Even without adornments, cookie ice cream sandwiches are hard to beat. An ample scoop of rich ice cream wedged between two chewy cookies — what’s not to like? And with all the different varieties of cookies and ice cream available in stores (even more, if you include homemade), the sheer number of flavor pairings is limitless. But if you’re up for taking it all a step further, you can give these tempting treats their glow-up. Whether you’re cutting them into fun shapes, coating the edges with tasty, colorful bits, or dipping, drizzling, or even sneaking in surprise fillings, there’s no shortage of easy ways to dress up your cookie ice cream sandwiches.
The best thing about it? It’s tailor-made for fun! When it comes to bedazzling these lil babies, it can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Short on time? Buy premade ice cream sandwiches and skip directly to the creative part. Go all in, baking fresh cookies and mixing up a batch of homemade no-churn ice cream, giving you total control over your glorious frozen confection. Buy cookies and ice cream and assemble these icy cookie sammys yourself — or any combination in between. Mix things up at your next gathering by offering your guests a DIY cookie ice cream sandwich station, keeping things simple while also giving kids and adults a fun experience to mix and match tasty embellishments and achieve their best ice cream sandwiches.
Edge coatings
One of the easiest (and probably the most fun) ways to dress up cookie ice cream sandwiches is to coat the edge of the ice cream. Not only does this add a new flavor dimension and a dazzling visual, but it also provides another exciting textural element. In fact, this is an option where you can let your imagination run wild. Peak coatings run the gamut from the classic rainbow sprinkles (homemade sprinkles are easier than you think) all the way to finely chopped nuts like pistachios, pecans, and peanuts. Smashed-up store-bought cookie faves such as Oreos or frosted Mother’s Circus Animals and crushed-up candy bars like Butterfinger, Reese’s, or Skor (those shards of chocolatey-buttery-toffee just cannot be beaten) are a taste sensation, as are crumbled brownie or blondie bits. Tiny nonpareils, Andes creme de menthe chunks, and chocolate mini-chips all amp up your treats with stunning good looks and taste.
To achieve ice cream sandwich nirvana, place your gildings in flat, shallow bowls (paper plates work well too), grip the ice cream sandwich on either side, pinching the cookies, then slowly roll the ice cream’s edge, like a wheel, through your goodies. It’s best for the ice cream to be a little soft so the stuff has something to adhere to, but not so soft that your ice cream sandwich falls apart. This is particularly great as a DIY birthday party activity that’s loads of fun for the kiddos.
Dipping
Another way to spruce up your cookie ice cream sandwiches is by dipping them. If you’ve ever had a dipped soft-serve cone, you know the textural treat that lies beyond the crunchy outer shell, cradling soft, creamy ice cream beneath. Add this to the already irresistible combination of velvety cool ice cream sandwiched between two chewy cookies and you’ll be in utter bliss. Dipping your ice cream sandwich in warm liquid that’s soon-to-be a solid is well, in a word — magic! (Something Smucker’s no doubt recognized when naming its version of this miracle of modern toppings, Magic Shell). While Smucker’s brand comes in chocolate, caramel, and unicorn flavors, you can kick up the variety at home by making your own versions with flavored chips and just one key ingredient: coconut oil.
To DIY your very own dipped cookie ice cream sandwich, you must first choose from chip flavors like milk or dark chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, mint, or peanut butter (or any other incarnation you enjoy). Next, melt down your chips using a double boiler or microwave (taking care not to overcook), then add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil for every 1 cup of chips, stirring until emulsified. Finally, dip your pre-constructed ice cream sammies. You’ll want to do this right away before the mixture cools. You can make one flavor or dip multiple, layering their effect. Dip half the bar or the whole thing, adding sprinkles, nuts, etc. before it sets.
Tasty fillings
Want to surprise and delight all who indulge in your frosty treats? Add even more delicious flare to your ice cream sandwiches by hiding a luscious barrier between cookie and ice cream in the form of nutty peanut butter, gooey Nutella, rich chocolate ganache (just know the absolute best type of chocolate to use), sticky caramel, fluffy marshmallow cream, or dark hot fudge. Simply layer these tasty spreads on the backside of your cookies before scooping ice cream in between.
Try pairing a variety of nut butters like cashew, macadamia, almond, and even pistachio to complement the flavors of your ice cream and cookies. Want to recreate that viral Dubai chocolate bar everyone’s been buzzing about in a toothsome cookie ice cream sandwich? Mix pistachio butter and tahini and spread it inside chocolate chip cookies before slipping in thick-cut rounds of pistachio ice cream, rolling the edges in knafeh and drizzling dark and white chocolate on the outside of the cookies. Delish! Smear on salted caramel sauce and edge vanilla bean ice cream with candied butter pecans, or spoon on homemade speculoos cookie butter, before sprinkling the edges with crushed honeycomb toffee.
Drizzles
Want all the flavor of dipping but in a subtler style sans the fuss? Melted chocolate, candy quick, or any flavored chip on hand make for a fine drizzle topping to both beautify and scintillate. Butterscotch, peanut butter, chocolate, mint, and white chocolate chips make for excellent set-as-it-cools drizzles. Carefully melt your chocolate or chip of choice down to a warm liquid (Tips for melting chocolate: Never overheat, as your chocolate can seize and won’t drizzle but rather clump, and check your chips for stabilizers which can inhibit the melting process). Then, drizzle the melty liquid over the top of your assembled ice cream sandwiches, cookie-face-up.
If you lay them close together on a single cooling rack or baking pan, you can finish your drizzle in a flash. Be sure to allow time for it to solidify before eating. Layer drizzles in alternating directions for a fancier flourish and more complex flavor combinations like: peanut butter-milk chocolate, white chocolate-butterscotch, or dark chocolate-mint for a one-two flavor punch.
Shapes on theme
Want to pump up the fun as you dress up your cookie ice cream sandwiches? This tip might not be a flavor game-changer, but it is a showstopper visually. Use deep cookie cutters in varying sizes to spark creativity in your ice cream sandwich shapes, tailoring them to fit any holiday or party theme. St. Patrick’s Day splurge? Pair chocolate stout cookies with Irish buttercream (tinging the buttercream with green food coloring) and fill with mint chip ice cream before cutting into festive shamrock shapes. Make red velvet crinkle cookies with cheesecake ice cream, then cut into happy hearts, edged in heart-shaped sprinkles for a Galentine’s Day snack. Bonus treat? Leftover cookie edges can be mixed with leftover ice cream for a homemade spin on cookies and cream or simply freeze the crumbled cookie remnants for use later to top your next ultimate sundae.
Ice cream sandwiches already have so much going for them. They’re super yummy, low-effort, and well, pretty forgiving (I mean, it’s really hard to bungle smashing cookies and ice cream together — even if you’re a stranger to the kitchen). They’re portable, both kids and adults love ’em, and they’re easily customizable to your taste, texture, and effort preferences, which means you’re sure to find your ultimate combination. Just remember, the only thing better than dressing up cookie ice cream sandwiches is eating the results.
