Optional but highly recommended: To kill any bacteria in the raw flour, sauté the flour in a small saucepan or frying pan over medium-high heat for 3-5 minutes stirring constantly with a whisk.  When it starts to smell like a pancake batter, it’s ready.  You do not want it to change color and get brown!  Cook until the flour is just hot.  Set aside to cool while you make the rest of the cookie dough.  This step also gives the cookie dough a rich flavor like browned butter.

In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat together softened (or melted butter) and sugars until light and fluffy – this takes about 6 minutes on high.  You want the sugar well incorporated to avoid crunchy granules.  If you use melted butter as I did for this recording, the mixture will not appear fluffy, as with softened butter – but do not worry, the results are IDENTICAL. Keep in mind this is not a cookie that you bake, it is just the dough.

Incorporate the vanilla, salt, and milk into the mixture.  Slowly add the flour and mix until just combined – try not to over mix the dough.

In a lined 8×8 pan, spread ½ of the dough.  Add another layer of parchment paper on top and spread the remaining dough so that you have 2, identical square layers of dough. 

Place pan in a 2-gallon freezer bag or cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4 hours ( I freeze it overnight).

Thaw out the ice cream container on the counter for about 15 minutes. Remove dough from the freezer and separate the layers.  Evenly spread the softened ice cream on the bottom layer.  Place the top cookie layer on top of the ice cream and gently press down lightly.  Cover and return pan to the freezer for at least 6 hours. 

Remove from the freezer and slice into bars.  You can individually wrap each bar using parchment paper and string.  Store individually wrapped bars in a freezer bag.

Serve immediately after slicing.  If dipping the bar in melted chocolate, do so one at a time, returning the chocolate-dipped bar to the freezer and grabbing another one. Freeze approximately 30 minutes for chocolate to fully set before serving.