Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches Recipe | Handle The Heat
Filed Under: Cookies | Dessert | Ice Cream

Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches

  |  
June 13th, 2019
5 from 6 votes
5 from 6 votes

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.

Yield: 12 ice cream sandwiches

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Tessa's Recipe Rundown...

Taste: Sweet and fun. Feel free to get creative with the ice cream flavor! Texture: The cookies are solid yet not too hard, the perfect complement to the rich and creamy ice cream. Ease: A little messy to assemble but so much fun. Pros: Festive summer treat. Cons: No real cons. Would I make this again? Yes!

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What screams summer more than ice cream sandwiches?!

Let me tell you, homemade ice cream sandwiches are SO much better than the soggy bland ones from the grocery store.

Plus you can get really creative with the shapes and decorations to make them the best part of any Fourth of July BBQ or party.

Easy red velvet ice cream sandwiches with homemade cookies on a marble surface

I’ll always remember something I learned years ago from Ina Garten about hosting and entertaining. She said something along the lines of the two most memorable moments of the night are often what you serve first and last. So dessert better be a show stopper!

These sandwiches are exactly that. Next to the fireworks they’ll be the best part of your Independence Day celebrations!

Stack of red velvet ice cream sandwiches with sprinkles

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.

Red velvet ice cream sandwich with bite taken out

More Ice Cream Sandwich Recipes

If you want even more ice cream sandwich recipes, I published an entire cookbook on the subject! Check it out here.

5 from 6 votes

How to make
Red Velvet Ice Cream Sandwiches

Yield: 12 ice cream sandwiches
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Freezing time 3 hours
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.

Ingredients

  • 24 red velvet cookies, shaped into stars
  • 2 pints vanilla or cheesecake flavored ice cream
  • Sprinkles, if desired

Directions

  1. Allow the ice cream to sit at room temperature until softened. Line a large rimmed baking pan (or another similar large, flat container with 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.

  2. 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.
  3. Repeat for remaining cookies, working quickly. If ice cream begins to melt, return to freezer until firm again.
  4. Freeze sandwiches until firm, at least 1 hour, before serving.
  5. 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.
Course : Dessert
Cuisine : American
Keyword : fourth of july, summer
Tessa Arias
Author: Tessa Arias

I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)

Tessa Arias

About Tessa...

I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)

Find Tessa on  

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Recipe Rating




  1. #
    Belinda Bazan-Lara — July 16, 2021 at 10:06 am

    These star ice cream sandwiches were the best 4th of July dessert ever!!!!! The presentation was beautiful and everyone loved them. Can’t wait to make them again!!!!!

    Thank you for a great holiday treat!!!!

    • #
      Tessa — July 19, 2021 at 10:52 am

      So awesome to hear this! I’m happy your ice cream sandwiches were such a hit, hooray!!

  2. #
    Nicole — July 1, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    hi i was wondering how you got the little circles in the cookies! lmk thanks!!

  3. #
    vin lookup — June 12, 2020 at 2:24 am

    Tessa’s recipes are easy to understand. with lots of delicious food.

  4. #
    Megan Keefe — June 1, 2020 at 10:22 pm

    I play Dota 2 and COD: WW2, both are awesome, they eat all my free time HELP ME 😀

  5. #
    Houston Durbin — June 1, 2020 at 10:20 pm

    We are expanding our business, we are hiring more people and we are working on our new big projects.

  6. #
    tank trouble 2 online — March 23, 2020 at 12:10 am

    It looks fantastic thanks for the amazing tips.

  7. #
    Forest Running — March 8, 2020 at 11:25 pm

    Well done Tessa, really amazing recipe, my kids loved it.

  8. #
    quizlife — November 23, 2019 at 11:25 pm

    I like the way it looks and judging from ingredients it must taste good as well, kids will love it!

  9. #
    Runninggamer — November 23, 2019 at 11:23 pm

    Looks really awesome, I bet it tastes good as well, right?

  10. #
    birds — November 23, 2019 at 11:22 pm

    I will make it on my next birthdya party 🙂

  11. #
    happywheels — November 23, 2019 at 11:21 pm

    Oh my kids will love it, thank you forsharing

  12. #
    Vanessa — November 17, 2019 at 12:39 am

    LOL When I saw it the first time I thought it was made from material.

  13. #
    basketball games — August 17, 2019 at 7:46 am

    The kids are going to love this recipe, it looks so good.

  14. #
    run 3 — August 3, 2019 at 6:06 am

    hey girl- this looks so yummy!

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