Ice cream sandwiches

It was my dearest friend Trudy who has first introduced me to Jules Destrooper biscuits. She was very fond of the almond thins. Every time I pick up a box of JD butter waffles, crisps or crocante (florentines), I think of her.
She's been gone these last two years, and I miss her terribly. How much I'd love to see her and give her the biggest hug ever, and hear her calling me sweetheart and her darling girl in her smooth American accent.
Ice cream sandwiches are an American invention. I don't know actually if my friend ever made them, but I can imagine her as a young girl, having a go at making ice cream sandwiches. She was an inspiring cook, and I still keep her letters with recipes for a fruit crisp, orange or lemon syrup loaf, broccoli salad and a curry chutney mold she's written down for me in her distinct style.

Today Eddie's off school, as he was poorly yesterday, and couldn't go to school. To cheer him up, I decided to make some ice cream sandwiches, using Jules Destrooper Butter Crisps which arrived last week in the Degustabox food box.

We do love butter crisps, and I buy them often enough.
I nicked the recipe for ice cream sandwiches with Jules Destrooper biscuits from last year's Waitrose Food magazine (June 2017). They have Meal Maths recipes in each issue, with ideas for cheats and quick meals, using a few ingredients.

I have done a few swaps: they used JD butter waffles, I had JD butter crisps. Dark chocolate was swapped for a milk one (as my kids prefer the milk chocolate), I didn't have hazelnuts and used almonds, and lastly, I used Kelly's Cornish clotted cream ice cream rather than salted caramel ice cream.
But the whole idea is totally theirs, so all credit goes to Waitrose Food mag.

You will need
1 pack of Jules Destrooper butter crisps or butter waffles
1 bar of milk or dark chocolate
30g chopped almonds, hazelnuts or any other nut you prefer
clotted cream or vanilla ice cream

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering hot water. Spoon 1tsp of melted chocolate over one end of each butter crisp, then sprinkle with chopped nuts. Place the crisps on the rack for about 5 minutes so that the chocolate would start to set.

Using a serrated knife, cut the ice cream into 1.5+cm slices. Make sandwiches, by placing the ice cream slices between two butter crisps. Eat straight away, or put some of them in the freezer inside a plastic container.

I only made 3 sandwiches as the remaining cookies were all broken into pieces. I whizzed the pieces with a blender and mixed them into the melted chocolate with the remaining chopped nuts, then spooned into small paper cases. I've got about 6 "truffles".

Experiment with different flavours of ice cream. I think vanilla or clotted cream would work best. The recipe in the magazine suggests using the salted caramel ice cream, but to my taste that would be way too sweet, as the crisps are sweet already, plus there is chocolate. But by all means, use any ice cream you fancy.

This quick dessert will appeal to both children and grown-ups.

Adding this recipe to #KitchenClearout linky hosted by Cheryl at Madhouse Family Reviews, as I've used the remains of the whole almonds (chopped with a blender) and we also finished the clotted cream ice cream.