Don’t Forget the Ice Cream

Desserts come in plain or fancy. Often when planning a get together, we think we have to come up with something new and different. But wait. What about an ‘ole standby that is ever-faithful and sure to please? Ice cream. If the saying is true, we’re all screaming for it. 

Of course, you can serve it plain and it’s good, but why not add a new twist to make your ice cream an even bigger hit. We’re going for star quality here. 

Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ingredients:

cookies, 2 per sandwich
ice cream, in rectangle cartons, if possible
toasted nuts
toasted coconut
sprinkles

Ahead of time, bake some chocolate chip, or your favorite flavor cookies. You can do homemade if you have time or use a store-bought pre-made cookie dough. Make the cookies about 2-2½” across. 

Ahead of time, or when ready to serve, open sides of ice cream carton and pull away from ice cream. Cut ice cream into approximately 3” squares (squares that will extend out beyond the edges of your cookies.)

At this point, you may re-package these squares and return them to the freezer for use later, or use immediately.

Place each topping – nuts, coconut, sprinkles and anything else you think would be good – on individual plates. 

Place one ice cream square between two cookies and let each person dip the edges of their sandwich into their favorite toppings. 

Or, how about fruit toppings for your ice cream? Here in Georgia, what could be better then sliced, ripe peaches in sugar, topping a bowl of vanilla ice cream? It doesn’t get much better than that. Strawberries and other berries in sugar are good, too. 

Fruit Toppings

Cut up 4 cups of ripe peaches or berries, stir in ¼-½ cup sugar (to taste) and a squirt of lemon juice if you’re worried about these turning brown. 

Refrigerate for 2 hours and serve over vanilla ice cream. 

Top with crushed ginger snaps for some crunchy, spicy flavor. Gingersnaps are especially good with the peach topping.