If you are what you eat, we are currently part margarita (although I think we’re permanently part Margarita 🙂 ), part zucchini, part peach, and part ice cream sandwich.

We’ve been making ice cream sandwiches as a fun way to cool down at the end of the 100+ degree days. The possibilities for homemade ice cream sandwiches are nearly endless: any ice cream, sandwiched between any two cookies. It can be as quick and easy as you need, or as fussy as you want.

For the last batch that I made, we chose fussy over quick. Festive over classic. I converted a standard chocolate ice cream sandwich cookie recipe into a red velvet cookie. A soft, very red cookie with barely a hint of cocoa. Very pretty. And since red velvet is often paired with cream cheese, we filled the sandwiches with a tangy frozen yogurt.

You can cut any shape you like with that drawer full of cookie cutters or simply opt for the classic rectangle cookie. Either way, it will be a little messy. And a lot of fun.

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Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches

A festive twist on the classic ice cream sandwich.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting work area
• 2 Tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• pinch salt
• 6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp red gel coloring
• 1 1/2 pints softened ice cream or frozen yogurt

Instructions

1. Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes.
3. Add vanilla and egg, mixing until combined.
4. Add red food coloring to the bowl and then slowly add the dry ingredients to the mixer and mix on low.
5. Turn the dough out onto plastic wrap, press into a disk, wrap well, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Roll dough out to 1/8-inch thick on a well floured surface.
7. Cut 12 4-inch circles out of the dough and transfer to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets. Re-roll any dough scraps to cut more cookies.
8. Poke holes in the cookies with a fork and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 350.
10. Bake cookies for 7-8 minutes for soft cookies, 8-10 for crunchier cookies (the crunchier cookies hold up better to all the handling/smooshing/filling).
11. Let cool before sandwiching cookies with ~1/2 cup softened ice cream.
12. Place into the freezer for at least 15 minutes to refreeze the ice cream.
13. Store in the freezer.

Notes

Yields: 6-8 ice cream sandwiches

Cookie recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Estimated time: 1 hour 45 minutes