Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen while I was looking for a recipe to make today. She calls them brownie roll-out cookies, but mentions in passing that they’d be good for ice cream sandwiches. As soon as I read that, there was no stopping me. I had to make them! Surprise—I did. And they are awesome.

Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup margarine or butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Whisk dry flour, salt and baking powder in bowl and set aside.

Mix butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and cocoa in mixer.

Gradually add flour mixture, and mix until smooth. NOTE: My mixer isn’t the best for heavy doughs, so I had to incorporate the last bit of the flour mixture by hand. Use wet or floured hands if you do this. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour.

Roll out cookie dough on floured surface. Cut into desired shapes, brushing extra deposits of flour off the top. NOTE: Use larger cookie cutters! Small ones will make your cookies tiny and crunchy, and that’s no fun. Mine were probably 3.5ish inches in diameter. Use any shapes you like. Also, don’t worry if your dough’s surface is a little floury going into the oven, because it will most likely bake off. I found that I didn’t need a whole lot of flour though—but I was rolling on a cloth surface.

This is about the thickness you want—between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. It’ll make for really yummy, chewy cookies. If you want crunchy cookies, go thinner.

At this point, I also sprinkled the tops with granulated sugar just for kicks. You could also do this with turbinado sugar if you have some to make them really pretty.

Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8 to 11 minutes (the former for 1/8-inch thick cookies, the latter for 1/4-inch cookies) until the edges are firm and the centers are slightly soft and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are awesome. Soft, chewy, and chocolatey. They’re perfect all on their own.

But you know what makes them even better?

Ice cream! But isn’t that true of most things? Use a cookie scoop to put a dollop of vanilla ice cream on the underside of one cookie, then smush it down with a knife and top it with the other cookie. They don’t have to be perfect, because it won’t be sitting on your plate for more than a few seconds before you gobble it up!

Make sure your ice cream isn’t rock hard before doing this! Mine was, so I heated it up in the microwave for about five seconds. But then I lollygagged for too long and it got melty, but that was just fine by me. Still delicious.

If you want to make these in advance for a party or guests, just make the cookies and put them aside. When you’re ready to serve, top with ice cream. So simple and so good!

Enjoy!