon: Thai tea mix and cocoa butter. Thai tea mix is likely lurking somewhere in the shelves of your local Asian market for less than $3 a bag. The most famous variety is produced by the “Number One” brand and has bright, white and orange packaging. While I attest the idea of paying more than $4 for a bag of artificially flavored and colored black tea, if you absolutely can’t find it, it can be purchased on Amazon for $6.50 a bag (yikes).
Wait… you don’t like the idea of us advocating an artificially flavored and colored product? I mean, I feel you. It’s definitely not ideal, but most traditional Thai tea mixes have some sort of artificial element to them. That’s not to say natural ones aren’t out there—heck, we were lucky enough to bring back a bag of one such Thai tea from a spice stand in Thailand—but if you’re not traveling through Southeast Asia, your journey may lead to more frustration than manifestation. Our advice: buy the cheap stuff. It’s easily accessible, hella orange, and tastes just like the stuff in restaurants (because it is).
Oh shit, I almost forgot about cocoa butter! Rule Number 1: don’t buy cocoa butter meant for skincare. Sometimes they carry hidden fragrances or aren’t even edible. So yeah, just don’t. Rule Number 2: cocoa butter and cacao butter are the exact same thing. Honestly, I don’t understand marketing sometimes. Rule Number 3: food-grade cocoa butter’s gained popularity in recent years, making it widely available at most grocery chains, but if you still have a hard time hunting it down, check your local Sprouts, Whole Foods, or health store (er, you know, Amazon).
Ice cream is a wrap! Let’s get you onto this recipe before you faint of reading exhaustion! But first, how ’bout a bulleted list detailing what you’re working towards here? This recipe is:
- Sweet, aromatic, and autumn-y
- Velvety, buttery, and perfectly chewy
- Vibrant, bold, and decadent
- Great for potlucks and parties!
- Plant-based
If you like what your eyes are tasting, then share this recipe with your friends on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest at @noeggsorham! For more flame-emoji photos, geeky food talk, and mouth-watering dishes, subscribe to our email list. Tag us in a photo when you create one of our recipes at home so we can share it!
Does tea make this an acceptable breakfast?
Thai Tea & Pumpkin Spice Marshmallow Ice Cream Sandwiches (vegan)
Velvety cocoa butter, cashew, and coconut based ice cream takes on the fragrance of Thai tea, while soft, Autumn-spiced cookies rounds out the palate with comforting nostalgia.
Ingredients
Homemade Cashew Cream
- 200 grams (about 1 ½ cups) raw cashews
- water
Thai Tea Ice Cream
- 475 grams (2 cups) full-fat coconut milk
- 30 grams (⅓ cup) Thai Tea mix
- 212 grams (1 cup) cashew cream
- 150 grams (¾ cup) granulated sugar
- 40 grams (2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons) water
- 65 grams (5 tablespoons) cocoa butter
- 56 grams (¼ cup) virgin coconut oil
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
Soft Pumpkin Spice Marshmallow Cookies
- 112 grams (½ cup) Melt Organic vegan butter
- 96 grams (½ cup) brown sugar
- 48 grams (¼ cup) vegan-friendly white sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 grams (2 teaspoons) VeganEgg powder by Follow Your Heart
- 28 grams (2 tablespoons) cold water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 180 grams (1 ½ cups) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 100 grams Dandies Pumpkin Marshmallows + 7 grams (½ tablespoon) Melt Organic butter
Directions
- Prep: Place the bowl and paddle of your ice cream maker into the freezer at least 12 hours prior to churning.
- Cashew Cream: Place cashews in a large bowl and rinse with cold water until it comes out clean; about 3 washes. Top with cold water by at least 2 inches, cover bowl, and store overnight; 8-12 hours.
- Drain cashews and rinse cashews. Weigh them again now that they’re soaked; total should be around 300 grams. Multiply weight by 1.25 to find the amount of water you need. In this case, 300 grams x 1.25 = 375 grams, so you’ll be using 375 grams of water.
- Combine cashews and water in a blender or food processor and blitz on high until smooth. If the mixture is gritty after a few minutes, transfer it to a personal blender cup in batches and blitz until smooth.
