Pumpkin spice has been around for a few hundred years. Seattle just gave it a cup sleeve. (We see you, Starbucks.)

These dairy-free pumpkin cheesecake ice cream sandwiches start with coconut milk, pumpkin purée and Darë Original Cream Cheese, blended into a silky base. Then a second swirl of cream cheese goes through the finished ice cream, so you get tangy cheesecake ribbons that look like a pastry chef got involved. Press it between 2 cookies, freeze, done.

The oven stays off the whole time. Your freezer and a little patience does all the work.

Pumpkin spice is way older than the coffee shop

Pumpkins are from this side of the world. Archaeologists have found pumpkin and squash seeds in Mexico dated to somewhere between 7000 and 5500 BC, which puts them among the oldest cultivated crops in the Americas.

The spices came from the other side. Cinnamon from Sri Lanka. Nutmeg and mace from the Banda Islands, a tiny cluster in Indonesia. Cloves from islands a little farther north in the Moluccas, and ginger from Southeast Asia.

European cooks were mixing sweet spice blends by the 1390s. One turns up in Le Ménagier de Paris, a French household guide from around 1393. And in 1796, the first American cookbook printed a "pompkin" pie seasoned with nutmeg, ginger and mace. (Amelia Simmons spelled it that way. We respect it.)

The pumpkin spice latte arrived in 2003. So, your great-great-great-grandma was into it first.

Pumpkin spice is what happens when a squash from Mexico meets a spice route from Asia.

What's actually in them?

This is dessert, and it tastes like dessert. The ingredient list is also shorter than most of what's in the freezer aisle, and every clean-ingredient has a job.

Pumpkin purée.

 It gives the base body. The fiber helps it freeze softer, so there's no lineup of gums and stabilizers holding things together. Canned pumpkin also punches above its weight: 1 cup has about 7 grams of fiber and roughly twice your daily vitamin A. (This recipe uses ½ cup across 4 sandwiches, so call it a bonus.)

Full-fat coconut milk.

Fat keeps ice cream scoopable. Use the full-fat can. The light stuff freezes into a brick and we will all be sad about that.

Darë Original Cream Cheese.

Ours starts with whole cashews and live cultures, the same kind of culturing dairy cheesemakers have relied on for centuries. The whole ingredient list is cashews, filtered water, coconut milk and cultures. That's it. Most cultures handle the freezer fine (they basically nap), so a good share should make it into your sandwich. Want the nerdy version? Here's what live cultures actually do.

Maple syrup.

Maple syrup brings a caramel note plain white sugar can't, and it's about as close to the source as a sweetener gets. 

Cinnamon, ginger and pumpkin pie spice.

People have reached for ginger after big meals for centuries. Mostly, these 3 taste like Fall.

Salt.

A quarter teaspoon. It makes the spice taste more like itself.

A good recipe to make with kids

Prep takes about 30 minutes and none of it involves heat, so small people can help with almost every step.

Hand them the fun jobs: dumping ingredients into the blender, swirling in the second round of cream cheese (messier swirls look better, which is great news for anyone under 4 feet tall), sandwiching, and wrapping each one in wax paper.

How long do homemade ice cream sandwiches keep in the freezer?

Wrapped in wax paper and sealed in a container, these keep for several weeks. Make a batch now, and the next time someone drops by with zero notice, dessert's already handled.

2 things make that work. Wrap each sandwich on its own, and let them set completely before they go in the container. Skip either step and you'll end up with 1 large (admittedly still delicious) ice cream sandwich brick.

Darë's tips for the best vegan ice cream sandwiches

Mind the fill line.

Keep the base under the max fill line on your Creami pint, or it won't spin properly.

Sandy is normal.

If the first spin comes out crumbly, hit Re-Spin.

Swirl gently.

Fold the remaining cream cheese in with a few strokes, and stop while you can still see ribbons.

Move fast at the sandwich stage.

Assemble, then get them back in the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes so they firm up before anyone bites in.

Chill your cookies first.

Cold cookies hold their shape when you press them together.

Make it yours

• Roll the edges in toasted pecans or crushed gingersnaps.
• Drizzle with melted dark chocolate before the final freeze.
• Use gluten-free or grain-free cookies (see the dietary notes below).
• Go mini with 1 to 1½ inch cookies for a party platter.
• Skip the cookies and eat it from a bowl with extra maple syrup. We won't tell.

Recipe notes

Adjust the size.

As written, you get 4 big sandwiches (2 cookies and about ½ cup ice cream each). For smaller ones, use 16 cookies at 1 to 1½ inches across with ¼ cup ice cream each. That makes 8 instead.

Don't have a Ninja Creami?

Most ice cream makers can handle this recipe, so follow the directions for yours. With no ice cream maker at all, freeze the base in an ice cube tray, then blend the frozen cubes in a high-powered blender until smooth, adding a splash of coconut milk as needed.

Dietary notes

The ice cream is vegan! Check your cookies and pick ones that are dairy-free, gluten-free or grain-free as needed.

Ingredients

• 1 cup full-fat coconut milk
• ½ cup unsweetened pumpkin puree
• ½ cup Darë Original Cream Cheese, divided
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• 8 2-inch diameter pumpkin, ginger, or molasses cookies

Directions

Add the coconut milk, pumpkin puree, ¼ cup cream cheese, maple syrup, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and salt to a blender. Blend until completely smooth.

Pour the mixture into a Ninja Creami pint, being careful not to exceed the maximum fill line. Freeze on a level surface for at least 12 hours.

Process the frozen mixture on the Ice Cream setting. If the ice cream is crumbly, use the Re-Spin function until smooth and creamy.

Transfer the ice cream to a bowl and gently swirl in the remaining ¼ cup cream cheese, creating a marbled effect.

Spoon the ice cream onto the flat side of 4 cookies. Top each with another cookie and gently press together to form 4 ice cream sandwiches.

Arrange the ice cream sandwiches on a parchment-lined sheet pan and freeze for 30 to 60 minutes until firm.

For longer-term storage, wrap each sandwich in wax paper after it has fully set, then store in a sealed container in the freezer for up to several weeks.