Your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (I use Thomas Keller's recipe in Ad Hoc At Home, book link below, using the ingredients below)

About 2 quarts Häagan-Dazs vanilla ice cream

Special Equipment

Jelly roll pan (approx. 10” x 15”) 

Offset spatula

6-inch cake ring 

Acetate sheets

Cookie Layer

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat the edges of a jelly roll pan with cooking spray and line the bottom of the pan with parchment. 

Follow the instructions to make the dough of your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Press the cookie dough into an even layer in the jelly roll pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Assemble

Cool the cookie tray completely in the pan on a wire rack. Invert the cookie layer onto a piece of parchment paper. Stamp two circles from the cake using a 6-inch cake ring (save the nicest looking circle for the top layer). The remaining cookie scraps will serve as your base layer. 

Allow ice cream to soften in the refrigerator about 20 to 25 minutes, until spreadable (not melted).

Place the cake ring on a sheet pan lined with parchment. Line the interior of the cake ring with a strip of acetate and tape the acetate together so it holds its shape. 

Assemble pieces of the cookie scraps into the base the cake ring, ensuring a tight, flat layer. Spread about an inch of ice cream evenly onto the cookie layer. Wipe the acetate above the ice cream clean (allows for clearly defined cookie layer). 

Press the second cookie round onto the ice cream. Add another 1-inch layer of ice cream, then wipe the sides of the acetate. Press the top cookie layer onto the ice cream, top-side up. 

Freeze the cake for 12 hours. A few hours before you are set to serve the cake, pop it out of the cake ring and peel off the acetate. Let it defrost in the refrigerator for a few hours. Cut with a hot knife (dip the knife in a bowl of hot water).