Salty Focaccia Ice Cream Sandwiches
or, if you want, just a good focaccia recipe!
Sometimes an idea gets stuck in the sick head of a recipe developer and, no matter how stupid it seems, he has to try it. I’m of course talking about myself, and that’s what happened with these focaccia ice cream sandwiches. I just kept imagining the fresh, chewy bread giving way to melty vanilla, a little crunch of salt and some bitter, fruity olive oil to take the edge off??? And there’s really nothing I like to do more in the middle of a heatwave than saunter into my kitchen crank up my oven to 450°F, and then try to film an ice cream recipe! How about you?
Originally, I was going to just bake off the focaccia in a 9-inch square tin, but then I considered ring molds to make the bread of the sandwiches cuter and more individual. I then remembered no normal person has ring molds, so I pulled out my much-neglected muffin tin. When baked into little rolls and slices in half, the focaccia is the perfect size to hold one scoop of ice cream and whatever toppings you like. And the best part is, if you don’t use all of your focaccia buns, a world of possibilities opens to you: Meatball sandwiches, bacon egg and cheeses, turkey clubs, Italian subs! You could also choose to bake this in an oiled 9-inch tin or cast iron (see note) and slice the bread how you like.
I’m also giving you the option to garnish with some macerated berries (tastes like no strawberry shortcake you’ve had before.) Don’t let me dampen your creativity though. Drizzling on hot fudge would be a great idea way to evoke the feel of a profiterole. These could also work with other flavors of ice cream: strawberry, lemon, mint chocolate chip, maybe even a blueberry swirl. (I even wanted to do a basil or mint oil drizzle option, but sadly didn’t have the time and also the store was out of basil.) But the simplicity of just plain vanilla bean ice cream with a drizzle of EVOO and some flakey salt? That was close to perfect.
The one down side to this recipe is you can’t really assemble the sandwiches ahead of time. These are best when the focaccia is only a few hours old; the bread will lose its perfect fluffy texture if frozen with the ice cream. You could, however, schedule things differently to save yourself some time/grief when it comes to serving. The focaccia reheats like a dream, so if it’s been sitting around for more than a few hours, just toast the amount of sliced buns you need in a 350°F-oven for a couple minutes, let them cool slightly, then plop on the ice cream. If you even wanted to prep the ice cream scoops, you could scoop them out onto a frozen sheet pan lined with parchment, cover with plastic wrap and return to the freezer.
Serves 12
Ingredients
Focaccias
