Cooler Ice Cream Sandwiches
Two store-bought cookies, a slab cut from a pint, sprinkles pressed into the edge.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 6 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Cooler only
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Eat in the bag
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Store-bought cookies | 8 cookies | about 3 inches across, any flavor |
|---|---|---|
| Ice cream | 1 pint | keep it frozen hard until the moment you cut |
| Sprinkles | 2 tbsp |
Method
- Lay out eight cookies in pairs on a cutting board or a clean plate. Do this before the pint comes out of the cooler.
- Cut the pint crosswise into four rounds with a serrated knife, carton and all. Peel the paper off each disc.
- Set a disc on one cookie, cap it with a second, press until the ice cream reaches the edge.
- Roll the exposed edge through the sprinkles or press them on by hand.
- Wrap each sandwich in parchment or foil and bury it in the coldest part of the cooler for an hour to firm up. Eat them the same day.
This is a camp dessert that depends entirely on cold, so it belongs where a cooler does: car sites, a basecamp, a boat with a hard cooler in the bow. Nothing here is cooked, which means the whole thing lives or dies on how fast you work. A pint pulled straight from the ice cuts into clean discs; a pint that has sat out five minutes smears.
Cutting the carton in rounds instead of scooping is what makes it fast. You get four even slabs the width of a cookie in one pass, and no soft scoop to wrestle onto a cookie one at a time. The hour back in the cooler is not optional — it re-freezes the seam where the cookie meets the ice cream so the sandwich holds together in your hand. Dietary tags are left off on purpose: the ice cream is dairy, the cookies are wheat, and store-bought cookies routinely share equipment with nuts.
Packing
Cookies travel in a rigid container or they arrive as crumbs. Sprinkles in a small jar. The pint goes at the bottom of the cooler against the block ice, not the cubes.
Variations
- Swap the sprinkles for crushed pretzels or toasted coconut.
- Chocolate cookies with coffee ice cream if you want it less sweet.
- No cooler space? Cookies with a spoonful of nut butter between them is the same idea, shelf-stable.
https://mealswithmaria.site/no-bake-4th-of-july-dessert