How to make a better sandwich (hint: use ice cream)

Take your sandwich building to new frontiers and ditch your standard savoury fillings for ingredients of the iced kind. That's right, it's time to break the rules and make the 'sandwich' of your dreams.

Caramel ice-cream sandwiches. Source: The Chocolate Queen

— See Kirsten Tibballs make her choc biscuit and caramel ice-cream sandwiches in the new season of The Chocolate Queen, 7.30pm Tuesdays from 1 October to 19 November on SBS Food, with episodes also at SBS On Demand —

1. Down and dirty

Wrap your chops around these minty, chocolatey sandwiches. Spongy, chewy double chocolate cookies stand-in for the bread here while the filling is a brown sugar, mint-flecked puck. No, you cannot pack these into a lunchbox for later. Yes, you can eat them in place of a proper lunch.

Double chocolate and dirty mint ice-cream sandwiches

2. Biscuit crumbs + kulfi = oh yes!

If you like the biscuit base of a classic no-bake cheesecake, this is your ice-cream sandwich. Easy, no-churn cardamom kulfi is sandwiched between layers made from blitzed custard cream biscuits.

Kulfi ice-cream bars. Source: Nadiya's Simple Spices / Penguin Michael Joseph / Chris Terry

3. Caramel is calling

These delicious stacks from Kirsten Tibballs feature creamy homemade caramel ice-cream (no ice-cream maker required) sandwiched between two rich chocolate biscuits. You'll want a napkin if you eat this with your hands, but it will be worth it!

Caramel ice-cream sandwiches. Source: The Chocolate Queen

4. Make some dough

Adding a little extra dazzle to your sambo, these gingerbread cookie dough numbers are bejewelled with a crunchy praline making them a sandwich for entertaining. You also might need to employ the use of a spoon or fork here.

Gingerbread cookie dough ice-cream sandwiches with praline

5. From the pumpkin patch

If you're a fan of pumpkin in a pie, then it stands to reason you will be a fan of pumpkin in ice cream, in a choc-chip cookie. This next-level sandwich has all the elements working together, from the chewy cookies to the creamy, cold pumpkin ice cream. You'll never look at pumpkin the same way again.

Pumpkin ice-cream choc chip cookie sandwiches

6. Doughnut try to resist...

Simple but spectacular: split iced doughnuts, slip slices of ice-cream in between, then roll in sprinkles!

Iced doughnut ice cream sandwiches with sprinkles Source: Richo's Bar Snacks

7. Between buns

OK, so this is more of a burger, but the same important principle applies: take ice cream and put it in a cookie/cake/bun. Here we have a deep-red cherry sorbet nestled in a brioche bun. The advantage of this ice cream sandwich is that from a distance it could look as though you're just eating a burger with a lot of beetroot. A lot, though.

Cherry sorbet on brioche rolls Source: Petrina Tinslay

8. Layer it on thick

Most sandwiches don't require their fillings to be churned for hours on end, but don't let that deter you. Once you've churned your innards, they'll be waiting in your freezer whenever you feel like fixing a sandwich. All the elements for these baklava and pistachio sandwiches, including the pastry, can be stored in the freezer, patiently waiting to be assembled.

Baklava and pistachio ice-cream sandwich Source: Kulsum Kunwa

9. Make it rain(bow)

Keeping it closer to a real sandwich, these Singaporean ice cream snacks, or loti, are made with bread. But, of course, by bread we really mean crazy-coloured cake baked into a loaf shape. But we've come too far in our ultimate ice cream sandwich journey to let that bother us.

Ice-cream loti Source: Feast magazine

10. The full Monte

Emulating that most desirable packet biscuit, the Monte Carlo, these cool sandwiches manage to sneak some real fruit into the mix by way of the raspberry filling. It's gonna get messy, people.

Monte Carlo biscuit sorbet sandwiches Source: Brett Stevens