Name: Homemade ice cream sandwiches
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 94 grams bleached all-purpose flour; 5 mL baking powder; 1.25 mL baking soda; 1.25 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt; 56 grams unsalted butter (softened); 70 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder; 100 grams light brown sugar; 100 grams granulated sugar; 125 mL hot coffee (cooled slightly); 125 mL buttermilk (1 % fat); 1 large egg(s); 5 mL pure vanilla extract; 1 L cherry bourbon ice cream (or your favourite homemade or store-bought ice cream)

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Learn how to make homemade ice cream sandwiches with this easy recipe. You will make sheet pan brownie cakes that you can easily convert into sandwiches with your favourite ice cream, whether store-bought or homemade!

Homemade ice cream sandwiches cut from a larger ice cream cake.

I love making homemade ice cream, but scooping it kinda sucks. Homemade ice cream is a little denser than commercial ice cream, and it can freeze quite hard. Transforming it into ice cream sandwiches means no scooping required!

I've actually been holding onto this recipe from Food Network Magazine since the summer of 2010. I may be a total slob and incapable of keeping a clean house, but I do have mad organizational skills. I'm so glad I finally got around to making this recipe.

What you need to make them

Ice cream sandwiches have two components to them, two cakey fudgy cake layers and ice cream.

For the fudgy cake layers, you need the standard chocolate cake ingredients, including:

flour, specifically all-purpose
leavening agents, specifically both baking powder and baking soda to make sure the cake component isn't overly dense
salt, preferably Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt—if using table salt, halve the amount
butter, preferably unsalted but if you want to use salted butter, don't add the salt in the recipe
cocoa powder, specifically Dutch-processed which has a more pronounced chocolate flavour. Do not substitute natural cocoa powder as it won't provide enough flavour or colour for the cake layers.
sugar, both granulated and brown sugar to achieve the right texture of cake
coffee to enhance the bitter notes of the chocolate
buttermilk, which is often low fat are almost fat free. A higher fat buttermilk around 3 % fat could also work.
vanilla, either store-bought or homemade vanilla extract work.

Thin chocolate cake layers for homemade ice cream sandwiches cooling on rack — This recipe for thin brownie cakes are perfect for making homemade ice cream sandwiches!

And for the ice cream filling, you can either use homemade ice cream, or store-bought.

Ice creams for ice cream sandwiches

I made these with a batch of that cherry bourbon ice cream. The combination of chocolate and the boozy cherries kind of reminds me of a grown-up version of Cherry Garcia. You can use any ice cream you like:

If you don't have time to make ice cream, consider your favourite store bought flavours that pair nicely with chocolate. All you have to do is soften the ice cream to be able to spread it between the two layers of cake. My favourite ice cream brands include Ben & Jerry's and H¨aagen-Dazs.

Two homemade ice cream sandwiches made with chocolate cake and cherry ice cream so you can see whole cherries in the ice cream layers.

Special equipment

The cake layers are baked in two brownie pans to create two equal layers of cake with exactly the same height and dimensions. You can then stack the layers, sandwiching softened ice cream between the two in the same brownie pan to freeze it before cutting into squares or bars.

I used two 9 inch brownie pans for this and they worked perfectly.

To assemble and freeze in the brownie pans, make sure to line the pan completely with plastic wrap so that you can easily freeze and then unmould to cut out the ice cream sandwiches on a cutting boards cleanly, neatly, and evenly. Cutting in the pan is not recommended (and you will damage your pan) so do not skip this step!

Stack of homemade ice cream sandwiches with bourbon cherry ice cream (three) and you can see the whole cherries in ice cream layers.

This is a very forgiving recipe. I accidentally cracked one of the cake layers in half while flipping them out of the cake pans to cool, but you can't tell. The softened ice cream binds the layers together and once frozen, they hold up well, even if you have cracked one of the layers.

Homemade ice cream sandwich with cherry ice cream and brownie cake, with a bite taken out to show inside.

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