The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

With the introduction of Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices and Blue Bunny's Bunny Snacks in the past few years, I'm not surprised that Haagen-Dazs decided to jump on the flat-ice-cream-snacks-that-aren't-bars trend. (Side note, I have no idea what to call this class of treat, maybe ice cream flats?)  Haagen-Dazs bars are consistently great, so I was hoping they would continue their tradition of superb treats. The Dulce de Leche Cookie Squares are a rich dark chocolate cookie topped with dulce de leche ice cream and swirls of luscious caramel coated in a milk chocolate shell with a drizzle of dark chocolate. My first thought upon opening the cookie squares was these these are gorgeous ! The chocolate shell is smooth and velvety with appealing swirl of dark chocolate set against the background of lighter chocolate. The taste and texture of the shell were also on pointe. It had a creamy milk-chocolate taste with a satisfying crackle and crunch without splintering and ma...

So hear me out for a metaphor that is relevant to very few people. Talenti is like a PhD program. A math PhD program perhaps. You find something that you think is going to be absolutely amazing. You try some stuff out and it's pretty good. Some parts are great and some parts are less than stellar. As the years go by, you suddenly realize that things haven't been good for a long, long time. The world is a dystopian hell-scape and literally nothing matters. Am I bitter that I've been in grad for five years? Not at all! But seriously, there are some great Talenti flavors in the core line, but I feel like none of the new flavors for the past at least three years have been any good. Since Chocolate Caramel Blondie relies on mix-ins, and we all know that Talenti sucks at mix-ins, I was did not have high hopes for this flavor. Chocolate Caramel Blondie is chocolate+dulce de leche gelato with blondie pieces and a salted caramel swirl. Interestingly, the base was very, very ...

A caramel ice cream that's not salted caramel! Hallelujah! BLVD Tasty Ice Cream Caramel Dulce Slam is Dulce de leche ice cream with a ribbon of homemade caramel. The top of the pint looked phenomenal. Dark caramel ice cream with a prominent thick, gooey swirl. This was a bit misleading as the swirl was most prominent on the top and bottom of the pint and fairly sparse throughout the middle of the pint. At least you start and end on a good note. The caramel base really stood out from other ice creams. It was much darker and had much more of that browned, complex, bordering-on-burnt 'Maillard reaction taste' than most other caramel ice creams. Unfortunately, because the base was so strong it overwhelmed the lighter sweeter swirl. That seems to be a theme with BLVD; amazing bases which the mix-ins don't quite live up to. I give Caramel Dulce Slam 🍦🍦.5/4. I think it's worth trying for the base alone and would be great in a sundae, but because the ba...

Ok, I was SO excited to try Ices Plain and Fancy.  The day Lizzy, Brett, and I went to Crown Candy Kitchen the original plan was to go to Ices Plain and Fancy, but it was closed.  Such sadness. Two days later Lizzy, Brett, Kyle and I one more time made the trek out to Ices Plain and fancy.  I had such a hard time deciding what to get.  I wanted one of everything on the menu.  They have a whole long list of boozy ices.  The two that stood out to me were one made with ginger beer and one (for 21+ only) made with Left Hand Brewing's Milk Stout (I think it was the milk stout, it may have been a different LHB beer).  These are on my to-try list next time I visit home. Since this was my first time at Ices Plain and Fancy, I decided to try a 'simple' ice, and decided on the Salted Dulce de Leche Custard flavor.  From what I could tell, this was either a vanilla or very lightly caramel-flavored base.  What made this outstanding were the toppings...

It seems like forever since I've reviewed a Talenti flavor!  Today I'll be reviewing the Caramel Cookie Crunch flavor.  This described as Crunchy chocolate cookies are combined with Talenti's Dulce de Leche and blended in just as the gelato is being hand filled into the jars, transforming standard cookies and cream into a luxurious treat. First let me say that I enjoyed this flavor, so much so that I polished off the pint in about 3 minutes flat. (Yes! There is at least one thing in life that I'm good at!) On your marks!  Get set!  Go! The Dulce de Leche swirls were not very prominent.  There was a subtle caramel flavor suffused throughout the entire pint, but the swirls themselves were very thin and very similar in flavor to the base gelato.  The cookie chunks were small and beadlike, sometimes with 3 or 4 of these little beads clumped together.  In size and variation they reminded me of a box of Nerds candy.  They were crunchy and ta...