Valentine's Day Heart-Shaped Chocolate Cookie Strawberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

When I was a kid, and the ice cream man’s tinny jingle reverberated throughout the neighborhood, we’d all let out a squeal and scramble to find some change, then bolt out the front door, dinner be damned, in the hopes of tracking him down.

If I got lucky, he’d stop on our street, and I would always order an ice cream sandwich. I can still feel the chocolate cookie sticking to my fingers, taste the melty edges of vanilla ice cream with my tongue, and I loved Every. Last. Drop.

I hope these sweet heart-shaped treats bring back your childhood memories, or at least make you feel like a kid again. Make them for your loved one, a friend, your kiddos. They will be so happy.

(By the way, if strawberry is not your thing, by all means use whatever ice cream you adore! Vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, peanut brittle, salted caramel...the world is your ice cream sandwich.)

Recipe: Heart-Shaped Ice Cream Sandwiches

Makes 8–9 ice cream sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 quart of your favorite flavor ice cream, such as strawberry, softened

Chocolate sugar cookies:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 12 tbsp unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbsp cream cheese
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Line an 11x7-inch pan with plastic wrap. Spread the ice cream into an even 1/2-inch layer and return to the freezer until frozen hard, about 1 hour.
2. To make the cookies, sift together the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar and salt and mix together. Add the butter and mix until the mixture is crumbly. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix until the dough comes together. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix.
3. Scrape the dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap and form into a disk. Chill for 30 minutes.
4. Roll out the dough between 2 large pieces of parchment paper to about 1/8-inch thick. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter (mine was about 3 1/2 inches big), cut out as many shapes as possible. Lay 1 of the parchment pieces on a rimmed baking sheet.
5. Using an offset or other thin metal spatula, transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Prick the cookies with a fork. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, rerolling the scraps. Place the cookies on a 2nd lined baking sheet, prick with a fork, and chill. You should end up with 16 to 18 cookies total (cut out any leftover dough into small hearts and serve as cookies).
6. While the cookies are chilling, preheat the oven to 350F. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until they are firm to the touch, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. To make the sandwiches, remove the ice cream from the freezer and pull it out of the pan using the plastic wrap. Set it on a work surface. Using the same heart-shaped cutter that you used to cut out the cookies, cut out 8 to 9 heart-shaped ice cream portions.
8. Sandwich the ice cream between two cookies, pressing the bottom sides of the cookies into the ice cream (be careful not to break the cookies). Wrap each ice cream sandwich with plastic wrap and return to the freezer to freeze until hard.
9. You can make these up to 5 days in advance.