The cookie ice cream sandwich, or ice-cookie-wich as I’ve decided to call it, is a aspirational dessert. A hand held cookie with ice cream combo that will satisfy both cookie and ice cream cravings? Is it possible?
Can you buy a decent one in the grocery store?
To find the answers to these questions I tried five grocery store options.
Price: $3.33 on sale ($7.79 regular) for 4×125 ml from Sobeys
The chocolate chip on this treat is larger than the packaged cookie which is good, but it’s also softer which wasn’t great at first bite. I expected more crunch. The softness of the cookie is understandable I guess, it’s difficult to keep a cookie crisp when it’s in contact with ice cream. As well as being soft the cookie was also a little crumbly, it was falling apart a bit. The chocolate chips had a mild chocolate flavour, but there wasn’t enough of them.
The ice cream in the middle is vanilla with cookie bits, which made it marginally more interesting taste wise.
The combination of the soft cookie and the cookie pieces in the middle made this sandwich taste like chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. It was a bit confusing.
This one was just ok for me, I wouldn’t get it again.
Price: $3.33 on sale ($7.79 regular) for 4x125ml from Sobeys
Again the Oreo cookie was soft, in this case though I liked it, I thought it went well with the ice cream. However, the cookie really stuck to my teeth, you’ll definitely want to do a mirror check after eating this one. The Oreo cookie was large and thin which made the sandwich easy to eat.
The chocolate ice cream in the middle is a milk chocolate with cookie pieces mixed in. I found the pieces to be a superfluous though, the soft Oreo cookie outside produced enough cookie pieces on its own.
This was my favourite of the five. The chocolate flavour was great and the cookie sandwich was a good size. Although I do admit the Oreo mush in my teeth was a tad annoying.
Although I liked it I wouldn’t buy it at full price, I’ll re-buy the moment I see a sale though.
President’s Choice “Eat the Middle First” Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich
This generic Oreo cookie ice cream sandwich is also on the small side. Not a bad thing necessarily but you may want to have two at a time (go ahead you have my permission)
The cookie itself was good, it wasn’t too thick and to me it tasted the same as an Oreo. This cookie didn’t stick to my teeth like the name brand Oreo, so that was a small advantage.
The vanilla ice cream in the middle doesn’t have any extra cookie pieces, it tasted fine, just a bit icy.
I’m a bit on the fence on this treat, the taste and price are fine, but it’s not an exciting treat overall. If you can find the Oreo brand on sale get that instead, it has a bigger cookie and better ice cream in the centre.
I can’t allow myself to buy The Decadent President’s Choice chocolate chip cookies because I would eat them all in two days. How would I fare with the ice cream sandwich version?
For the ice cream version I think they just get cookies and put ice cream between them. Size wise they are the same, small and thick. The thickness makes them a bit more difficult to eat, taking a bite is a bit awkward. The cookie itself was soft and sweet with nice chocolate chips. The ice cream inside was fine, a plain vanilla, nothing special.
Overall I found this one a bit sweet for my taste. Perhaps the cookies were too thick? If they could make the cookie taste the same but thinner I think this would be a winner.
I did like it better than the Chips Ahoy though, and the price is good.
I occasionally get a craving for a peanut butter cookie, not enough to make them, but enough to seek one out in a bakery. Perhaps that’s why I liked this ice cream sandwich so much. The cookie is small and thick, like the other PC sandwich, but I didn’t mind it here. The cookie had a great peanut butter flavour and good chocolate chips, the best of both worlds really. And the odd crumbly softness all these cookie sandwiches have suit peanut butter cookies best I think. Most peanut butter cookies are soft and crumbly.
The ice cream in the middle was also nice, a mild peanut butter flavour.
This one was my second favourite of the five. It really hit the spot when it came to my peanut butter craving. For the price I will be getting this one again.
