A couple weeks ago my family was raving about some red raspberry gelato they tried.
And how it would be so amazing if they could have an ice cream sandwich filled with raspberry gelato.
That’s all I needed to hear and I got to work. Normally it’s like pulling teeth asking for suggestions what they’d like me to make so when major hints are dropped, I waste no time in making what’s been requested.
Last summer I made Fudgy Brownie Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches, and for the brownie portion I used the Alice Medrich recipe. I love that recipe, but wanted to change it up.
So I tried David Lebovitz’s Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies recipe from his cookbook, Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes. I had been wanting to try the recipe for years because the brownies get rave reviews for being fudgy, rich, and not at all cakey, which are my brownie requirements. I love brownies and these are neck-and-neck with my other two favorite recipes.
Setting the ice cream sandwich component aside, if you’re looking for a top-shelf, easy, no-mixer, very fudgy brownie recipe, give try these.
Although I normally add a splash of coffee or instant espresso granules to brownie and chocolate-based batters, I didn’t want to tweak this highly acclaimed recipe. I’m glad I left it alone because the brownies are rich, fudgy, not too sweet, and they worked perfectly for sandwiching ice cream.
Except it’s actually raspberry sorbet. Raspberry (or strawberry or black cherry) ice cream is generally easier to find and less expensive than sorbet so feel free to use your favorite ice cream, sherbet, sorbet, or gelato.
The flavor combination of the bold, dark chocolate brownies contrasted with the sweeter and more zingy raspberry sorbet makes for a wonderful flavor pairing. Chocolate and raspberries go so well together.
The perfect refreshing and cooling treat on a hot summer day.
Pin This Recipe
Fudgy Brownie and Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwiches
The brownies are rich, fudgy, not too sweet, not cakey, and work perfectly to sandwich in the sorbet (or ice cream or gelato). The recipe is adapted from David Lebowitz’s highly acclaimed, Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies, and they are excellent. If you’re looking for a top-shelf, easy, no-mixer, very fudgy brownie recipe, try these. The bold, dark chocolate brownies contrasted with the sweeter and more zingy raspberry sorbet makes for a wonderful flavor pairing. Chocolate and raspberry goes so well together, but use your favorite sorbet, gelato, or ice cream to fill the sandwiches.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted or salted butter (3/4 of 1 stick)
- 8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus Bar)
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature preferred
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 pint raspberry sorbet, softened (or your favorite sorbet, ice cream, or gelato)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, add the butter, chocolate, and heat on high power to melt, about 1 minute. Stop to check and stir. Heat in 15-second increments until chocolate has melted and mixture can be stirred smooth.
- Add the sugar, vanilla, and whisk to combine.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, and whisk to combine.
- Add the flour and stir energetically for 1 full minute (time yourself) until the batter loses its graininess, becomes smooth and glossy, and pulls away a bit from the sides of the bowl. Two crucial elements in the success of the brownies include stirring “energetically” and stirring for one full minute – your bicep/shoulder will likely be burning. Batter may appear to separate a few second into stirring, and it may appear grainy midway through, but when you stir with vigor for a full 60 seconds, you’ll end up with a batter that’s rich, thick, satiny smooth, and glossy. Therein lies the difference between dry, crumbly brownies and the amazing ones.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan and smooth the top lightly with a spatula or knife.
- Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the center is almost set; do not overbake. 28-29 minutes is perfect in my oven, but ovens and personal preference varies. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Allow brownies to cool in pan on a wire rack for about 1 hour. Cover with a sheet of foil to prevent freezer smells and place pan in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or until brownies are very firm or frozen.
- Remove sorbet from freezer about 30 minutes before using it so it can soften at room temp.
- Remove brownies from freezer, lift them out using foil overhang, and put slab on a large cutting board. With a large knife, cut slab in half. Even though brownies are cold/frozen, it’s possible to slice them with firm pressure, using caution. Or, wait 5-10 minutes for brownies to soften slightly if slicing is too difficult straight from freezer. You want brownies cold so that when you’re pushing and spreading the sorbet, the brownies don’t become squished.
- Using a knife or spatula, add the sorbet to one brownie slab in an even, flat layer, smoothing it as best you can with knife or spatula. Top with other brownie slab and place giant sandwich in freezer for at least 2 hours, or until sorbet has set up.
