Best Ice Cream Sandwich

From Here
Best Overall

Epi Top Pick: Turkey Hill Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Sandwich ($3.99 for a box of six)

Pros: The creamy ice cream with real vanilla flavor and the moist, spongy cakelike cookie won raves from the testers. "The ice cream is so fluffy and smooth!" said one editor. "The vanilla specks are not just for show, the ice cream tastes like it's made with a real vanilla pod; very natural," said another.

Cons: Thin in comparison to other competitors.

First Runner-Up: Nestle Super Sandwich ($2.50 per bar)

Pros: All editors agreed that this ice cream sandwich's 2:1 ice cream–to-cookie ratio was just right. Tasters also loved the incredibly creamy, milky ice cream and the coffee bean color and cocoa flavor of the cookie. "A masterpiece," commented one editor.

Cons: Cookie is a bit dry, according to several judges.

Best Nondairy: Organic So-Delicious Nondairy Frozen Dessert ($ 5.49 for a box of six)

Pros: This nondairy option was far more engaging than the other soy-based competitors. In addition to having a firm and dense filling, it actually tasted milky. The bars are also marketed as low-fat. "This one is my new go-to, even though I can eat dairy!" said one taster.

Cons: It's the most expensive of the winner's circle entries, and the filling has a slight eggnoglike taste.

The Other Contenders: The Bottom Three

Two out of the three nondairy varieties were voted the least favorite of all the sandwiches we tested. Soy Dream Lil' Dreamers had a grainy texture and tasted like edamame (soy beans). Tofutti Cuties' filling appeared foamy and had an off-putting orange tint.

Among the classic sandwiches, Dolly Madison's fared the worst: The ice cream was foamy and tasted artificial. The cookie was unimpressive—it tasted minty and like fake chocolate.

Kit Kat Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 4 kit-kat bars
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.

Directions
1. Cut kit kats into 1/2 inch pieces.
2. Combine sugar and egg until creamy
3. Slowly heat milk on stove.
4. Add the milk to the egg/sugar mixture SLOWLY and whisk while adding. (This prevents scrambled eggs...)
5. Return the egg/milk/sugar mixture to stove top and cook on low heat until heavy cream like consistency (coats the back of spoon)
6. In a separate bowl whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
7. Add the vanilla and fold in.
8. In the ice cream mixer combine the egg/sugar/milk mixture and the heavy cream into the ice mixture.
9. spin for 30 minutes. (add kit-kats about 5 minutes before ice cream is done.)

Overall: I made this with my new roomie and his ice cream maker. This was very creamy ice cream. We were using the good old Ben & Jerrys recipe book... from the 1980s. It said to use raw egg, so we modified the recipe and tempered the egg... (not even sure if I spelt that right). The recipe book called for 1/2 inch kit-kat bits but I would have cut them smaller. Also, roommate suggested that the ice cream was 'eggy' but in the same moment, other roommate didn't realize that egg was in the mixture but I would try to modify that because I did taste it. Not to mention there was a weird coating on the roof of your mouth when you ate this. Not sure what, but I would restructure this recipe before making again....

Chocolate, Coffee, and... Peanut butter milkshake?

Yes, so this was an entry sitting in my "drafts" for a while simply because I made this way back in may with my sister and haven't even looked at posting this... but I should.

• 3 scoops Vanilla ice cream
• 1/4 cup brewed coffee
• handful of chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp peanut butter

You should know my measurements are never exact and I think playing with what is available is always fun. We happened to have a smidgen of vanilla ice cream left and used the rest of the ingredients because they were almost empty and taking up space in the fridge. Always fun. But this is a very nice, smooth, and a tab rich for a milkshake. Not healthy by any means =)

Oreo Ice Cream

Cookies N Cream
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
Smashed up favorite cookies.

Directions:
1. Combine eggs & sugar, whisking until combines.
2. Heat milk and vanilla in a sauce pan til just before boiling.
3. Add to egg mixture SLOWLY! and continuously whisking (this prevents scrambled eggs)
4. Heat milk/egg mixture until thick & custard-y
5. While milk/egg is thickening whip the heavy cream until light and fluffy
6. pour custard into whipping cream and fold gently
7. pour into ice cream makerfor 30 minutes. About 20 minutes in add your favorite crushed cookies

Overall: So this is most certainly NOT how my sister and I made it. The book we were reading from had an akward layout in the directions for the ice cream so we completely missed the whipping cream step, instead assuming the "milk" meant cream + milk mixture. Because of this the custard was not very thick and our ice cream was more of an Iced milk. Also, we added the oreos (our cookie of choice) before the putting the mixture in the ice cream maker. The only down side to that step was turning the ice cream an ugly unappetizing gray color.

That all being said, it tasted fine. I would more or less start with a vanilla base and add cookies at the end next time. Also, the whole cooking eggs is different from the last ice cream we made. I won't really try this recipe again...

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice cream

So for Christmas my grandma got our family an ice cream maker:


Behold! The wonderful ice cream maker. Sadly, I don't live at home so I haven't gotten to use it since Christmas because I haven't been home. What a waste of a beautiful machine too. My mom and sister don't eat sweets and my step dad will have a sweet tooth once in a blue moon. But I wasn't allowed to bring it home.

So my first experience with an ice cream maker was a blast. My mom and I spent the time catching up and having a great time. We made Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream.

Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

• 4 oz egg beater
• 2 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup pureed strawberries
• 8 oz cream cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup sugar

Optional: So if you want some texture in your ice cream you can add chocolate chips, quartered strawberries, whatever you would like in your strawberry ice cream.


Directions:

Note: You have to put the metal canister in the freezer for a LONG time, we left it in for like 24 hours so it was nice and cold.

1. Cream together egg beaters and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add in cream, cream cheese, pureed strawberries, and vanilla.
3. Mix thoroughly.
4. Once everything is mixed, set up the ice cream machine and have everything ready to pour into canister. Once you take the canister out of the freezer it starts to thaw, which is bad because the cold canister is what freezes the ice cream.
5. turn on machine. leave for 30 minutes.
6. Ice cream is going to be custard-y once done. Put in a container and freeze for a few hours if you want it harder.


Overall: Honestly, this was just as fun for me to make as it was to eat. The ice cream was creamy and had nice flavor. I would have loved some chocolate chips. But it was fun. Wish I had this to play with. Do you know HOW many flavors of ice cream you can make?