Ice Cream Sandwiches

Why This Ice Cream Sandwiches Works

Once the ice cream sits out for a few minutes, it softens just enough to spread without melting into a puddle. At this stage it is still cold and thick, so it can be pressed between two cookies and stay in place. When the top cookie goes on and is pressed gently, the ice cream pushes out to the edges and fills all the gaps, which keeps the sandwich even and easier to hold.

As the finished sandwiches sit in the freezer, the ice cream firms back up and bonds to the cookies. Over that hour, the ice cream hardens again, and the cookies absorb just a tiny bit of moisture from the ice cream. The cookies stay chewy, but they lose that hard snap, so they are easier to bite through without squeezing all the ice cream out. Wrapped in plastic, the sandwiches don’t dry out, and the sprinkles stay stuck to the sides instead of falling off.

Mistakes To Avoid

Letting the ice cream soften too much turns it almost liquid, so it squeezes right out when the cookies are pressed together. Instead of a neat sandwich, the ice cream floods the sides, and once frozen, the layer inside ends up very thin and icy.

Skipping the final freeze or cutting it short leaves the sandwiches soft in the center. The ice cream squishes out the sides as soon as someone bites into it, and the cookies slide around instead of holding together as one piece.

Using rock-hard cookies straight from a dry package makes another problem. When the top cookie is pressed down, the ice cream doesn’t spread evenly, the cookies can crack, and later in the freezer the whole sandwich feels very hard instead of easy to bite.

Rolling the sides in sprinkles while the ice cream is still too firm often means the sprinkles don’t stick well. Many fall off in the pan or wrapper, and the coating looks patchy instead of forming a solid ring around the ice cream.