Chewy cookie ice cream sandwiches made with confetti sugar cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

What’s not to love about ice cream sandwiches? It’s everything you could want in a summer sweet treat!
Make these cookie ice cream sandwiches ahead of time and keep your freezer stocked all season long. Choose to make everything from scratch, or simply fill the sandwiches with your favorite store-bought ice cream.
Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich
These ice cream sandwiches are easy to customize to your preferences. Swap out the confetti sugar cookies for chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter chip cookies.
Use any flavor of ice cream, gelato, or sorbet! The ice cream can be homemade, no-churn, or store-bought. The choice is all yours! The recipe notes will have all the tips and notes to make it easy to make these frozen treats just way you like ’em!
Kitchen Tools and Equipment
- Two 9×13-inch baking pans: These are also called quarter sheet pans. You need two pans to bake the two cookie sandwich layers at the same time.
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment or Electric Hand Mixer: If you don’t have either machine, you can certainly mix the dough together by hand using a sturdy spatula.
- Kitchen Scale: For best results, I highly recommend using a kitchen scale to measure out ingredients. Measuring by weight ensures consistent results. Alternatively, use the “stir and spoon method” for volume measurements (cups and tablespoons).
- Food Plastic Wrap: Also known as cling film or food wrap, you will need this to hold together assembled cookie ice cream sandwich as it firms up in the freezer.
- Knife: Use a long sharp knife, ideally a chef’s knife (8-inches in length) to slice and portion off the frozen ice cream cookie sandwiches.
- Ruler: Of course you can estimate and eye-ball the measurements. However, if you want equal sized portions, use a ruler! I recommend one of these clear acrylic rulers.
Ingredients
The recipe uses your standard cookie dough ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. The key difference in the dough is the use of both butter and oil.
- Grape Seed Oil: I recommend using a neutral flavored oil like grape seed oil or avocado oil. Refined coconut oil, rice bran oil, or vegetable oil are also good options.
- The small amount of oil in the cookie dough prevents the cookie from completely freezing solid. It allows the cookie to soften faster when taken out of the freezer.
- All-Purpose Flour: For best results, measure your flour using a kitchen scale. Otherwise, you the stir and spoon method linked above in the equipment section. For consistency, I test and create all my recipes using King Arthur Baking Company all-purpose flour.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Use highly quality PURE vanilla extract. Alternatively, you may use vanilla bean paste or scrape out fresh vanilla bean pods. Or, you can use almond extract for a different flavor.
- Sprinkles: I highly recommend these naturally colored sprinkles- India Tree Nature’s in Carnival Mix and Watkin’s No Artificial Dyes Rainbow Sprinkles.
- Alternatively, you may use mini chocolate chips, jimmies, or flavored chip/morsels of your choice. Keep in mind- standard sized chocolate chips or chopped chocolate chunks will be more difficult to cut through when portioning the sandwiches.
- Or, simply omit mix-ins all together, like the image below.
Cookie Sandwich Variations
The cookie dough recipe used here is very versatile! Follow the instructions as is to make confetti sugar cookies. Or, switch up the mix-ins to customize the cookie layer to your liking.
Here are some key notes regarding variations and changes:
- Chocolate Chip Cookies: For best results, use mini chocolate chips or small chopped chocolate bar bits. It will be easier to slice the cookies with the mini chips. Standard sized chocolate chip morsels or chopped chocolate chunks are more difficult to slice through when portioning the sandwiches. Use 1 cup mini chocolate chips, about 200 grams in weight.
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip: Brown the butter for rich, nutty flavor! In a small sauce pot, melt butter over medium heat. Continue to cook until butter smells fragrant. The mixture will bubble and foam as it cooks. The milk solids will turn rich brown. Remove from heat and pour into a heat safe bowl. Cool for at least 30 minutes before adding to remaining ingredient.
- Plain: Skip the sprinkles and bake the cookie dough as is. It will look like the photo above.
- Peanut Butter Chip: Swap in Reese’s Baking peanut butter chips in place of the sprinkles.
- Snickerdoodle (Cinnamon Sugar): Omit the sprinkles. Spread the cookie dough into baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon. Sprinkle as little or as much of the cinnamon sugar mixture over cookie dough.
- Cookies and Cream (Oreo): Omit the sprinkles. Fold in 1 cup chopped Oreo cookies into the batter.
Mixing Cookie Dough
How to Assemble Ice Cream Sandwiches
Pro Tips for Slicing and Serving
- Use a long sharp knife (preferably an 8-inch chef’s knife or 10-inch knife). I don’t recommend using a serrated knife.
- Make sure the ice cream sandwich has been resting in the freezer for at least 2 hours before slicing. I recommend leaving the assembled sandwich rest in the freezer overnight (or about 6-8 hours for best slicing results).
