Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches are the ultimate summer treat with homemade red velvet cookies, vanilla ice cream, and red white and blue sprinkles for the Fourth of July or Memorial Day! Make them ahead of time for the BBQ.
How to Make Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches
The Ice Cream
- For the ice cream, feel free to use store-bought ice cream to make this recipe easier.
- If you want to make EASY homemade ice cream, check out my post on How to Make Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Machine! I actually have a flavor variation for “cheesecake” that would be perfect for these ice cream sandwiches.
The Cookies
- These sandwiches use my from scratch Red Velvet Cookie recipe as the base. The cookies can be made and frozen weeks in advance.
- I find this recipe works perfectly because the cookies are sturdy enough to hold their shape but not so crunchy that they nearly chip your teeth when you bite into them frozen.
How to Assemble Perfect Ice Cream Sandwiches
- If you’ve just shaped your cookies into rounds then you can simply scoop out your ice cream and sandwich with abandon.
- However, if you’re using a cookie cutter to get perfectly shaped sandwiches (as pictured) then pay attention here.
- The first step is to allow the ice cream to soften then to spread it into a large rimmed baking dish. Then return it to the freezer. This will allow you to stamp out shapes of ice cream using the same cookie cutter you used for the cookie dough. What kind of baking dish should you use? Whatever you have that will allow you to stamp out 12 pieces of ice cream. Obviously the larger the dish, the thinner you ice cream layer will be.
- As you assemble you’ll likely need to pop the fresh ice cream sandwiches in the freezer before they’re all assembled. Start with everything cold so you don’t have to fight against melting. But you can always return the ice cream to the freezer if it gets too warm as you assemble.
- For extra perfect ice cream sandwiches, you can actually take the same cookie cutter you used to initially shape the cookie dough and use it again on the baked cookies. This will trim off any spread that occurred while baking so the edge of the ice cream and the edge of the cookies are perfectly aligned.
How to Decorate Ice Cream Sandwiches
- If you’re making these for the Fourth of July or Memorial Day then red, white, and blue sprinkles are the perfect decoration!
- If you’re making them for Valentine’s Day then you can cut the cookies into hearts and use pink sprinkles.
- You can also drizzle these cookies with white chocolate for a fun and flavorful decoration.
- Lastly, you can even make this recipe for St. Patrick’s Day. Just use green food coloring instead of red. Maybe even swap in Mint Chocolate Chip or Irish Cream ice cream for the filling!
How to Store Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
- To freeze the sandwiches for longer than a day, wrap them individually in plastic and and them pop them in an airtight container for a week. They may keep even longer than that depending on your freezer.
How to Serve Ice Cream Sandwiches
- If your sandwiches have been in the freezer for an extended period of time, you may want to allow them to sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This way they’re not rock solid.
Ingredients
- 24 red velvet cookies, shaped into stars
- 2 pints vanilla or cheesecake flavored ice cream
- Sprinkles, if desired
Directions
- Allow the ice cream to sit at room temperature until softened. Line a large rimmed baking pan (or another similar large, flat containewith parchment paper or plastic wrap. Spread softened ice cream evenly over lined baking sheet. Press additional plastic wrap against the surface of the ice cream. Freeze until totally firm, at least 2 hours or up to 3 days. The longer you freeze, the easier it will be to form the ice cream sandwiches.
- When ready to assemble, remove ice cream sheet from freezer. Using the same cookie cutter you used for shaping the cookies, cut out shapes of ice cream and sandwich it between two cookies. Place on a rimmed tray and if the pop into the freezer as you assemble all the sandwiches, adding more to the freezer to keep them cold.
- Repeat for remaining cookies, working quickly. If ice cream begins to melt, return to freezer until firm again.
- Freeze sandwiches until firm, at least 1 hour, before serving.
- Sandwiches can be individually wrapped in plastic and stored in freezer for up to 1 week. Let sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.
