I grew up in the very heart of the South Hills (which is why I would cut off my own head before ever voluntarily moving back into that area again thankyouverymuch) with an army of neighbor-kids. We used to run in a pack, herd, google – I have no idea what you call a large grouping of pre-teen kids outside of loud; our parents were clearly very tolerant people. Actually I think they kind of loved that we always had friends and couldn’t be paid to come inside no matter the weather. Oh how times change, huh? We got booted out of the house after morning chores & didn’t come back until after dark outside of needing fed, and all the moms took turns making that happen. It was a pretty freaking cool way to grow up, even if it meant I kinda had 4 moms & dads to yell at me when I was being an ass.

Our neighborhood was a GOLD MINE for the creepy ice cream truck dude, and he was CREEPY. Actually I am pretty sure thats a prerequisite for being an ice cream man, isn’t it? He was there 7 days a week right after dinner time – Ice Cream Man may have been creepy but he was smart. As soon as we heard the strains of that awful, tinny jingle it was a race to get home to get money to buy his garbage.

My parents were not fans of the ice cream truck. Looking back I’m pretty sure that it was the money – that shit was/is expensive and they had 3 kids that NEEDED that crap ice cream – but at the time I just thought they were mean horrible parents that didn’t want me to be happy. Yes. I was a tad dramatic.

But Mom, in all of her Mom-like brilliance, solved the problem. When all of our friends were running home to get a couple bucks for some awful snow cone with a gumball at the bottom or a scooter crunch we went home and raided the laundry room freezer for homemade chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches, all was right with the world for her and us. We got a treat that was better than anything on that ridiculous truck and we knew it and she wasn’t out $3 a day in crappy ice cream treats PLUS we weren’t whining/bitching about how awful she was for not giving us money. My Mom is and was a pretty smart lady.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches will always taste like being a kid, sitting on the driveway wall plotting our next adventure, all of us covered in some kind of dirty sticky mess as the sun went down. I really doubt that I ever genuinely thanked my mom for keeping that freezer stocked with delicious. My mom went back to work full time, running the floral department at my dad’s grocery store, as soon as my littlest sister was able to get pushed around behind her in a shopping cart full of toys (3 months old), so she wasn’t home all day every day, but somehow she still found the time, between all the other crap she had to do, to keep us flush with treats. Moms really are Super Heros and I know its a couple decades late, but THANKS MOM!

The trick to these is in the cookie. It has to be a bit heavier and denser than the kind I would normally make because it has to help insulate all that frozen ice cream goodness, if they are too thin or flimsy the whole thing melts far too quick and you are left with a gooshy mess. Still tastes good, but requires a bowl and spoon and we aren’t making sundaes here people. This recipe is a spin on my favorite chocolate chip cookie with some tweaks to make it work better.

I also made these GIGANTIC. If you are making them for smaller mouths or just have a ‘thing’ for portion control you might want to adjust the cookie size. I used a blue, 2oz or 1/4 cup, scoop so the cookies themselves were about 4″ diameter and 1/2″ thick – big ass bakery style cookies. If you want to make them smaller go for it, I kind dig that they are as big as my head. Also no nuts – as much as I love them in chocolate chip cookies they have no business in these here ice cream sandwiches.

As to the ice cream I totally cheated and bought a plain vanilla, Edy’s, from the store. Not going to lie – only reason I didn’t make my own was I was lazy. I will be hooking up some homemade ice cream posts very, very soon, though. In the mean time I buy it. I wouldn’t recommend a wicked cheap ice cream for these, premium also isn’t necessary, but the cheap-o brands are loaded with air, hence they are cheap, and they melt way too fast. Somewhat related – has anyone else noticed that half gallons of ice cream aren’t really half gallons any more? It’s like the incredible shrinking Klondike Bars – WRONG. Why they gotta be screwing with my ice cream, yo?

Bake the cookies the day/night before you assemble the sandwiches, they need that time to completely set up and not get squishy when ice cream is plopped down on them.  Also make sure you have a spot in the freezer ready for them once they are assembled, I always forget to do that and annoy myself watching the softened ice cream melt while I fung shui my freezer. Kids or no kids these are perfect for a warm weather treat on the porch, just make sure you grab a napkin or eat really fast!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches yield – 8 HUGE CCCICS

The Chocolate Chip Cookie

• 1 cup Butter, softened
• 3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar
• 1/2 cup Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 each Large Eggs
• 2 Tbsp Heavy Cream
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 2-3 cups Chocolate Chips (I used a whole bag)

Preheat your oven to 375, line baking sheets with parchment.

Mix the flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk in a bowl and set aside.

Cream the butter and sugars in the mixer until light and kind of fluffy, scrape the bowl down and add the eggs, one at a time mixing well between additions. Add the cream and vanilla, mix until incorporated.

Slowly add the flour and mix until it is only combined. Add the chips and mix them in. I scoop 6 per tray because it makes me unreasonable angry when they stick together. Once I have them scooped I wet my hand and flatten them out a bit, it helps them spread more evenly. Bake for 12-14 minutes, my oven was perfect at 13. They are done when the edges are just starting to go golden and the centers don’t look raw anymore.

Let them set for a few minutes on the tray then transfer to a cooling rack to completely cool. When they are done I layer them into a tupperware container with some wax paper and let them chill out until tomorrow…

Ice Cream Sandwich Assembly

• 16 of the Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 1/2 gallon (LIARS!) Ice Cream – whatever kind makes you happy, I like vanilla

You need to soften the ice cream some so it is easy to scoop. I used a gray handled portion scoop, 4oz roughly, to fill each one. Not gonna lie, it was an overflowing scoop. I used a full container to make 8 of them. The cookie recipe makes about 24 cookies, match up 8 sets, top & bottom, that are roughly the same size. Eat the rest!

When I went to pull the ice cream out I threw the 8 bottoms in the freezer, the ice cream melts slower when placed on a cold cookie. To soften the ice cream let it sit at room temp for about 10-15 minutes, as long as your room temp isn’t 90 degrees. I’m sure there is a way to do this in the microwave, but I don’t trust mine, so I do it the old school way. It just needs to soften enough to be scoopable and not runny. You can also let it hang out in the fridge for about half an hour or so, much more controlled softening with a much larger margin of error. However you do it let the ice cream soften up a bit. If it softens too much put it back in the freezer, ice cream soup is way hard to work with.

Once that happens take the cookies in the freezer out & line them up in a metal 9×13 pan (the metal conducts cold faster than glass). Scoop the ice cream balls right on to the cookies and put them back in the freezer to let the ice cream harden up a bit, for about an hour-ish, then gently press their tops on. The gently part is important or you’ll squish all the ice cream out. When the tops are securely on put them back in the freezer, unwrapped, to completely set, at least 4 hours.

Pro Tip: Don’t try to eat them until they have totally re-frozen or you’ll end up with ice cream everywhere. I promise.

Once they are totally frozen again pull them out and individually wrap them up, do it any sooner and it plastic wrap sticks in the ice cream making them a pain to unwrap.

I was thinking these could be a really fun birthday party treat in place of cake. When you lid them roll the exposed ice cream through some crushed M&Ms, mini chocolate chips or sprinkles to make them pretty – BOOM – summertime birthday party fun!

Hope you & yours love these as much as me & mine did! And help put those creepy ice cream men outta business!