Chocolate chip oatmeal cookie ice cream sandwiches

Hello, everyone!  With the first official day of summer coming up on Saturday, I figured I would make up one of my favorite summer treats!  Ice cream sandwiches are always great, but ice cream sandwiches made out of homemade cookies really make it a special treat, and no one will know how simple it is to whip up!  You can use whatever kind of cookie you like, but I always like to use chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.  I've been using this recipe for many, many years.  In fact, it was one of my first recipes that I ever made.  It's that easy! 

For the cookies, here's what you'll need:

1 Cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened

1 C brown sugar (light or dark)

1/2 C granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 C Quick cooking oats

12 oz chocolate chips

          

As always, you'll want to start preheating your oven to 350*, so that it will be ready for you when you're ready to put the cookies into the oven!  Next, you'll cream together both of the sugars and the butter, until everything is light and fluffy.    

After everything is creamed together, add in the eggs and vanilla, and continue to mix until it just comes together.

 
 Once the eggs and vanilla are fully mixed in, add in the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.  Mix in until it just comes together.  Be careful not to overmix the dough, because it would make the cookie tough.  

Once the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon are incorporated, add in the oats and chocolate chips.  You may have to mix these in by hand, as the dough will be somewhat stiff at this point.

 

Here is everything all mixed up, ready to be scooped out and put onto ungreased cookie sheets.

 
I have a small ice cream scoop that I use, to scoop out the dough, so that the cookies end up being roughly the same size.  You can easy use a spoon to dole them out, its really whatever works easier for you.  

 
And after they bake (for 10-12 minutes), they are going to be a pale, light brown.  If you use a dark brown sugar, they will be a more golden brown, but I used light brown sugar, so these are a pale golden brown.

               

 

                  

 Let them sit on the baking sheet after they come out of the oven for a couple of minutes, then move them to a cooling rack to cool fully before getting to the ice cream sandwich part!  You can certainly stop here, and just have some amazing, tender cookies if you'd like, but I do like to take them that one step further.  Now, that being said, these make about 4 dozen cookies, so unless you want to make a ton of ice cream sandwiches, you'll have a lot of cookies leftover!

 Once they have cooled completely, take out a square of plastic wrap, about 8"x8", and find two cookies that are roughly the same size.

 The easiest way to get a perfect sized slab of ice cream onto a cookie, is to just cut into the ice cream carton directly, and place it on the cookies.  Once you cut through the carton, gently press the ice cream through the ring of the cut carton, and it falls out onto the waiting cookie. 
                                      

      

Once it is ready for the freezer, fold the plastic wrap up, and twist the ends, tucking them under the sandwich, so that the weight of the sandwich holds down the twisted ends, and place into the freezer to firm up.

Now, if you want to make them special, like for a birthday party (or, a party of any type), get some pretty sprinkles and roll the edges of the ice cream sandwiches into the sprinkles, then wrap up as before, and put into the freezer.