Valentine’s Day ice cream sandwiches for an easy win
You’ll love these easy Valentine’s Day ice cream sandwiches made with my favorite soft chocolate sandwich cookie, whatever flavor ice cream flavor you love and some sprinkles.
My kids love ice cream sandwiches, but the more I bake, the more I’m reminded that homemade cookies on an ice cream sandwich makes a fun dessert a million times better. I’ve been using my Gram’s chocolate sandwich cookies as a base for ice cream sandwiches for decades, and they’re always a hit.
This is the perfect dessert for a kids’ Valentine’s party or just an at home celebration with your family. The cookies are easy enough for kids to make, and they will love helping you dip the edges in sprinkles. It’s a win win win win recipe!
Let’s bake.
Valentine’s Day Ice Cream sandwiches
What you’ll love (pun so very intended)
- Eating the scraps: This cookie is so tasty, and once you cut out the hearts, you’ll have scraps. You can sprinkle those over a cup of ice cream or eat them like we did, straight off the pan. My kids have helped me in the kitchen since they were bittle, and we call things like this “treats for the kitchen helpers!”
- The revelation that you can make ice cream sandwiches at home: Truly, the first time you make an ice cream sandwich with a homemade cookie, it will blow your mind. Not only are they elevate the particular genre of dessert, you’ll wonder why you haven’t made these before.
- Sprinkles!!!: Sprinkles make everything more fun. You could skip them, but that would be boring.
Ingredients for Valentines Ice Cream Sandwiches
- Coconut oil (vegetable shortening in the original recipe).
- Granulated sugar
- Egg.
- Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
- Flour: all-purpose.
- Cocoa: Dutch process like Droste, Hershey’s, or Hershey’s Special Dark
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Whole milk
- Ice cream: any flavor or make a batch of easy no-churn ice cream
- Sprinkles: Pink is great for Valentine’s Day, but use whatever you’d like.
Equipment needed
- Heart cookie cutter: I’m using a plain heart that measures 2 1/2″ x 3″. Choose a cutter around this size or larger for easy filling of the sandwiches.
- Offset spatula : This makes filling the sandwiches easy. You can spread the ice cream and then fill in gaps or scrape off any excess ice cream from the edges of the sandwiches.
Process for making Valentine’s Ice Cream sandwiches
- Make the batter
- Scoop the cookies: you could bake the batter in one layer in a sheet pan, though you won’t get the risen middles of the cookies. Instead, I prefer to make them like drop cookies, spooning a bit of batter in dollops on a baking sheet.
- Cut the cookies: Cut the cookie with a heart shaped cutter.
- Fill the cookies: Soften your ice cream of choice, and then spread a layer of ice cream on the bottom of one sandwich. Cover the ice cream with a second sandwich. Use an offset spatula to add a little extra ice cream if you see any gaps on the side of your sandwich. Also scrape off any excess ice cream with the offset spatula .
- Dip: Dip the edges of the sandwiches in sprinkles.
- Freeze: Freeze the sandwiches for at least an hour just to firm up the ice cream.
What can I fill ice cream sandwiches with?
You can use any ice cream for ice cream sandwiches, but for these Valentine’s ice cream sandwiches, I would suggest these:
- Strawberry Matcha Ice Cream
- Raspberry Swirl ice cream
- Blackberry Crumble ice cream
- Cookies and Cream
- Chocolate Caramel Swirl
Valentine’s Day ice cream sandwiches
- Total Time: about 2 hours
- Yield: 12 sandwiches depending on the cutter used 1x
Description
Soft delicious chocolate cookies get cut into heart shapes, sandwiched with a layer of good ice cream and dipped in sprinkles for a simple Valentine’s treat everyone will love. This is a great recipe to make with your kids, if for no other reason than eating the cookie scraps!
Ingredients
Cookie batter
- 8 Tablespoons coconut oil (120 g)
- 2/3 cup sugar (133 g)
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (195 g)
- 6 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder such as Hershey’s Special Dark (30 g)
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup whole milk, cold (118 mL)
Filling
- 1 pint ice cream, softened, any flavor
- Sprinkles, preferably pink
Instructions
Make the batter
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Line two baking sheets with parchment . Set the racks on the oven in the upper and bottom thirds. This will let you bake 2 sheets at the same time.
- Beat the coconut oil and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer until it is fluffy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until you have a smooth mixture.
- Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
- Add about 1/3 of the flour mixture to the coconut oil mixture, and then mix until the flour just disappears.
- To finish the batter, add in half of the milk, another 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the milk, then the rest of the flour. Mix each addition briefly before adding the next.
- Finish off by scraping the bowl all the way to the bottom and folding the batter over on itself a few times so the batter is well mixed.
- Scrape the batter into a large soup spoon, and then slide it off your finger onto one of the prepared sheets in slightly oval shaped mounds. Finish scooping all the cookies onto the baking sheets.
Baking the cookies
- Bake for 6 minutes.
- Open the oven and spin the baking trays 180 degrees, then swap them from top to bottom and bottom to top.
- Bake for another 6 minutes. They’re done when the middle springs back on one of cookies when you lightly press it.
- Let the cookies cool completely on the cookie sheet you baked them on.
Making the sandwiches
- Cut heart shapes out of the center of each cookie with a cookie cutter.
- Zap the ice cream you’re using in the microwave for a few seconds so that it’s soft enough to spread.
- Line a small tray with parchment paper and place it in the freezer. Pour in a few tablespoons of sprinkles into the bottom of a small bowl.
- Flip over one of the cookies and spoon a scoop of the softened ice cream on top.
- Cover the ice cream with a second cookie to make a sandwich. Use an offset spatula to add a little extra ice cream if you see any gaps on the side of your sandwich. Also scrape off any excess ice cream with the offset spatula.
- Dip the edges of the sandwich in the sprinkles, and then immediately place it on the tray so that the ice cream doesn’t melt further while you’re making the rest of the sandwiches.
- Fill the rest of the cookies.
- Let the sandwiches freeze for about 1 hour before serving.
- Save any extra cookies in the freezer, but wrap them well in plastic wrap or parchment before popping them in a larger plastic bag.
Notes
Cookie scraps: Yes, there will be scraps of cookies once you cut out the middles with the heart cutter. It’s up to you what you do with them, but don’t toss them! They’re great eaten straight from the pan, sprinkled over a small cup of ice cream, or made into a parfait with pudding. I’m sure you’ll do the right thing!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- + 1 hour freezing time:
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