- Store-bought ice cream and homemade churned ice cream works best. These ice cream are generally more stable. Homemade no-churn ice cream is often softer and melts a lot faster.
- Use a ruler to portion out even-sized ice cream sandwiches.
- Slice off the edges for snacking. The edges are usually rough and uneven. Cut them off for better presentation and appearance.
Storage Instructions
You can individually wrap the portioned out cookie sandwiches in plastic wrap. Then, place in a freezer-safe bag. It will last in the freezer for up to a month.
Or, place the portioned out sandwiches in a single layer inside an airtight container (like a tuppeware). Then, place container in a giant freezer safe bag. Store in the freezer.
Keep these ice cream sandwiches in the coldest part of your freezer. When ready to eat, remove from the freezer and allow sandwich to sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes.
The cookie layer needs that time to soften. The cookies will not freeze rock hard thanks to the oil in the cookie dough.
Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
Fill your cookie sandwiches with your very own homemade ice cream! Here are some unique ice cream recipes:
Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich
Equipment
- 2 quarter sheet pans (9×13-inch rimmed baking sheets)
- stand mixer or electric hand mixer
Ingredients
- ยพ cup unsalted butter, (170 g) softened, room temp
- ยผ cup + 2 Tbsp grape seed oil, (75 g), or other neutral flavored oil
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar, (225 g)
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp light brown sugar, (225 g)
- 3 large eggs, , room temp
- 2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cup all-purpose flour, (390 g)
- ยพ teaspoon baking powder
- ยพ teaspoon baking soda
- ยพ teaspoon kosher salt*
- ยพ cup sprinkles of choice*
- 1.5 quart ice cream of choice*
Instructions
Cookie:
- Preheat oven to 325โ. Line two 9×13-inch baking pans (quarter sheet pans) with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using an electric hand mixer), cream together butter, oil, sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed.
- Add in eggs and vanilla. Continue to mix on low-medium speed until well combined. Scrape down sides of bowl as needed to ensure thorough mixing.
- In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add dry flour mixture to the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed just until there are no longer any dry streaks of flour.
- Use a spatula to fold in sprinkles until distributed through cookie batter.
- Divide cookie batter equally between the two prepared baking pans. Use a mini offset spatula to spread cookie dough into an even layer. If desired, distribute additional sprinkles over the top of cookie dough.
- Bake in the center rack of oven for 16-18 minutes until the edges are barely set. The cookies will look underdone. Remove from oven and let cookies cool in the pan. Run an offset spatula along the edges of the cookie to loosen from pan. Keep cookie sheet in pan.
- Cool cookie sheets to room temperature. They will be fragile at this point.*
Assembly:
- Remove 1.5 quart ice cream container from the freezer 10 minutes before assembling ice cream sandwiches.
- Unmold cooled cookie sheets from pan. Remove parchment paper baking. Trim edges of cookie sheets if edges are raised or misshapen.
- Place one cookie sheet upside down on flat work surface. Scoop entire contents of 1.5 quart ice cream container and place in center of cookie sheet. Spread ice cream into an even layer using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Sandwich ice cream layer with second cookie sheet. Press down firmly. Wrap assembled ice cream sandwich tightly in plastic wrap. It's a good idea to wrap it twice. Place on a flat surface (like a baking sheet) and transfer to freezer to firm up, at least 2 hours.
- For best results, leave assembled ice cream sandwich in the freezer for 6-8 hours. Place in the coldest part of the freezer.
- Remove from freezer and immediately slice into desired portions. Use a long sharp knife and a ruler to portion out ice cream sandwiches. Serve immediately, or store in the freezer for later.
Notes
- Other neutral oils include: avocado oil, vegetable oil, or sunflower oil
- Recipe uses Diamond Crystal kosher salt.ย
- ยพ teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt = ยฝ teaspoon Morton kosher salt = โ teaspoon table saltย
- Use a kitchen scale for equally portioned out cookie layers.
- Bake cookies just until edges are barely set. The cookie may look underdone, that’s okay! It is better to err on the side of underbake versus overbaked.ย
- Don’t worry about cracks on the cookie surface. Don’t worry if the edges are slightly raised and the center is slightly sunken.ย
- Individually wrap the portioned out cookie sandwiches in plastic wrap. Then, place in a freezer-safe bag. OR, place the portioned out sandwiches in a single layer inside an airtight container (like a tuppeware). Then, place container in a giant freezer safe bag. Keeps in the freezer for up to a month.
- When ready to serve, remove the freezer. Let ice cream sandwiches sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.ย
- Cookie layer will not freeze rock solid thanks to the oil in the cookie dough.ย
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.