Cookies and Cream Dessert Recipes

It's crushed chocolate sandwich cookies folded into something creamy and vanilla, like ice cream, frosting, cheesecake or whipped cream. The cookie brings a dark, slightly bitter chocolate crunch and the cream keeps it sweet and mellow. Any dessert that pairs those dark cookie pieces with a white, vanilla base counts, which is why it works as a cake, a cookie, a pie or a scoop.

Yes. Bake a thin, crisp chocolate wafer or a batch of homemade sandwich cookies, let them cool completely, then crush them. Black cocoa is the ingredient that gives the classic cookie its near-black color and its flavor, so a wafer made with it tastes close to the original. Homemade crumbs are a little softer, so pulse them coarser for toppings and finer for crusts.

Usually not. Most recipes crush the whole cookie, and the filling adds sweetness and helps a crumb crust hold together with less butter. Scrape the filling off only when you want a darker, crisper crumb, like a thin topping on frosting, or when a recipe specifically calls for cookie wafers alone.

Add them as late as you can. Fold chunks into ice cream or whipped fillings right before freezing or chilling, keep the pieces large so they don't dissolve, and sprinkle crumb toppings on just before serving. In baked cheesecakes and cookies the pieces soften slightly by design. Icebox cakes are the exception: there the cookies are supposed to soften overnight into cake.

Cheesecakes, cheesecake bars and icebox cakes all need at least a night in the fridge, so they are built for making ahead and keep three to four days covered. No-churn ice cream and ice cream cake keep about two weeks in the freezer, wrapped tight. Brownies, blondies and cookie bars stay good three days at room temperature. Frosted layer cakes and cupcakes are best within two days.

Use black cocoa. It's ultra-Dutched to a near-black color, so homemade cookies, crumb crusts and chocolate cake get that sandwich-cookie shade with little to no food coloring. For cakes and brownies, many bakers blend it half and half with Dutch-process cocoa for a dark color and a rich, moist crumb.