Edition: U.S. / Global

STRUCTURES; The Coolest Sandwich

By Amanda Hesser
Published: May 20, 2001

You remember the ice cream sandwich of your childhood. Not a culinary masterpiece, you could argue, but a rather nifty concoction. That brown chocolate wafer, dimpled with holes, may seem crude to an adult palate. But it was the perfect texture -- caky, firm and strong enough to remain intact as the vanilla ice cream in the middle diluted into a sticky, dreamy puddle.

A number of pastry chefs around New York City have given it a go, and though it's usually tasty, sometimes it isn't pretty. The bread of the sandwich is often a cookie and can be a jawbreaker. Or it's too thin and cracks to bits at the slightest pressure. The ice cream may be too soft and squeeze out like toothpaste. While some resemble napoleons -- the layers fragile and separate -- others are like squishy profiteroles. An ice cream sandwich, in other words, has to withstand handling.

Good ones stay with you. Cesare Casella, the chef at Beppe, serves three circular sandwiches, much like hockey pucks in shape but thankfully not in texture. They are held together with toasted slices of buccellato, a panettonelike bread dotted with raisins. The toasts are crisp and chewy, and they give so that you can bite down into a generously spiced cinnamon ice cream. The others are filled with chocolate and mascarpone ice creams. Fight anyone who challenges you for the cinnamon.

Fresco by Scotto makes its own concoction, which is to the classic ice cream sandwich what a sloppy Joe is to the tea sandwich. Big balls of cinnamon ice cream are pressed between praline meringue cookies and drizzled with chocolate and raspberry sauces. ''It's kind of huge,'' Chris Smreker, the pastry chef, says.

At Cello, Jean-François Bonnet, the pastry chef, and Laurent Tourondel, the chef, got on the case, attacking it like engineers designing the perfect vehicle for ice cream. In this case, a dense, creamy, peanut butter.

Both men are from France and happen to be fixated on Rice Krispies Treats. ''We can get any kind of cereal in France,'' Bonnet says, ''but we're not going to play with it!'' So they figured out a way to make the bread of the ice cream sandwich with Rice Krispies Treats, but resisted the delicate American touch of marshmallows and bound the cereal with caramelized sugar, spreading it in a very thin layer so that it was like a wheat cracker. It was too fragile; it needed the gooey marshmallow so that it would heed a little under the tooth and let you get at the ice cream.

To link the Rice Krispies and peanut-butter ice cream properly, chocolate was in order. Dark chocolate, slightly bitter, was brought in, chopped up, melted and spread in a paper-thin layer on a sheet pan. Each component -- Rice Krispies wafer, ice cream and chocolate -- was cut into a small square.

Then it was a brick-and-mortar operation. First a Rice Krispies wafer, then a square of ice cream, a square of chocolate and another layer of ice cream. A second Rice Krispies wafer topped it off. You can lick the sandwich up the sides, getting peanut butter and a little chocolate as it melts. You can crunch down on the chewy wafer. Or you can freeze your teeth with a big bite of the ice cream.

It's a model of superb engineering, and supreme indulgence.

Rice Krispies and Peanut-Butter Ice Cream Sandwich

(Adapted from Cello)

For the ice cream:

1 quart milk

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 1/4 cups sugar

4 tablespoons butter

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

8 egg yolks

For the Rice Krispies cookie:

1/2 cup sugar

4 tablespoons butter

12 large marshmallows

1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies cereal

3 ounces dark chocolate

(72 percent cacao, if possible), chopped.

1. To make the ice cream, stir together the milk, heavy cream, sugar, butter and peanut butter in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly, until the peanut butter has melted. Place the yolks in a mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in about 1 cup of the hot-milk mixture. Whisk this back into the pot with the hot-milk mixture and continue stirring over medium heat. When the mixture reaches 180 degrees on a candy thermometer or coats the back of a wooden spoon, remove from the heat and let cool. Chill for at least 3 hours.

2. Pour the chilled ice cream base into an ice cream maker and churn following the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer 3 cups of the ice cream to a baking pan lined with parchment paper and spread in a layer about 1/3 inch thick. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm. (Reserve the remaining ice cream for another use.)

3. To make the Rice Krispies cookie, grease a 9-by-12-inch baking sheet with cooking spray and line it with parchment paper that has also been lightly sprayed. In a 3-quart heavy saucepan, combine the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Place over medium heat and cook until the sugar melts and turns to a dark amber-colored syrup, swirling the mixture to stir it instead of using a spoon. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and marshmallows. Add the Rice Krispies to the caramel and stir to coat well. Using 2 rubber spatulas greased with cooking spray, spread and stretch the Rice Krispies mixture in a very thin 9-by-12-inch layer. Let set about 10 minutes, until cool, and then cut into 3-inch squares using a greased chef's knife or cookie cutter. Freeze until firm on the same parchment.

4. Place the chocolate in a double boiler over medium heat and melt it. Line a plastic cutting board with plastic wrap. Spread the chocolate in a paper-thin 6-by-9-inch layer on the plastic wrap. Freeze for a minute or two, then cut into 3-inch squares.

5. To make the sandwich, remove the ice cream layer from the freezer and cut into 3-inch squares. Place one Rice Krispies square on a plate. Top with a square of ice cream, a square of chocolate (be careful, it's quite fragile) and another square of ice cream. Finish by placing one more Rice Krispies square on top. Press firmly to compress the layers and serve.

Yield: 6 sandwiches.

Photo: Peanut-butter ice cream layered with dark chocolate and sandwiched by chewy Rice Krispies Treats is one of Cello's culinary milestones. (Lendon Flanagan)