This Healthy Ice Cream Sandwich Delivers on Flavor Without Messing With Your Blood Sugar

Hungry for an ice cream sandwich? Try this low-sugar (but still delicious) recipe.

Two years ago, during an intense heat wave in Los Angeles, I ate an entire box of Trader Joe’s chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches in my sleep. Since that fateful night—and the subsequent morning, when I awoke to a stomachache of epic proportions and only wrapper-based clues as to what had happened—I no longer keep such desserts in my home. And yet here we are, in the midst of another heat wave, and all I can think about are ice cream sandwiches.

Thankfully, the latest episode of Well+Good’s Alt-Baking Bootcamp offers a homemade solution that is not only super simple to make, but is also potentially easier on the stomach thanks to its dairy-free (and low-sugar) ingredient list. In the video, Sashah Handel, a baker at Roberta’s Brooklyn (and instructor at Barry’s in NYC), mixes up easy-to-make coconut milk-based ice cream and then slathers it between no-bake chocolate cookies for a melty, gooey, refreshing treat. Oh, and the whole thing is held together by a homemade hazelnut spread (read: Nutella), so… you’re welcome.

“Your typical ice cream sandwich is usually made with refined sugars, enriched flours, and lots of heavy cream, which some people just can’t enjoy,” Handel says. In her version, those ingredients are swapped out in favor of more nutritious staples like maple syrup (which is less processed than sugar and has a lower glycemic index), oats (naturally gluten-free and rich in heart-healthy fiber), and coconut cream (a vegan alternative to heavy cream).

The crowning glory of this recipe is really just how easy it is to execute. You don’t need any fancy equipment to make the ice cream—just a mason jar that you shake—and you don’t even bake the cookies. The latter is a major benefit for those of us whose kitchens transform into the surface of the sun the minute any summer cooking or baking transpires.

Now that I think about it, this recipe is so simple you could probably make it in your sleep, though I’m not sure I’d advise it. But watch the video to get all the deets while conscious… just in case.