Sometimes in a complicated world you just want simplicity, the basic store bought ice cream sandwich provides this. Although you can get more gourmet ice cream sandwiches with real cookies, there is something very zen about a plain rectangular vanilla and chocolate cookie sandwich.
They are also good portion control. A pint of Ben and Jerry’s while catching up on Scandal seems like a good idea, but hours later you’re left with nothing but an empty container and regret. Saying ‘I’ll just eat down to this last piece of cookie dough’ to yourself just doesn’t work, and before you know it the whole pint is gone.
Top to bottom – Parlour, Our Compliments, Klondike, Chapman’s and Scotsburn ice cream sandwichesAlternatively an ice cream sandwich is a nice, relatively small, treat. Once it’s gone you have to get up and walk to the freezer for another, which can sometimes be enough of a deterrent.
So in preparation for the fall and winter binge watch season I have reviewed five ice cream sandwiches below. Note all are available at Sobeys.
Klondike ice cream sandwichThis sandwich had the creamiest ice cream by far. It was both smooth and thick and tasted great; A real treat. The cookie was also very good, thick and chewy. The ice cream was not to the edge of the cookie, but this is because of the scalloped edges, so is merely a design choice on Klondike’s part.
Because of the high price I would save this sandwich for an occasional splurge, when you’re feeling decadent and will savour every mouthful.
Scotsburn ice cream sandwichThis sandwich was excellent overall. The ice cream’s vanilla flavour really came through and it was creamy as well. Not quite as thick at the Klondike though. The cookie was a good thickness and the ice cream goes to edge all around.
Because of the reasonable price and great taste, out of the five I tested, this one was my favourite. A great treat and cheap enough to eat more than one at a time.
Price: Sale – $4.99 for 12 x 60ml (.69/100 ml) Regular price $7.79 (1.08/100ml)
Parlour Mini chocolate ice cream sandwichI liked that this bar had chocolate ice cream, which seems rare in ice cream sandwich world, but I disliked how small it was. It is half the size of the rest of the ones I tried, and when not on sale it’s expensive. The chocolate ice cream was nice, and the cookie was soft and chewy. But is chocolate ice cream really that much more expensive than vanilla? Why isn’t chocolate offered in the larger sizes?
It’s small and pricey, but there’s chocolate…it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure.
Should pair well with – the slight guilt associated with the aforementioned Scandal Season 7.
Price: Sale $4.99 for 12 x 120 ml (.35/100 ml) Regular price $6.49 (.45/100ml)
Chapman’s Neapolitan ice cream sandwichAnother flavour variation to vanilla is found in the Chapman’s Neapolitan ice cream sandwich, and I do applaud it. Price wise this box of sandwiches is a good deal for regular sized bars that aren’t vanilla. The sandwich had great ice cream, good strawberry, vanilla and chocolate flavours. However, the overall taste was let down by the cookie around it which was too hard and brittle; it wasn’t crumbling but it wasn’t soft either. This one is a good choice for those who like to disassemble their ice cream sandwiches. But for me it wasn’t as enjoyable as it should have been.
Good but not great; the Neapolitan ice cream and cookie’s hardness keep you on your toes.
Should pair well with – paying attention to the subtitles in Narcos Season 3.
Our Compliments ice cream sandwichLast and sadly least is the vanilla ice cream sandwich from Our Compliments. If I’m being honest it was a bit of a sad sandwich. The ice cream was fine, not fabulous but perfectly edible and the cookie was soft and chewy as it should be.
But, and this is a big but, there was some sort of quality control issue and the ice cream didn’t go all the way to the edge of the cookie on one side. This wasn’t an anomaly, the whole box of six was like this. Disappointing to say the least.
You get what you pay for with this sandwich, so no need to save your pennies, binge away.
Should pair well with – that boring show your partner makes you watch.
So choose your ice cream sandwich wisely, the good news is that a wrapper is less guilt inducing than an empty pint tub. The bad news is that several wrappers are actually more guilt inducing.
Scream for Ice Cream 