Ice Cream Sandwich Wafers for Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
Aug 18, 2019, Updated Apr 12, 2024
My Favorite ice cream sandwich wafers recipe out there. I love the soft and chewy, brownie-like texture with deep, rich chocolate flavor.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love this Ice Cream Sandwich Wafer Recipe
Once you’ve made your own homemade ice cream sandwich from scratch, you’ll never go back to a store-bough box.
My recipe starts with the best, fudgy homemade chocolate ice cream sandwich wafers. The texture is similar to whoopie pie cookies or soft brownies.
You’ll love my no-fail tricks to fill and assemble them with ice cream.
What is an Ice Cream Sandwich Made of?
Ice cream sandwiches can be made from scratch in two ways:
- Individual Chocolate Ice Cream Wafers: Bake a batch of individual cookies and use two to form a sandwich. This method takes more time and doesn’t look as tidy.
- Giant Cookie Cut After Filling (My Preferred Method): I love to bake one giant thin layer of cookie dough. This way I only have to assemble it as one giant ice cream sandwich and it’s easy to slice it up into perfect, even rectangles.
How to Make Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches
It’s so satisfying to make this classic summer treat from scratch. Here’s what you do:
- Make the cookie batter.
- Drop the cookie batter by spoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheet then use a spatula warmed in hot water and oiled to smooth cookie batter evenly into pan.
- Bake until just set for a soft cake texture. Cut the cookie slab into two even pieces and freeze.
- Spread slightly-softened ice cream over one half of cookie slab. Top with remaining half of the cookie slab. Freeze the whole thing.
- When firm enough to handle, slice into individual portions and wrap in wax paper before packing into freezer bags for storage.
Top Tips to Make Ice Cream Sandwiches Easily
There are several pain points with making homemade ice cream sandwiches from scratch.
That doesn’t mean they are difficult, just that you need to use a few tricks to make it a breeze.
Tricks for handling the ice cream sandwich wafer batter
Just use my two hacks and it becomes super-easy to handle:
- Warm the spatula under hot water and dry it off quickly.
- Then, grease it. This way the spatula glides and pushes the batter around like a hot knife on butter. Repeat as many times as necessary until the batter is spread evenly in the pan.
Tricks for Handling the Chocolate Wafers
Once baked, the cookie base should be soft and slightly underdone. This yields a soft, fudgy cookie.
Because it’s soft and thin, there is a trick to handling it without breaking it.
- Once cooled to room temperature, pop the whole cookie slab in the freezer (still on the baking pan).
- After it is firm enough to easily lift it off the parchment, you can easily assemble the ice cream sandwiches it without any wafer breakage.
Tricks for Filling Chocolate Cookie Wafers with Ice Cream
If the ice cream is too soft, it runs everywhere. Too firm and it’s impossible to spread. I solved this problem, too!
- The easiest way I found is to simply cut open the container and slice the hard-frozen ice cream into slabs.
- Position the slabs over the bottom cookie, then smooth over with the same (cleaned) spatula you used to make the base.
- Warm it under hot water if needed. It’s considerably easier to cut open the ice cream container if it’s cardboard vs. plastic, but I’ve done both.
Tricks for Cutting the Ice Cream Sandwiches
- To cut the frozen ice cream sandwich slab into tidy individual portions, dip your knife in hot water.
- If at any point the ice cream is melting too fast, just pop everything back in the freezer.
We’re using hot water and the freezer as cooking tools here, that’s all there is to it!
More Popular Summer Dessert Recipes
Fudgey Mint Ice Cream Sandwiches
Classic Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 7.9 oz all-purpose flour 1 3/4 cup
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 1 cup buttermilk
- ½ cup canola or other neutral-tasting oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 pints (1 litre or 4 cups) vanilla ice cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF and line an 18×13″ (half-sheepan with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk egg, then whisk in buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Scrape the egg mixture into the flour mixture and gently fold together until no dry flour remains. Do not overmix.
- Dollop the cookie mixture onto the prepared baking pan. Use a metal spatula to smooth the batter evenly over the whole pan. It is a thick, sticky batter. You’ll need to run your spatula under hot water, dry it off, then spray with nonstick spray (or use a paper towel dipped in oito grease it. Anytime the batter starts to catch on the spatula rather than glide smoothly in the pan, repeat the hot water and greasing procedure. You’ll need to do it several times.
- Bake for 7 minutes, until set but still a bit shiny in spots. Cool to room temperature, slice the slab in half while still in the pan, then transfer the whole thing to the freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.
- Place one half of the frozen cookie slab pretty-side down on a work surface. Scoop the ice cream over top (or I find it easier to cut open the carton with scissors and then slice the hard ice cream into slabs). Use a knife or metal spatula to firmly press the ice cream down to evenly cover the bottom cookie. Place the second cookie slab, pretty side up, on top and transfer the whole thing back to the freezer until ice cream is very solid again.
- Use a sharp knife dipped in hot water to slice into equal-sized ice cream sandwiches. Freeze individual sandwiches in a single layer on a baking sheet until hard, then you can wrap them individually in plastic wrap or parchment paper tied with kitchen string and store up to a month.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These homemade ice cream sandwiches are such a yummy treat!
Hi,what I can use instead of buttermilk.
Add a tablespoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup then top it up to the 1 cup mark with regular milk for every 1 cup of buttermilk needed.
I already have steel cut refrigerator oatmeal planned for breakfast or I would so be making this! I bought two avocados to make something with.
I already have steel cut refrigerator oatmeal planned for breakfast or I would so be making this! I bought two avocados to make something with.