Homemade Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
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These homemade ice cream sandwich cookies are a bbq season favorite dessert. Tender vanilla cookies sandwiched around creamy ice cream make for a simple and fun way to enjoy your favorite ice cream.
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Don’t you just love biting into an ice cream sandwich? So soft and melt-in-your-mouth delicious.
I’m wishing summer would hurry along. Longer days, warmer nights, bbq dinners and summery desserts. One of my favorite summer season desserts are ice cream sandwiches.
These homemade ice cream sandwich cookies are similar to a standard shortbread cookie. They are loaded with vanilla flavor, but I tweaked the butter/ flour/ sugar ration so that they are super soft.
Soft cookies are a must for ice cream sandwiches. Biting into a rock hard ice cream sandwich doesn’t work. These ice cream sandwich cookies will stay incredibly soft and slightly chewy even after they’re frozen.
The most important thing to remember is to slightly underbake the cookies. This is the best way to achieve a soft cookie that just melds around the ice cream.
I kept the cookies simple with just vanilla extract for flavoring. My goal was to highlight the ice cream flavors more than the cookie. If you want to get fancy with your cookie flavor feel free to add different extracts, mini chocolate chips, toffee bits, or sprinkles.
I rolled the dough to ¼-inch thick and used a 2 and ½-inch round cookie cutter. This yielded me about 28 cookies which equal 14 ice cream sandwiches.
Use this recipe as a base for all your ice cream sandwich desires!
Recipe Snapshot
- TASTE: Vanilla shortbread cookies surrounding your favorite ice cream
- TEXTURE: Crunchy cookies and smooth and cool ice cream
- EASE: Easy!
- TIME: Just under an hour, which includes chilling time
What You’ll Need
This ice cream sandwich recipe essentially is for vanilla shortbread cookies nestled around slices of your favorite flavor of ice cream.
Ingredients
- Butter – As always, unsalted, and softened to room temperature.
- Confectioners’ sugar – Powdered sugar works well here for the texture. The sugar is sifted.
- Vanilla extract – Make your own or use a high-quality natural extract.
- Salt – Just a bit, to balance the flavors.
- All-purpose flour – Make sure you measure the flour properly. This is sifted to keep a light and airy consistency.
- Mix-ins – These are optional – chocolate chips, sprinkles, butterscotch chips, coconut flakes, or toffee chips are all good ideas to give flavor and pizzazz to the cookies.
- Ice cream cups – 4-ounce single-serving ice cream cups of your favorite flavor
Recommended Tools
- Rolling pin
- Baking sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Electric Mixer
How to Make Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
The dough for these cookies comes together remarkably quickly. Once it’s chilled and you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Be sure to check out the full recipe and ingredient list below
- Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until combined and creamy.
- Add in the vanilla and dry ingredients. Beat in the vanilla and salt. Add the flour and beat on low until combined. Beat in the mix-ins if using.
- Chill the dough. Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough. Roll each disc of dough to ¼-inch thick. Use a 2 and ½ inch round cookie cutter to cut cookies and place them 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake. Bake for 9-10 minutes. Cookies should be soft and appear under-baked. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool completely.
- Assemble the ice cream sandwiches. Remove the lid and inner seal from ice cream cups. Use scissors to cut the packaging away from the ice cream. Lay the ice cream on its side and slice it into 2 equal sized discs. Place ice cream between two cookie slices and enjoy!
Handy tip:
Using ice cream cups works well here. It saves the mess of scooping and smoothing out softened ice cream between the cookies. The small single cup size containers work well. Peel the container off of the ice cream, slice it in half and, voila! Two equal slices that will fit perfectly between two freshly baked vanilla sandwich cookies.
Tips For Success
- Don’t let the ice cream get too soft before you cut it or you will have a soupy mess
- Make sure the cookies have cooled completely before putting the ice cream slices between.
- You can make these ice cream sandwiches with some of my other favorite cookies. Try my s’mores cookies, my oatmeal butterscotch cookies, or my chocolate peanut butter cookies.
Storage & Freezing
Eat these immediately! You can also wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then place in a freezer bag to store them in the freezer for up to a month.
Let them thaw just a little bit before eating. You want them not so cold that they are too solid to eat, and not so thawed that they are a gloopy mess.
Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, softened
- ½ cup (60 g) confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (260 g) all-purpose flour, sifted
- ½ cup mix-ins, optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until combined and creamy.
- Beat in the vanilla and salt. Add the flour and beat on low until combined. Beat in the mix-ins if using.
- Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a disk. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- Roll each disc of dough to ¼-inch thick. Use a 2 and ½ inch round cookie cutter to cut cookies and place them 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 9-10 minutes. Cookies should be soft and appear underbaked. Leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool completely.
- Sandwich ice cream between 2 cookies. Serve immediately or place in an airtight container and freeze for up to 1 month.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided is for convenience and as a courtesy only. It is not guaranteed to be accurate because nutrition information can vary for a variety of reasons. For precise nutritional data use your preferred nutrition calculator and input the exact ingredients and brands you used in the recipe.
Strawberry short cake cookie sandwich baked. Thanks.
Cutting the ice cream the way you did is genius!!
It definitely made it much easier!
I freaking love ice cream sandwiches. These look amazing.
Thanks, Kim! They were a huge hit here!
These are totally making me drool! They look absolutely perfect!
They were devoured quite quickly!
Oh, these looks delightful!
Oh, these looks delightful!