Pumpkin Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches
These homemade pumpkin chocolate ice cream sandwiches are the perfect fusion of summer and fall. A really, really delicious fusion.
These tasty little treats are like the perfect fusion of summer and fall.
Ice cream = summer.
Pumpkin = fall.
Chocolate = year round.
Aren’t you relieved to have me here to outline those intricate equations? To be perfectly honest, I actually inhale pumpkin and ice cream all year round, too, so you can just disregard everything I’ve typed up to this point.
Any way you look at it, these delightful chocolate pumpkin cookies smashed together with vanilla ice cream are yummy. Really yummy.
The cookies are unbelievably soft and although they firm up a bit in the freezer, they never get to the break-your-teeth-off point which is a bonus for an ice cream sandwich that needs to be eaten straight from the freezer.
I love the slight hint of cocoa in the pumpkin cookies and I don’t know why, but mini chocolate chips make everything a heck of a lot cuter than should be possibly allowed.
Plus, how can you go wrong with an ice cream sandwich dotted with chilly chocolate bits?
So if you are like me – digging in your heels and hanging on to the last glimpses of summer while still secretly yearning for your favorite season of fall, then these ice cream sandwiches will be the best of both worlds.
One Year Ago: Simple Cheese Danish
Two Years Ago: Santa Fe Spice Rub {for Grilled Chicken}
Three Years Ago: Breaded Garlic Chicken in Lemon-Butter Sauce
Pumpkin Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwiches
Ingredients
- 1 (15-ounce) can (425 g) solid pack pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1 cup (227 g) salted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (318 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (106 g) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup (43 g) cocoa powder
- 3 ¾ cups (533 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, see note for a homemade version
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ to 1 cup (about 85 to 170 g) mini chocolate chips
- Quart of good-quality vanilla ice cream, may not use it all
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the pumpkin, butter, granulated and brown sugar. Beat with an electric mixer (or in the bowl of an electric stand mixer) on medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix for 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in the flour mixture until combined.
- Drop the cookie batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto lined (with silpat or parchment) baking sheets. Bake 14-15 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and press down on them while they are still hot with a flat-bottomed glass until they are about 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely and repeat with the remaining dough.
- Once the cookies have cooled completely, place the mini chocolate chips in a shallow dish or bowl. Place a heaping spoonful (about 3 tablespoons or so) of ice cream on the bottom of a cookie. Press the flat side of another cookie into the ice cream. Quickly, so the ice cream doesn’t melt too much, roll the edge of the ice cream sandwich in the mini chocolate chips (this is messy and if the chocolate chips are falling off, try pressing them into the sides with your fingers). Immediately place in the freezer while you proceed with the remaining cookies and ice cream.
- Freeze for at least 2-3 hours or overnight. If desired, wrap each cookie in plastic wrap for longer storage.
Notes
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Recipe Source: adapted from a recipe sent to me by a longtime reader, Melissa H, recipe is originally from a Family Circle magazine (10/2009) – I increased the recipe to use a full can of pumpkin, changed up the method a little bit, subbed some of the white sugar for brown, etc.
The ice cream was great! Me and my family loved making it,and this recipe had some good tips.
This is going on my list to make, maybe with Our Best Bites’s cinnamon ice cream!
oh that was delicious I like that recipe
i love eating that’s why im too fat now 🙂
but most of the time what i eat are any kind of chocolates
like milk chocolate ,French macarons, and macarons london and so on.
well anyway that recipe above is interesting i wanna try that at home.
Hey Mel, I was wondering if you have done something different when you loaded your pictures up on your blog? I use Mac gourmet to keep all of my recipes and I am having a hard time moving the picture over.
Made these today!! If any reader is attempting these, here is a few words of advice:
1) Refrigerate your cookies “pre-ice-cream”. I left the cookies out quite awhile to cool, so I thought, and though they felt cool to me, I still ended up with a bit of a melty mess in my freezer. Next time, I’ll make sure those puppies are cold!
2) Once your whole sandwich is assembled, I suggest placing them on a cookie sheet/cake pan/etc. temporarily to store in the freezer. Just in case the ice cream does melt a little, it won’t end up everywhere.
3) I think Mel already said this, but I’ll say it as well, don’t worry about the wrapping them until after they have set in the freezer for a couple hours. It will save you from an unnecessary mess 😉
4) And just a suggestion, I think I might try roasting the pumpkin and maybe “upping” the pumpkin spice next time just to see the difference. These cookies have a bit more flour than normal cookies (it’s probably what keeps them soft, which is a must!) and I wonder if roasting the pumpkin will help cover that taste a little bit.
5)Yummm!!!!! I will make these again!
These look seriously delicious!
Hooray! So glad you liked them! Happy summerfall!
I love the summer meets fall thing – perfect for this time of year (and those of us who live in tropical climates where it always feels like summer, ahem). The chocolate + pumpkin sounds incredible!
You know I love all of your recipes that I have ever tried (and now I am converting my newly married niece, too)! Are the cookies themselves ‘jar-worthy’ or do they need to have the ice cream addition? I promised my guys I’d keep the cookie jar here filled once a week with something. These sound delicious…
Shar – the cookies are good. But they become stellar with the ice cream. I don’t think I’d go to the work to make the cookies just by themselves unless I was going to make them into the ice cream sandwiches.
Yum! Pumpkin and chocolate are so good together!
Oh my! They look super good! I can’t wait to try them! Who would have ever thought to put pumpkin in an ice cream sandwich? Yum
Pumpkin and ice cream are two of my favorite food groups (yes groups) so I am all over these!
I love pumpkin anything, and these look wonderful! Will be perfect for our football weekend coming up! Thanks Mel!
Just wanted to tell you that I’ve made the spinach soup twice and it was delicious. I made it the day you posted it and again yesterday. I calculated the calories using only half a tablespoon of olive oil and the entire recipe is less than 400 calories!
I’m not a big fan of pumpkin as a dessert. Actually, I’m not a big fan of any vegetable as dessert. Except maybe for carrot cake. Do you think you could figure out a way to use carrots instead of pumpkins and make something like a carrot-cake cookie?
Patrick – I probably won’t take on the carrot challenge right now although it does sound delicious. Try experimenting and see how it works out. Good luck!
Tijah- “Mom, makes these now!”… “Go”
I am all freaking over these! LOVE!