- Pour through a fine mesh strainer and use a spatula to coax it through. Store in fridge for up to 3 days or use immediately.
- Thai Tea Ice Cream: Bring coconut milk to a boil in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Add in Thai tea mix, reduce temperature to medium, and cook for 3 minutes, stirring continuously.
- Kill the heat, place on a lid, and steep for 15 minutes. Pour mixture through a nut-milk bag or doubled-up cheesecloth and squeeze to release all the liquids. (Should have about 1 cup of Thai tea-infused coconut milk after straining. If it’s less, add enough coconut milk to bring total to 1 cup).
- Transfer infused coconut milk to a blender along with vanilla, salt, 1 cup of cashew cream, and set aside for now.
- Stir together sugar and water in a small pot over low heat until sugar’s dissolved. Add in cocoa butter, coconut oil, and continue to heat until the oils just barely melt (turn it off when there’s a few specks of solids remaining and let it melt naturally).
- Transfer syrup to blender with Thai tea mixture and blitz on high until solution is emulsified; about 1 minute. Cool in refrigerator until custard is chilled; about 2 hours.
- Note: Unlike most ice cream bases, you DON’T want to refrigerate this overnight, as the oils will solidify on top, thus breaking the emulsion you worked for. If you forget about it in the fridge for more than 5 hours, you’ll have to place it back into a pot over low heat, stir until oil melts, and refrigerate it for another 2 hours.
- Pour chilled custard into your ice cream maker and churn until ice cream reaches soft serve consistency (will vary per ice cream maker). Move into an airtight container and freeze until set (at least 4 hours). If completely frozen, thaw for about 10 minutes before scooping.
- Cookies: Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper, and position both of your oven racks towards the center of your oven.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and pumpkin pie spice together into a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together VeganEgg powder, cold water, and vanilla until smooth. Set aside.
- Place marshmallows and 7 grams of Melt Organic butter in a medium, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on high for 45 seconds, remove to stir, and heat for another 30 seconds, repeating until marshmallows are smooth. If necessary, microwave for 15 seconds to loosen before adding to the dough later.
- In the bowl of a stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with an electric hand whisk), beat brown sugar, white sugar, salt, and 112 grams of butter together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides at least once throughout.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the egg mixture until smooth. Add in the dry ingredients all at once, beat on low until incorporated, then boost the speed to medium until smooth, scraping down the sides once halfway through.
- Add in the melted marshmallows and mix on medium speed for about 10 seconds (or until the marshmallow is laced throughout). The goal here is to keep long strands of marshmallow instead of fully incorporating it.
- Scoop out a 1-ounce (2 tablespoon) portion of dough, form it into a ball, place it on a prepped cookie sheet, and repeat for rest of dough. Cover cookie sheet with plastic wrap and store in fridge for an hour (if the dough is placed close together, that’s okay—we’ll give them space before baking).
- 20 minutes before cookies are done resting, pre-heat oven to 350° F. Evenly divide cookies between prepped cookie sheets and ensure they have an inch of space between them.
- Place pans in oven (one on lower rack, one on upper rack) and bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven, rotate pans (thus ensuring even cooking), and bake for another 4 minutes.
- Note: Cookies should just be turning brown on the bottom and sides when they come out. If they’re still light on the bottom, bake them for another 1-2 minutes. However, the center should NOT be cooked through when they come out, otherwise they will be overcooked later.
- Transfer parchment paper directly to a cooling rack until cookies are completely cool; about 30 minutes. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to three days!
- Assembling: Scoop a big portion of ice cream onto a cookie, top with a second one, and repeat! Enjoy while fresh or wrap ice cream sandwiches with plastic wrap and aluminum foil then stash in the freezer for up to a month! Let them thaw for 10-15 minutes before eating!
*Cashew cream recipe is directly derived from the Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream cookbook.
*This Thai tea ice cream is based off of Van Leeuwen’s signature vegan ice cream formula. Thank you Van Leeuwen for making the best damn plant-based ice cream in the game!
NO EGGS OR HAM 
This sounds amazing
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