National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

After an entire month of celebrating ice cream, your Chocolate Priestess has to wonder why "National Ice Cream Sandwich Day" is Monday, August 2nd.   There are several newspaper articles cited in this 2004 report from the blog "The Big Apple" that use the term "ice cream sandwich" to describe various treats which were basically cookies with ice cream between them.  These are newspapers from New Jersey and New York I notice which is not surprising given that many food fads and develops happen first on the coasts much like fashion and entertain trends begin there before moving toward the heartland of America.

But that didn't tell me why there is a fun food holiday for this treat. I searched and searched the Internet sources I often turn to but no one has uncovered who created them.  I can say as a trained historian that when the phrase "ice cream sandwich" shows up in three different newspapers in the same year, this suggest that it wasn't an unknown treat but it was new enough that it was worthy of notice and a store's highlighting of their sales of said treat suggest it was popular.

And why shouldn't it be?  It takes two wonderful treats -- ice cream and cookies -- and creates a new hybrid treat that is a bit messy to eat but also not difficult for anyone to make at home.  While you don't have to use chocolate in these I would like all of you to tell me about the last time you did have chocolate with your ice cream sandwich.  Did you make it yourself using homemade ice cream and cookies?  Did you make it at home using store bought versions of one or both of the main ingredients?  Or did you buy it at a shop, grocery or eat it in another person's house?

Just as we reviewed a lot of Klondike bars in July, I'm going to look two types of ice cream sandwiches they offer using the two $5 coupons the company sent me.  August is also Klondike's third summer video contest called "Ball Toss" which will offer prizes for any one who likes games both video and live action along with a cash prize.

I'll start with the Mrs. Fields variety of the sandwich cookie which is vanilla flavored light ice cream between two of that fashion cookie maker's chocolate chip cookies.  Here on The Chocolate Cult we did a Sacrament of some of Mrs. Fields product for Valentine's Day so this will be a review of the treat from Klondike, not a critique of the cookie itself even though that is the only source of chocolate.  There are 4 cookie in a box instead of 6 like we will see with the original vanilla sandwich cookie in a couple of paragraphs.  I found these in my nearby Marsh Supermarket where they sell for about $4.07 average price making this $1 per cookie sandwich.  1 sandwich has 220 calories but these are made of 4g saturated fat, much less than we found in the bars previously reviewed, <5mg cholesterol, 150mg sodium, <1g fiber, 20g sugars, 3g protein, 2% vitamin A and 6% of both calcium and iron an adult needs daily.

The cookie is 2.5 inches in diameter with an entire thickness of 1.25 inches weighing 4oz.  I put it on plate I'll be doing another Sacrament about next weekend.  It came wrapped in transparent plastic that unwrapped easily.  It has a very strong vanilla ice cream scent.  The cookies are firm but they aren't hard or crispy, clearly they are the soft type of chocolate chip cookie your Chocolate Priestess personally prefers.  There are 9-10 bites in this treat.  Each one is cold as you'd expect with the dominant flavor of vanilla, sugar, and a hint of bitterness when I ate a chip.  These are very, very sweet and are exactly what I expected from light ice cream and Mrs. Fields cookies.

The original Klondike sandwich is a light vanilla ice cream between two chocolate cookies and given the amount of chocolate I can just see, I expect more of our favorite flavor.  6 sandwiches come in one box and each one weighs 4.23oz so bigger than the previous variety as well as two extra treats. The result is a better buy at the same price or 68¢ per sandwich.  Each sandwich is 180 calories made up of 2.5g saturated fat (the best so far for Klondike's we've reviewed), 10mg cholesterol, 150mg sodium, <1g fiber, 16g sugars, 3g protein, 4% vitamin A and 8% calcium an adult needs daily.

The sandwich is a 2.75 inch square cookie covers over the light vanilla ice cream making the entire thing 1.38 inches tall.  When I think ice cream sandwich I have to say that this is what I've always thought of -- two soft chocolate wafer cookies on two sides of ice cream.  There is a chocolate variety from Klondike but there are round and the only box I saw was half vanilla, half chocolate and I wanted to make sure I did the traditional variety I remembered from my childhood.  It has a vanilla and light cocoa scent and the cookie sticks to my fingers which are much warmer than the freezer.  The cookie part has a light cocoa flavor as well but is mostly flour tasting with a hint of sugar but then the ingredient show only cocoa not other chocolate added.  It bites easily and doesn't break though it is also completely silent.  It's just like I remember it being from my childhood.

Klondike used to just be one type of chocolate coated ice cream bar but now they've grown to include a wide assortment of treats. To see what else they have to offer, check out their main website.  Remember the contest as well and let us know here in The Chocolate Cult so we can all go vote for a winner later in August 2010.  If you choose wisely these are nice treats for yourself and your family that have built in portion control plus you can eat the with your hands making it feasible for almost anyone to handle.