- Place giant sandwich slab on cutting board and using caution, slice into 8 sandwiches, each 1-inch wide and 4-inches long, or preferred size/shape. Serve immediately. Sandwiches will keep airtight in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Brownies adapted from David Lebovitz’s Robert’s Absolute Best Brownies from Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 189Total Fat: 9gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 35mgSodium: 47mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 24gProtein: 2g
Related Recipes
Fudgy Brownie Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches – Homemade fudgy brownies with cookie dough ice cream with extra homemade (safe-to-eat-raw) cookie dough balls
Smores Brownie Pie – No campfire? No problem! Fudgy brownies topped with toasted marshmallows & graham cracker crumbs
Salted Caramel Pretzel-Topped Fudgy Brownies
Loaded Fudgy Candy Bar Brownies
Homemade Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies
Fudgy Nutella Brownies with Cream Cheese Frosting
Oreo Cookie-Stuffed Brownies with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
No-Ice-Cream-Maker Salted Caramel, Bourbon, Nutter Butter and Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream
Frozen Chocolate Pudding and Wafer Cake
No-Ice-Cream-Maker Funfetti Cake Batter Golden Oreo Ice Cream
Hi,
I have just finished making the brownies for this recipe. Simply Delicious!
I tweaked the recipe slightly, though. Since I love anything chocolate that is more on the bitter – rather than sweet – side, I only used 1/2 cup of sugar. This worked perfectly for me.
Thanks for this amazing recipe.
Striking, and flavorful! How can you go wrong. Simply delicious.
How deliciously decadent!
What’s not to love about a David Lebovitz brownie & raspberry sorbet!!
Pure prefection.
Knowing you, you’ve probably already made that D.L. brownie recipe! It took me awhile, but I finally did :)
Love the idea of making brownie ice cream sandwiches. The raspberry sounds delicious and look gorgeous! Loved your styling too!
That gorgeous red color is so striking Averie! Absolutely incredible. And it’s like pulling teeth for me to whenever I ask my family or my guy for suggestions. Especially my guy… I should know better than to ask him, the dessert-hater, for ideas. (The second he asked for lemon bars for his birthday last week, I basically sprinted straight to the kitchen to make a batch!) So happy for you that you were so successful with these fun ice cream sandwiches!
oh i’m drooling…those look sooo good!
Averie, these are GORGEOUS! Raspberry and chocolate are the perfect pairing! The fudgy brownies make me drool. Such beautiful pictures dear (as always!) This would be perfect for a girls night! I’ll have to have some friends over and make this for dessert! Thanks for sharing, pinned for later!
Thanks for the compliments and pin!
OMG… Love all the colors in this! It looks amazing!
I can just imagine how amazing these must taste!
This is the best combo ever, looks AH-mazing!! Pinned! Everyone needs to have some raspberry chocolate in their life!
Thanks for pinning!
Goodness that deep pinkish red color of the raspberry gelato with that rich, dark , fudge like brownies is making me droooool all over my screen! I won’t be surprised if I find myself licking the screen! This looks BEYOND DELISH!!! <3 pinning!!!!!!!!!
This raspberry ice cream sandwich is awesome!
These look amazing! Love raspberries & chocolate and these look like the perfect summer treat :)
The brownies look so perfectly fudgy, what a great ice cream sandwich!
How perfect that my dad is obsessed with a raspberry sorbet, so we always have it on hand. This sounds like a beautiful combo, the pictures don’t hurt either ;)
That’s crazy you always have it on hand! I had to stalk it at a groc store I don’t normally go to b/c the price at my main groc store for the one version they sold was crazy LOL!
True that – when family gives hints, take ’em! And when someone gives me the recipe for fudgy brownie with homemade raspberry ice cream, you better believe I will take a baker’s dozen! Melting subjects can be tricky, but you did a beautiful job. The color is so eye catching!
Thanks for the compliments on my images. Melting food and shooting it gives me panic attacks. I’m not a fast shooter and like to take my time and so shoots like this seriously are not my forte!
is there anything better than the color of raspberry sorbet?! so fun to photograph – and eat – beautiful recipe!
Photographing ice cream gives me massive anxiety because it melts so fast and I’m a slower shooter and take my time, so not exactly fun, but at least I got a few images out of the deal :)
I suddenly really want brownies.
Like, bad.
