Jessica Mortarotti and Zachary Cox first found success with their seasonal ice cream at L.A. farmers markets. The duo now dispenses scoops at storefronts in east Pasadena and near The Original Farmers Market. Their blackboard menu always changes, but expect to find signature flavors like Salted Caramel, Brown Sugar Vanilla Bean and Mint Cacao Nib. Carmela Ice Cream’s slightly savory brown sugar shortbread cookies cradling tangy fruit-studded strawberry buttermilk ice cream have proven to be a particularly devastating combination. Any flavor’s available between pliable shortbread cookies, but sometimes, prescribed combinations work best.

Long before Sean Combs arrived on the hip-hop scene, the original Diddy was already going strong in Westwood Village. Diddy Riese has let customers build their own ice cream sandwiches since 1983, and the value is unsurpassed. UCLA students flock to their storefront for house baked cookies and Dreyer’s ice cream. Owner Mark Perry’s crew makes cookies in flavors like white chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin nut, and sugar cinnamon, which house ice creams like rocky road, mint chocolate chip, and strawberry cheesecake. I enjoyed soft peanut butter cookies studded with peanut butter chips, cradling chocolate ice cream. Fun fact: the top cookie doesn’t have to match the bottom cookie.

Mashti and Mehdi Shirvani opened their Persian-tinged ice cream emporium in a Hollywood strip mall in 1980, replacing a frozen treat predecessor called Mugsy Malone. Their northern Iranian upbringing inspired flavors like orange blossom and ginger rosewater, though cookies ‘n cream, mango, and vanilla bean are also available. No matter the flavor, they press ice cream sandwiches, called Mashtis between twin wafer discs. Rosewater saffron ice cream studded with pistachios is my preferred filling.

This multifaceted concept from chef/partners Brooke Williamson and Nick Roberts is right by the beach, so of course an ice cream sandwich is in order. Small Batch ice cream parlor is just one facet to the Playa del Rey compound, and they serve a single ice cream sandwich with chewy oatmeal cookies and marshmallow vanilla ice cream.

This small batch ice cream shop from pastry chef Shiho Yoshikawa, Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan Loeb now has branches at the Brentwood Country Mart, near Santa Monica High High School, and in Mid-City. Ice creams may feature carrot cake with cream cheese and pecans, candied orange with coriander and almonds, or coffee from Caffe Luxxe. Sweet Rose Creamery occasionally offers seasonal ice cream sandwiches, which could combine basil ice cream with tangy lemon wafer cookies.