Happy Friday! Truly! Because today there are ice cream sandwiches!! And not just any old kind, no sir! These have homemade raspberry ice cream sandwiched between two divine lemon-coconut shortbread cookies!! I mean, how can you not be happy?!! And just in time for the weekend!

If you follow the blog, you now see why yesterday, I very strongly suggested you start whipping up a batch of this amazingly delish raspberry ice cream. Fingers crossed that you did (if not, you know what needs to be done). Today, we’re all about these amazing lemon-coconut shortbread cookies and ice cream cookie assemblage!

Guys, these are wonderful on their own, but because they don’t get rock hard when you freeze them, are even better with ice cream (but then again, isn’t everything?!!)

You start by making a simple dough which chills for an hour.

Next, you roll it out

Cut out your circles

And bake.

The cookies get all buttery and golden brown and will make your kitchen smell fantastic!

That lemon-coconut combination is out of this world!!! You will definitely have to slap away somebody’s hand (maybe your own) or you won’t have enough cookies to make any sandwiches with!!

And that would be a great sadness because these are pretty much ice cream cookie sandwich perfection! The sweet/tart creaminess of the raspberry ice cream pairs so well with the buttery chewiness of these coconut/lemon cookies. To say nothing of the visual factor! So summery and tropical!!

So to ensure tons and tons of summertime happiness, bake up a batch of these cookies, fill ‘em with raspberry ice cream and load up your freezer! YUM!!! Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!xoxo

Lemon-Coconut Shortbread Raspberry Ice Cream Sandwiches

Makes at least a dozen sandwiches, more depending on how large you cut out the cookies

Prep Time for cookies: 15 minutes, plus at least 1 hour chilling; Bake Time for cookies: 16-20 minutes; Assembly Time: 15 minutes, plus several hours freezing time for the ice cream sandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened

• 1 cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

• 2 ⅔ cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

• 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut, toasted

• Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

• This raspberry ice cream (or your favorite store bought version)

The Recipe

1. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Then beat in the salt and lemon juice. Add in half of the flour and mix in on low speed just until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and add the rest of the flour, the coconut and the lemon zest. Beat until pulls away from the sides of the bowl and almost forms a mass, about 2 minutes.

2. Gather the dough together, flatten into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

4. Lightly flour a board or clean counter as well as your rolling pin and roll out the dough until it’s about ¼-inch thick. Feel free to add a little more flour as needed, as this is a rather soft and sticky dough. Use a 2 ½-inch cookie cutter to cut out as many cookies as possible and place them, about an inch or two apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Gather the scraps together, reflour the board and pin and re-roll out the dough, cutting out more cookies until the dough is all used up.

5. Place one tray in the fridge and place the other one in the oven, turning the cookies after 10 minutes to insure even browning. Then, bake for another 6-10 minutes, until the cookies are golden brown. Transfer the sheet to a cooling rack and bake the other sheet.

6. After a few minutes, you can transfer the cookies directly to the wire rack to finish cooling completely.

7. Let the ice cream soften a little and then scoop a generous amount onto the flat side of a cookie and cover with another cookie. Wrap in plastic wrap and return to the freezer to harden. Continue until all of the cookies or ice cream are used up. Let freeze for several hours, unwrap and serve.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Food 52’s Ice Cream and Friends. I cut the cookies out larger than the suggested two-bite version.