Oh goodness, these look amazing! I will definitely enjoy these in the hot summer weather!
I love that deep red color! I need some of this in my life
I love chocolate and raspberry combined, although I’m not sure how much of the brownie would survive my taste-testing to be made into an ice cream sandwich …
Ha! I felt the same way :)
i am thinking I need these now:) Who can resist fudgy brownies with sweet tangy raspberry flavor in creamy ICE CREAM!
Oh gosh, I’m a huge fan of raspberry sorbet, and before I even got to the part where you mentioned that the “ice cream” sandwiches were made with it, I was wondering to myself if I could sub in sorbet. These look SO delicious!
Love, love, love how fudgy these ice cream sandwiches look! They are beyond scrumptious and so summery – can’t even tell you how much I adore this combo!!!
Oh wow. I mean, wow. This has me written all over it. I love the chocolate raspberry combo and now I reaaaallllly want to make this brownie. I am pinning the heck out of this!
Thanks for the pins! :)
These are so perfect Averie! That brownie sure does look like the perfect thing to sandwich with. And gelato – yes!! Pinned!
After shooting these, I then saw those ice cream cupcakes you made last week and thought….yeah, better her than me with the frozen/melty foods. Hot.mess.city. Why is it always the hottest days of the year, too?! lol
Looks delicious!!! I love raspberry sorbet! PINNED :)
Thanks for the pin, Aimee! Glad you’re a sorbet fan!
These look delicious and thank you for your ice cream and brownie recap I forgot how many amazing recipes you had for both.
Sometimes when I go looking through my old archives I forget too :)
The raspberry sorbet is such a gorgeous color and a wonderful companion for a deep, dark brownie! Melted chocolate and butter makes such a good batter for that fudgy factor. Love this for a cool summer treat. I had a chocolate raspberry smoothie last week and although it tasted great, Hershey’s special dark didn’t do much for the appearance!
I won’t bake things for my blog anymore with Special Dark because it does NOT translate well for me, at all, in images. I would have liked to use it a few recent brownies and cakes but it’s just not possible because it looks like mud on camera for me!
Seriously applauding your ice cream photography abilities. It’s not my forte. You rocked it. These sandwiches sound like my dream come true!
Girl it’s not mine either!!! I do 1-2 frozen posts like this a year, and it’s always (Murphy’s Law) on the hottest day of the year that I’m shooting. Seriously I wanted to die with this shoot. I had like…8-10 minutes before the whole thing just…disintegrated. I seriously am not a fast shooter and take my time so ice cream shoots and me…well, I feel like I need a drink afterward from the pressure! Lol
Brilliant! And your pics– oh! Their phenomenal!
Thank you, Danielle!
Cookie ice cream sandwiches are awesome… but brownie ice cream sandwiches are AMAZING! I love gelato (so much more than ice cream) and so I’m excited to try these :)
These sandwiches look amazing, Averie! I’ve never seen anything quite like these…the brownies look so fudgy, probably my favorite part! What a great recipe!
Thanks, Gayle! Glad they’re a new idea for you to play around with!
Oh wow! I can imagine the contrast in flavours and textures…. love it.
These look great. Love the fudginess!
Have you tried the Talenti brand sorbet? It’s incredible. I’ll use it when making these, for sure!
Haven’t tried it – my family (not me) are the true frozen treat lovers so I will keep an eye out for that one!
I just love the presentation aspect of this dessert.
It’s “the one” I’d be so proud to take to a family gathering or whatever. Look at the color! Wow =)
Thanks for the compliments, Laura!
A BROWNIE ice cream sandwich? That is PURE genius! Considering it’s about a million degrees in FL, I need these something fierce! Love the chocolate/raspberry combo! Pinned :)
I didn’t know you lived in Fla! I didn’t know where you lived I guess, really! :) But yes you need these in that heat! Thanks for pinning :)
I love an ice cream sandwich so big it needs to be eaten with a fork! These brownies look super fudgy- my fave! Thanks, Averie.
My daughter should have used one because she wound up with raspberry all over her face, hands, etc :) but totally worth it she said!
These look like the perfect summer treat. Love the contrast of that strinking red against the chocolate
Thanks for the compliments, Rochelle!
The bright raspberry filling really makes these look yummy. Such a nice summer treat!
Looking gorgeous and tempting ^^ I really like the texture of your brownies :)