Jacques Torres Makes The Ultimate Ice Cream Sandwich

Jacques Torres goes by Mr. Chocolate for a reason—as the owner of nine sweets shops (and the longtime pastry chef at the legendary Le Cirque), Torres made his name in the cocoa-y stuff.

However, after tasting his iced tea ice cream (see the recipe), we may start calling the playful confection connoisseur Monsieur Ice Cream.

"The summer in New York is so hot and so unpleasant sometimes, and iced tea is what's going to refresh you the most. Maybe beer, too, but mostly iced tea," Torres says with a devilish laugh. "So why not take it a step further and make it into ice cream?"

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His ice cream—which is made using only two yolks—is soft, almost gelato like, and laced with Earl Grey tea and a little bit of lemon. And because we wanted to take things even more toward ridiculous, we asked him to bake some of his famous chocolate chip cookies (see the recipe): Thin and flat, the chocolate-heavy cookies are so loaded with butter they practically melt in the oven.

"Don't hesitate to use more chocolate than dough," Torres says. "It's a little bit of cookie with a lot of chocolate."

The richness of the cookies plays well with the slightly bitter tea notes in the ice cream, which is so creamy, it will undoubtedly seep out the sides of the sandwich. "A good ice cream sandwich should be messy," Torres says.

Just keep in mind that you don't want to steep your tea for too long, or the ice cream will become unpleasantly bitter. And Torres notes, "If you're making homemade ice cream, it's best to eat it the same day. After a week or so, you'll get ice crystals."

As if we could wait that long.