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Red Velvet Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches with Bing Cherries and Chocolate

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Red Velvet Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches with Bing Cherries and Chocolate

Roberta Reynolds
I’m not sure about you, but I just love an ice cream sandwich. Crunchy and creamy, with melting ice cream running down your arm – one of life’s perfect moments. While usually associated with a hot summer day, we’ve changed things around just a little to make these just right for Valentine’s Day. Red Velvet Sugar Cookies with a good hit of chocolate, cut into hear shapes and filled with store-bought ice cream that has been gussied up with sweet bing cherries and big hunks of chocolate. Something fun for the entire family to make together – and that says love. The cookie recipe has been adapted from the McCormick website: www.mccormick.com/recipes. Ice cream thoughts are all ours.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 42 minutes
Servings 12 sandwiches with cookies left over

Ingredients
  

  • COOKIES
  • 2 ¼ cups flour
  • ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 ½ sticks butter softened
  • 1 package cream cheese 8 ounces, softened
  • 1- cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon red food coloring
  • ICE CREAM
  • 1 container the closest thing you can find to half gallon vanilla ice cream (we used Tillamook Old Fashioned Vanilla, 1.75 quart)
  • 1, 1 pound package frozen sweet Bing cherries thawed and drained (we used Trader Joe’s)
  • 1 12- ounce package chocolate chips chopped into very large pieces (or 12 ounces of a dark chocolate bar, chopped)

Instructions
 

  • COOKIES
  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
  • Using a mixer and large bowl, beat together butter, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and food color until light and fluffy.
  • In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Mix into the butter mixture on low speed until thoroughly combined.
  • Divide dough into two equal sections and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for two hours or until firm.
  • When dough is firm, roll out until about 1/8 inch thick on a well-floured surface (Note: this dough can get really sticky so no need to be stingy with the flour – it will help your sanity). Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (if you have one and are feeling romantic, or any other shape you like), cut out dough and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet about an inch apart. No need to use cooking spray.
  • Bake 10-12 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for a coupe of minutes to set up before moving to a cooling rack. Cool to room temperature before filling.
  • ICE CREAM
  • Allow ice cream to set out at room temperature until you are able to stir easily.
  • While ice cream is softening, drain cherries and slice each cherry in half. Set aside.
  • Chop chocolate pieces into the size you prefer. Set aside.
  • When ice cream has softened enough to stir, gently fold in the cherries and chocolate.
  • Line a 13x9 inch-baking dish with plastic wrap, making sure the sides overlap, and spoon ice cream mixture into the baking dish. Place in freezer and freeze until firm, preferable overnight.
  • TO ASSEMBLE
  • Remove ice cream from freezer and lift out of the baking dish with the sides of the plastic wrap.
  • Using the same cookie cutter you used on the cookies, cut shapes out of ice cream, place in between two cookies, and pop back into the freezer to set up. Continue on until you have all the cookies filled – chances are you will have cookies left over.

Here we have a treat that the whole family can get in on making, and there are plenty of opportunities to steal a sample and cover yourself and everybody in arms reach with ice cream as you move along. Keeping with the red hearts theme, we are making a chocolaty Red Velvet Cookie and cutting it into heart shapes, then grabbing our favorite ice cream from the supermarket and dressing it up with big chunks of chocolate and big cherries halves.

First we need to make the cookie dough because it needs to set up in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Once you’ve got it all chilled and ready to go, the next part of this involves rolling and cutting out the heart shaped cookies. If you don’t have a heart shaped cookie cutter (wondering who does besides food obsessed individuals like us) you can always use any other shape you like, including a biscuit cutter if you’ve got one. If not, never fear: just use a sharp knife and cut the rolled out dough into squares. Word of warning: this dough can get sticky so don’t be shy about flouring your board. We needed to regroup and add more, and, this is not a pleasant task.

While your cookies are baking and cooling, you can get going on the ice cream portion. You’ll want to let your ice cream container set out on the counter to get soft, and this might take 20-30 minutes. The objective is that you want to be able to easily fold the added ingredients in, and this is not an easy feat if the ice cream is fighting with you every step of the way. Here is your opportunity to prep your additions, and we chose frozen, drained, and thawed Bing cherries and big chunks of dark chocolate. Of course we did. Just drop in your additions and gently fold until everything is copacetic.

Now we move fast. You will have been really smart and already lined a 13×9 inch baking dish with plastic wrap, making sure to let enough hang over the sides to grab on to later. You can also use a half-sized cookie sheet with sides if you’ve got one. Spoon your ice cream slush into the pan and chuck it into the freezer. This is now the hard part, which involves waiting. If you can, it’s a fine idea to get your ice cream into it’s freezing position the night before so you can make sure it’s super-firm when you start making the sandwiches. We did not, and waited a couple of hours which also worked but the ice cream was not all that hardened and it involved some do-overs and bad words.

When you’re ready to assemble, pull the ice cream out of the baking dish using the plastic wrap as handles. Using the same cookie cutter you used on the cookies, cut out the ice cream, put each one in between two cookies and there you have your sandwich! If you can put this whole thing back into the freezer for awhile to set up again that would be a very good plan. If not, this will melt quickly which means you will have to eat very fast. See that big chunk of ice cream that fell off the side down there? I see two options: you can mix up your ice cream ‘scraps’, refreeze and make more sandwiches, or you can just eat them. We opted for the immediate gratification of eating immediately.

Stack them up, pass them around, and dive right in. Can I offer you one?

Hello. I’m Roberta Reynolds.

I’m so glad you dropped in! Welcome to Bird’s Nest Bakery and Café, a collection of ‘made from scratch’, seasonal recipes developed in my home kitchen. I’ve been obsessed with creating the easiest and most delicious recipes possible since I could reach the top of a stove.

I hope you’ll find this site a welcome and relaxing place where you can come for inspiration and ideas. Take a look, have fun, and feel free to modify these recipes to suit your particular palate. It would make me so happy if you would share these recipes with friends and family. After all, cooking and baking are meant to be shared with those we care about. That’s what’s so much fun about it!