Ice Cream Sandwich

You live and you learn. Whenever I’ve seen ice cream sandwiches (especially the kinds made from cookies), I would laugh and think – pssssh, I can make that. I now I have a new found respect for those ice cream cookie makers. The people, not the machines, that is!

The heat wave finally broke, it was raining and and I was inspired to spend some time in the kitchen. July 4th is coming up. All-American holiday, needs an All-American treat. The sandwich came to mind and I was excited to try it out! All of the “recipes” I found said to use the pre-made dough or to buy the cookies. Now, what would I learn from that?!? Good ‘ole Nestle has their classic chocolate chip recipe, which I followed as my first step. (The recipe is one the back of their bag of chocolate chip  or you can find it here! )

Cookie dough is made – ready to go into the oven!

While scooping the cookies I wasn’t sure how big I should make them. When eating a sandwich, you’ll be having two plus the ice cream. That’s a lot. Then I realized I had a lot of cookie dough and decided to make 1/2 of them the usual size and the other half a little smaller. Duh?!

Helpful hint: line the cooling rack with wax paper to avoid the cookies from being indented! It also makes for an easy clean up

Cookies are made. I am awesome. Oh wait, not done.

When looking/researching on the internet different ways to make an ice cream sandwich, many suggested to let the ice cream sit for a few minutes, so that it could soften.

Please notice the ice cream already melting. Woof.

Not necessarily panicking, but this doesn’t look good.

Letting the ice cream soften, nope, don’t do it.

Thank goodness I made a full batch of cookies. Let’s try this again.

Call me a rebel,  I did exactly the opposite of what they (various websites) told me to do because it clearly didn’t set me up for success the first try. So I set 2 cookies and the ice cream in the freezer for a good 45 minutes. No way I was letting any melting go on this time.

I don’t know about you…but I think that that looks pretty solid. Literally.

Squishing the cookies together. {Sigh} It looks so much better!

 You would’ve thought I just hit a walk-off homerun to win the game, I was so pumped. The ice cream sandwich was not only was edible, but it wasn’t messy either.

I put the sprinkles in the bowl because it kept them from rolling away, moving…it’s just easier. (I had originally tried it in a plate and it didn’t work.)

For the 4th, I decided to add some red, white and blue sprinkles to make it look festive.

Drum roll please…

Finished product!

It’s not the “perfect” sandwich you would get packaged at  a grocery store, but it’s made with TLC and it tasted great! I also like it better that both the ice cream and the cookies were so cold, to give someone a chance to eat it before they wear it. It also makes it a lot easier to wrap them in saran wrap (make them ahead of time, in bulk!).

Ingredients 

Chocolate chip cookies (I included the Nestle recipe above, pre-made cookie dough would work also)

An ice cream flavor of your choice

Sprinkles to add some color!

Bowl of room-warm temperature water

Directions

Once chocolate chip cookies have cooled, place them in the freezer for up to 45 minutes. The purpose is to get them cold enough to not melt the ice cream. While they are cooling, place sprinkles in a bowl.

Lay 2 cookies on a plate bottoms facing up (flat side…)

Dip your ice cream scooper into the water. Get a large enough portion of ice cream to cover most of one side.

Using your second cookie, form a sandwich and “squish” them together so that the ice cream moves to the edge of the cookies.

Immediately roll it in the sprinkles! Use as many or as few as you’d like. Chocolate chips could be another option to use.

Eat right away or place back in the freezer until you are ready!

*If  ice cream & cookies are too cold, let them sit out for a few minutes and they’ll soften up!