Ice Cream Sandwich Throwdown

When I think of summer, I think of hot days, being lazy by the pool and eating ice cream. Ice cream is and always will be a comfort food of mine and I think this is the case for hundreds of thousands of others. Bad break up? Eat ice cream. Date night? You eat ice cream. Celebrating your birthday? You guessed it… ice cream. In one day, I tried two of the four ice cream sandwiches competing for the title of best ice cream sandwich in Saratoga Springs. Some may recognize this contest as the ice cream sandwich throwdown, brought about by my anonymous friends over at Saratoga Idiots and the FussyLittleBlog from Albany.

In my mission to try all four in one day, I failed and was only able to try two: Comfort Kitchen’s house-made vanilla bean ice cream between two house-made pizelles, chocolate ganache, and salted caramel peanuts sandwich (on right) and Wheatfield’s coconut macaroon and amaretto gelato ice cream sandwich (on left).

Look at those beauties, facing off against eachother.

I tried out the Wheatfield’s sandwich first, which I have to say definitely had a creative combination of flavors.

The macaroon was sweet and rich with coconut and the amaretto gelato was absolutely delicious. My issue with this sandwich was that it was kinda difficult to eat. I really had to bite HARD in order to break off a piece of the cookie and when I did that, the gelato oozed out the sides and onto the plate. This made me sad. I think if the cookies had been a little softer it would have allowed for a more pleasant ice cream sandwich eating experience.

Now onto Comfort Kitchen.

First off, Rory Moran bought a pizelle maker special just for this competition. That’s dedication right there. After my first bite, the adjectives that popped in my head were the following: crunchy, soft, smooth, sweet, and creamy. Ummm… I could probably eat one of these every day, and not get sick of it. It’s just one of those desserts that’s not too much sweetness, but just enough to get you addicted.

Another thing I love about Comfort Kitchen’s approach to these ice cream sandwiches is that he always creates an ode to an old school favorite. First with the strawberry shortcake ice cream sandwich (if you didn’t get to try that one, I feel sorry for you) and now this ice cream sandwich, ode to the Drumstick ice cream treat.

As much as I love Wheatfield’s and I truly enjoyed their creativity, my vote is going to Comfort Kitchen. I still have two left to try (The Wine Bar and 28 Tables), so we’ll see who my second vote goes to!