National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!

In order to celebrate this day, I've posted a recipe you'll need before you can make my "Farmer Boy Ice Cream Sandwich".  These are great for making Ice Cream Sandwiches or just plain great as muffins!

Farmer Boy Double Chocolate Muffin Tops

*Note: You'll need a Muffin Top Pan to make these. But, if you don't have that pan, you could use a regular muffin tin, but be sure to fill each cup all the way up, so that it will "Mushroom" and then you can cut off the excess. And be sure to spray non-stick on the part where it will "Mushroom".

 Ingredients:

• 2/3 Cup of Dutch-process cocoa
• 1 3/4 Cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 Cups of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon of Espresso powder or instant coffee
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 Cup of milk
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
• 1/2 Cup  of butter, melted
• coarse sugar, for topping (optional)

Directions: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Grease the pan.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, baking soda, salt and set this aside. 

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar.  In a microwavable bowl, soften the chocolate chips - but don't melt them completely.  Add all this mixture, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend.

Scoop the batter into the lightly greased pan; filling each cup to the top. Sprinkle with corarse sugar.

Bake the muffins for about 20 minutes, till they begin to crack on top. (test with probe) Remove the muffin tops from the oven, and after 5 minutes, from the pan.  (Allow them to cool at least 15 minutes on a rack before using them to make the ice cream sandwiches.)  This recipe should make about a dozen muffin tops.

To make the Ice Cream Sandwiches: simply scoop ice cream (I happen to like my buttermilk vanilla flavor - see my recipe in the archives) then flatten it and lay it on one side of a muffin top and cover with another.  This may seem a bit extreme to you & "Over the Top", but once you've tried it, you won't want another one of those "Sissy Ice Cream Sandwiches"!

Almanzo, the original Farmer Boy, would probably eat a couple at one sitting!  Note: you may need a spoon to eat these!

Now, you can take it from here - you may wish to experiment with different flavors of ice cream and maybe even different flavors of muffin tops - the sky is the limit!  :)  If you make these, let us all know by leaving a comment here.  Thanks.

"Life was not intended to be simply a round of work, no matter how interesting and important that work may be." Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Old Man in the Bib Overalls