6 Pro Bakers Reimagined Their Favorite Holiday Cookies as Ice Creams—and You Can Try Them All

When Tamara Keefe first moved into the Lafayette Square neighborhood of St. Louis, MO, she was invited to a holiday cookie exchange. "I had never even heard of one before, but I instantly fell in love with the idea of trading sweets," she says. "It became such a joyful way to try new cookies, make friends in a new city, and spend the holidays surrounded by friendly faces rather than alone. It reminded me how food can open doors, build community, and turn a city into a home."

The founder, CEO, and Flavor Temptress of Clementine’s Ice Cream recently tapped six pastry chefs from across the country to transform beloved cookie recipes into festive ice creams. We connected with the bakers to learn some of their cherished holiday memories and what inspired their cookie exchange recipes that evolved into the delish ice cream collaboration.

Holiday "Cookie Exchange" Ice Cream Sampler - 6 Pints

The full collection is available at any Clementine's Ice Cream parlor shop and can also be shipped anywhere in the U.S. You can also assemble your own assortment of flavors to ship.

The Dish on All 6 Flavors

Abi Balingit's Pandan Polvoron Raspberry Cheesecake Cookie

Abi Balingit, the James Beard Award-winning author of Mayumu: Filipino American Desserts Remixed, draws inspiration from one of her favorite Filipino treats and a go-to recipe from the beginning of her baking career.

"Polvoron is a no-bake shortbread that makes up the base of the cookie," she says. "It’s flavored with lush, green pandan, which is a Southeast Asian ingredient that has an earthy vanilla flavor. The cream cheese frosting and raspberry preserves on top of the polvoron are my interpretation of the mini raspberry cheesecakes I used to make for my family all the time."

In the ice cream version, expect a rich cream cheese ice cream with crumbles of the buttery pandan polvoron cookies, swirled with a bright raspberry ribbon.

Anna's Cranberry Vanilla Linzer

Anna Gordon, founder and chef of The Good Batch Bakery, grew up making cookies with her aunts around the holidays. "We’d use cookie tubes of frosting and endless jars of sprinkles, ending in a massive pile of sugary, colorful sugar cutouts," she says. "It was heaven."

For her cookie exchange creation, Anna drew inspiration from a traditional Linzer cookie, paired with nostalgic, colorful sugar cookies. "I chose to make a festive cranberry jam instead of the traditional raspberry, and then the painted finish seemed like a sophisticated evolution of cookie decorating from the red and green tubed frosting of my childhood."

The frosty version features a silky vanilla ice cream studded with chunks of Anna's signature brown butter cookies—crispy-edged, chewy-centered, and deeply toasty before being finished with a tart cranberry-vanilla swirl.

Justine Doiron's Sticky Toffee Pudding

Childhood holidays were never complete for Justine Doiron, author of Justine Cooks, without a cookie-baking day with grandma. "We'd all pile into the car and go to my grandparents' house, where she'd have every type of dough imaginable all ready and chilling in the fridge," she says.

When it comes to the cookie exchange, Justine's inspiration for this collaboration is more of a mug cake that she adopted in her later years of holiday traditions. "By the time Christmas Eve rolled around, we were usually cookie-d out, so we would make sticky toffee pudding in mugs and eat it while watching The Muppet Christmas Carol," she says.

In ice cream form, sticky toffee is accomplished by pairing a butterscotch ice cream with tender pieces of pear cake, echoing the warm, nostalgic flavors of the classic dessert with a comforting, seasonal twist.

Fany Gerson's Chipotle Cherry Rugelach

When it comes to the holidays, cookbook author and founder of Fan Fan Doughnuts and La Newyorkina Fany Gerson always thinks of her sister, playing and pretending they had a cooking show.

"We didn’t have a lot of treats in general at home, but we were allowed to bake treats during the holiday," she says. "My mom had two cookbooks that she kept in a cabinet under the sink for some odd reason, and those had more American-style treats that we loved to make brownies and cookies from." 

For her cookie exchange, she chose a Chipotle Cherry Rugelach. "I am both Mexican and Jewish and have lived in New York for half of my life at this point," Fany says. "This cookie, in a way, represents those three roots and is part of my identity." A swirl of spiced cherry chipotle jam in the ice cream adds a spicy-sweet kick, which holds to her signature balance of tradition and surprise.

Reine Keis's Thick Mints

Reine Keis, chef/owner of SweetArt Bakeshop & Café, used the Girl Scout favorite Thin Mint as her cookie inspiration. "I was a Girl Scout, and my favorite time was selling cookies! Thin Mints were my favorite, with Samoas as a close second," she says.

The vegan baker treats lactose-free ice cream lovers to a dairy-free delight with a malted base featuring chunks of thick mint cookies for a crisp, chocolate-filled, and refreshingly cool flavor.

Megan Garrelts' Nana's 7-Layer Bar

"My mom and I always baked together," recalls Megan Garrelts, co-founder/pastry chef of Rye and James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef. "While she’s a wonderful cook, her sweets were my favorite."

Garrelts recalls her mother's famous 7-layer bars were a staple in holiday cookie boxes alongside pies, oatmeal butterscotch cookies, and fudge brownies. They, along with the ice cream, are heavily featured alongside Garrelt's favorite flavor—butterscotch—in which you’ll find a brown butter ice cream base as a silky sauce and generous pieces of the chewy-crunchy bars.