For the ice cream: Cut cream cheese into small chunks and place in a blender or food processor. Add the lemon zest, sour cream, half and half, sugar, and salt. Puree until very smooth, ensuring there are no chunks.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator for 1 hour, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Line a 9'' square baking pan with parchment paper and then spread the ice cream into the prepared pan, smoothing it out as much as possible. Freeze ice cream in the pan until it is completely frozen. This will take at least 2 hours.

For the star cookies: In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until the mixture is a bit fluffy. Add in the flour and salt, and mix until just incorporated. Then add the cocoa powder and mix again. Carefully add the food coloring and vanilla, mixing on lowest speed until red coloring is evenly distributed.

Divide dough into 2 equal portions and pat each into a 4" round disc. Wrap each disc tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Once dough is chilled, preheat oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Lightly flour your work surface and rolling pin. Remove one dough disc from the refrigerator and roll to 1/4'' thick. If the dough is sticky, just pick it up and pat into a round, flour your surface again, and roll out the dough again. I find that this second rolling does the trick every time. With a small star-shaped cookie cutter (mine measures 2-1/4'' across, here's a link to the star cutters I have), cut out star shapes and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle stars with red sugar.

Bake for 11 to 13 minutes, taking care to not let the cookies brown. Remove from oven and let cookies rest on baking sheet a couple minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

To finish: Cut the frozen ice cream around the perimeter of the pan, and then gently remove the frozen slab of ice cream using the parchment paper overhang. Dip the same star cookie cutter used for the cookie into a shallow bowl of hot water and start cutting out ice cream stars, dipping the cutter into the hot water in between each cut. To get the most stars out of the ice cream, be sure to fit the cuts as close together as possible.

Turn a star cookie upside down and place an ice cream star on top of the cookie. Top with another star cookie, right side up, and gently press together to make a sandwich. Repeat until all ice cream stars are used. You will have more star cookies than you need.

Immediately place the ice cream sandwiches in a freezer-safe container, and place in the freezer until thoroughly frozen. Keep frozen until ready to serve.