Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches | Karen’s Kitchen Stories

These homemade ice cream sandwiches, with vanilla ice cream tucked between two brownie-style cookies, are a fun way to beat the heat. 

 

Ice cream sandwiches have always been one of my favorite desserts. They are so portable and versatile. In fact, you can think of this recipe as a base that you can play with to customize and make it your own. 

While most ice cream sandwiches begin with a cookie base, these begin with a brownie-like outer layer, which is slightly softer than a hard cookie and does not squeeze out the softer ice cream as you take a bite. 

Plus, along with being softer, the brownie layer is slightly thicker than an ice cream sandwich cookie. It’s still much thinner and more sturdy than an actual brownie. 

Rather than baking individual cookies, you bake the the cookie/brownie layer in a single slab on a jelly roll or sheet pan, cut it in half and fill it with the ice cream, and then cut the sandwiches into whatever size you want. 

The biggest challenge with making these ice cream sandwiches is a maintaining big enough empty space in your freezer to freeze and then re-freeze the sandwiches after softening the ice cream. 

Ingredients You’ll Need for these Ice Cream Sandwiches:

From the Pantry: All purpose flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract. 

Semi-Sweet Chocolate: I used mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can also use a chopped semi-sweet chocolate bar. 

From the Fridge: Unsalted butter and eggs. 

Ice Cream: I used vanilla ice cream for a traditional chocolate and vanilla treat. You can use either homemade or store bought. Use an ice cream that is easy for you to work with as you are spreading it and cutting it. 

I’ve heard that the richer, more expensive ice creams soften faster, which is something to keep in mind as you are assembling these treats. A lot of your timing depends on the weather too! 

How to Make these Ice Cream Sandwiches:

First, make the cookie/brownie layer. Melt the chocolate, along with the butter, vanilla, and salt together over low heat until just melted. Remove the mix from the heat and add the sugars. Once the sugars are blended in, stir in the eggs, one at a time. 

Next, add the flour and baking soda to the mixture and combine everthing together. 

Once the batter is mixed, spread it evenly over a parchment lined jelly roll pan and bake for about 15 minutes. Let everything cool in the pan. Move the baked cookie/brownie layer to a cutting board and cut it in half, widthwise. 

After that, soften the ice cream just enough to make it easier to spread, and dollop it over one of the halves. Using an offset spatula, smooth out the ice cream and top it with the other half of the brownie.

Transfer the uncut sandwich to a quartersheet pan or tray and wrap everything in plastic wrap. Place the whole thing in the freezer. At this point, you can either continue to make your ice cream sandwiches once the ice cream firms up, or you can continue later, even the next day! 

Finally, when you’re ready to finish making these, remove the pan from the freezer and cut the slab into sandwiches. I made 16 smallish ice cream sandwiches. You can make yours as large or as small as you like. 

Equipment I Used:

Saucier Pan: A saucier pan is like a sauce pan, except that the sides are curved like a bowl, making it easier to mix your ingredients. You don’t “need” one, but once you try one, you’ll really enjoy cooking with it. Plus, you’ll have less bowls to wash because the saucier does double duty. I used it for melting the chocolate and then stirring in the eggs and then the flour. 

Jelly Roll Pan: A jelly roll pan is slightly smaller (typically 15 inches by 11 inches) than a half sheet pan and is just the right size for baking the chocolate cookie/brownie. If you only have a half sheet pan, you can just mark and fold your parchment to measure how big to make the cookie. 

Quarter Sheet Pan: I used this smaller size for filling and freezing the cookie halves with the ice cream. It’s the perfect size. You can stick with the jelly roll pan for sure, but I liked downsizing once I cut the large cookie in half. 

Large Serrated Knife: For cutting the large “sandwich” into individual servings. First, lightly score the chocolate cookie with the knife to mark where you will be cutting. Then, use the knife to cut the rest of the way through, pressing down after cutting through the top layer. 

This knife also great for slicing artisan bread. 

Offset Spatula: For spreading tthe brownie batter over the pan before baking, and later the ice cream between the cookie layers. It’s also great for neatening up the ice cream on the sides of the sandwiches if it gets too melty. 

Recipe Variation Ideas:

Once you’ve mastered these ice cream sandwiches, there are many ways you can play with the recipe to make these extra special. 

You can decorate the sides of the ice cream sandwiches with your favorite or seasonal sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, choppd nuts, or cookie crumbs. 

You can also partially dip the assembled ice cream sandwiches in chocolate or Magic Shell and and sprinkle with nuts or sprinkles. 

Another variation would be to spread the inside of one of the cookie/brownie halves with a thin layer of hot fudge topping sandwiching it over the ice cream. 

Of course you can play with the ice cream flavor too. I’m looking forward to trying these with Mexican chocolate ice cream and mint chocolate chip ice cream. 

Storage: 

Keep these ice cream sandwiches in the freezer individually wrapped in parchment paper or plastic wrap in an airtight container for up to three months. I’m sure they won’t last that long. 

P.S. If you like getting creative with ice cream, especially on hot summer days (and evenings), you will want to try making my Big Ice Cream Taco! 

Summer Desserts Week!

Welcome to this year’s #SummerDessertWeek event hosted by Angie from Big Bear’s Wife. We’ve got 10 spectacular bloggers/ blogs creating some of the best summer desserts this week and sharing the recipes! We will be sharing our recipes on our blogs (some of those recipe links posted in this post) and on social media with the hashtag #SummerDessertWeek

We hope you’ll find some new favorite recipes this week and have fun with us as we celebrate summer!

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes. The recipe is by Summer Miller, the auther of the book New Prairie Kitchen.