Ice Cream Sammiches

Om Nomz Hero Note to Self: No matter how many ice cream sandwiches I will eat, nothing beats a chipwich from an ice cream truck or a bodega.

Stroopwafel ice cream sandwich

Ice cream sandwiches are like the cupcakes of frozen treats meaning its gives the illusion of portion control. Sure I can inhale a pint of ice cream and feel food guilt, but eating just an ice cream sandwich, you get your icy sweet fix and do not feel like a live alone cat lady. But then your mind starts with the devilish whispers saying things like, “dude, an ice cream sandwich is so small, you can totally house another one!” After eating another one that voice in your heads gets louder and clear and starts making up logical excuses like, “You ran this morning, you can get that other ice cream sandwich with those calories you burned, besides that macaron sandwich thing from Payard? Thing is tiny, it can’t have that many calories.” By this point, it is like the Titanic sinking; all control is lost and you realized you ate the equivalent of 2 pints of ice cream and pushed back Michele Obama’s health initiative by a good month. More Ice Cream Sammich pronz after the jump!

Pistachio Macaron Ice Cream Sandwich, filled with Raspberry and Pistachio ice cream

The popularity of ice cream sandwiches have slowly been growing the past couple of years and with places such as MELT Bakery and Stroopwafels specifically dishing out the handheld creations other places have been jumping in on the action and I have been eating them. One of my favorites made the dastardly move of combining two of my favorite sweet treats of ice cream and macarons and it is no surprise that someone is Francois Payard. At Payard Bakery on Houston, there are a couple of these frozen French hybrids but the one that I have liked is the pistachio and raspberry macaron ice cream sandwich. Sandwiched in between two light and airy meringues, is a layer of tart and sweet raspberry ice cream and in addition, a layer of pistachio ice cream as well. The tart raspberry is a welcomed balanced note to the abundant pistachio flavors. The meringue adapts well to the cold and manages to stay crisp and offers a slight chew, like a regular macaron. 

Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Walnut Ice Cream

Another place that is not doing the norm and sandwiching ice cream in between cookies is Three Tarts where I recently had their carrot cake and cream cheese and walnut ice cream sandwich. Three Tarts is using cake and essentially are making a handheld ice cream cake, which I approve. The carrot cake is another vessel that tastes great frozen. The cake manages to be light yet dense enough that it can hold the ice cream filling and not leave a leaky mess in your hands. In fact, the cake base works well because the ice cream melts, the cake absorbs the ice cream which not only leaves your hands free of stick-icky but making the cake ever so moist. The ice cream sandwich does a great impression of a cake, except this one keeps you cool on a hot day. 

Double Chocolate Cookies with Hazelnut Ice  cream

Sometimes you just want a good ice cream sandwich with cookies. Ronnybrook Dairy Milk Bar in Chelsea Market is doing a classic ice cream sandwich and giving you the option of creating your own. You start off with a choice of their fresh baked cookies, the classic chocolate chip, oatmeal and the double chocolate with hazelnuts. Then you get your choice of ice cream fill from their variety of flavors. I was in an indulgent mood, well this is not true, I always want to indulge and when with the double chocolate chip with a hazelnut fill. I soon realized as the counter girl packed 2 scoops of Ronnybrook’s rich ice cream with a wet cement density that this was the first ice cream sandwich I was going to need a spoon to eat it with and a good thing they gave it to me in a bowl. Unless you want your hands looking like you got in a fight with the Klondike Bear, you are not going to pick this sandwich up and the spoon that gave me bent haplessly like a new born sapling in a class 5 tropical storm. Despite not being able to pick it up, and what I have to shove in order to eat it, the soft cookie with Ronnybrook’s great tasting ice cream is a great frozen treat, even though the word “sandwich” loosely describes this creation, you cannot argue with the fact that you are getting your money’s worth with this treat and they are certainly not skimping on the ice cream. I call this a win.

Payard Bakery
116 West Houston Street
New York, NY 10012
http://www.fpbnyc.com/

Three Tarts
164 9th Avenue
New York, NY 10011-4905
http://www.3tarts.com/
Ronnybrook Farm Dairy Milk Bar
75 9th Ave # 1
New York, NY 10011-7030
www.ronnybrook.com/