In our Taste Test series, BA editors conduct blind comparisons to discover the best supermarket staples (like vanilla ice cream or frozen pizza). Today, which ice cream sandwich is the most satisfying?
Let’s get one thing straight: A chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich is not—and I will say it again, not—any old ice cream sandwich. In the US there are two genres of ice cream sandwiches competing for your love. There are those which are essentially rectangles of ice cream caught between cakey, often mushy chocolate cookies. But in the test kitchen we prefer the other kind: vanilla ice cream layered between two chewy chocolate chip cookies. These nostalgic chocolate-chip-laden treats are a whole other, wildly superior ballgame. For decades now they have become a beloved summertime tradition, so finding the most delicious option is crucial.
As usual, in a competitive taste test like this, these ice cream sandwiches have a lot of expectations to live up to. First, the cookies on the top and bottom must be soft—otherwise, as the ice cream melts, each bite pushes it out the sides, making it impossible to eat. Those cookies should be delicious enough to stand on their own—we’re looking for that toasty, sweet, soul-affirming flavor we know and love from homemade cookies. They should also have a good balance of richness and salt to bolster the sweetness in the ice cream. Lastly, the ice cream should have a custardy texture, not too much air whipped in (a common tactic to stretch ice cream and boost profits), and a confident splash of vanilla. It’s a tall order, but when all those elements come together, a cookie ice cream sandwich is a bite of summer magic.
To find the absolute best one out there, we blind-tested six of the most commonly found chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches for texture, chew, and all around deliciousness. The competition was fierce, and the tasting debates got heated. Some tasters swore they’d recognize the Chipwich brand by taste, only to be devastatingly incorrect upon final reveal. Others were divided on how sweet the cookie should really be. And to weigh in on each ingredient list, we called upon ice cream sandwich expert and food editor Shilpa Uskokovic. Read on to discover our favorite.
Somehow Spicy: Nestlé Toll House Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich
The ingredients: Chocolate chip cookies (enriched bleached wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid], sugar, chocolate chips [sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, milk fat, soy lecithin, natural flavor], margarine [canola oil, water, modified palm and palm kernel oils, salt, monoglycerides, sodium benzoate, citric acid, annatto color, turmeric color, natural flavor, vitamin a palmitate, vitamin d3], corn syrup, molasses, natural flavor, eggs, baking soda, salt, ammonium bicarbonate, salt), dairy product solids, skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, coconut oil, maltodextrin, propylene glycol monostearate, cellulose gel, guar gum, monoglycerides, carob bean gum, cellulose gum, natural flavor.
Shilpa, who developed her own chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich recipe for Bon Appetit, remarked “There are so many gums and stabilizers.” That could lead to ice cream that’s gummy or fluffy, and barely tastes like dairy. “The extra water content,” she says, “may have made for a cakier cookie.” That margarine, with its citric acid and vaguely titled “natural flavors” could be the key to the strangely insistent cinnamon flavors that tasters reported.
The verdict: No, thank you. The cookies here had an overwhelming nutmeg-meets-cinnamon taste that our testers did not enjoy. Bon Appétit contributor MacKenzie Chung-Fegan called it a “pumpkin spice chipwich,” and recipe production assistant Carly Westerfield shook her head in disappointment while chewing her first bite. The cookies were more bendy than chewy, an unpleasant hard-but-soft texture. The ice cream layer was disappointingly small. Zoe Denenberg, associate cooking editor, spoke for all of us when she gave her bite a frank “absolutely not.”
Tiny but Terrible: Nestlé Toll House Mini Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich
The ingredients: Chocolate chip cookies (enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid], palm oil, sugar, chocolate chips [sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter, dextrose, soy lecithin, natural flavor], brown sugar, dextrose, salt, leavenings [ammonium bicarbonate, baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate], natural flavor), dairy product solids, skim milk, sugar, corn syrup, cream, coconut oil, maltodextrin, propylene glycol monostearate, cellulose gel, guar gum, monoglycerides, carob bean gum, cellulose gum, natural flavor.
“Lots of gum,” Shilpa notes again about the ice cream. In fact, on close inspection, nowhere on the Toll House Mini’s package does it say it contains ice cream. Instead, they’re described as “frozen dairy dessert sandwiches.”
The verdict: Things taste better when they’re mini. It’s been scientifically proven (by me, just now, in a lab coat). These tiny, two-bite ice cream sandwiches were, as MacKenzie said, “adorbs.” Unfortunately, the cookie was “a bit floury,” according to editorial assistant Nina Moskowitz. Strangely, the Toll House minis appeared to have a completely different cookie recipe and taste than the full-sized Toll House ice cream sandwiches, even though they’re made by the same brand. The ice cream filling came up short as well. It was too light and, as senior social media manager Esra Erol said, unsubstantial, “like Cool Whip.”
Disappointingly Disintegrating: Trader Joe's Sublime Ice Cream Sandwich
The ingredients: Ice cream (milk, cream, sugar, whey, natural vanilla flavor, guar gum, locust bean gum, soy lecithin [emulsifier]), chocolate chunk cookies (enriched flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], brown sugar, chocolate chunks (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter), soy lecithin, vanilla, salt], palm oil, sugar, eggs, butter [cream, salt], invert sugar, water, vanilla, whey protein concentrate, leavening, salt), chocolate drops (semisweet chocolate [sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, dextrose], soy lecithin).
The verdict: Trader Joe’s sandwich was particularly chippy—the ice cream layer was decked out in tiny chocolate chips—which we enjoyed, but the problems came in the cookie. It was altogether too soft, and we watched in horror as the cookies on Carly’s ice cream sandwich disintegrated before our eyes as it melted. The ice cream layer rivaled that of our favorite vanilla ice cream, but it was airier than we would have liked.
Too Cool for School: CoolHaus Classic Vanilla Ice Cream Sammie
The ingredients: Vanilla ice cream [whole milk, sugar, butter (cream, natural flavor), non fat milk, natural vanilla beans flavor (sugar, dextrose, fructose, vanilla beans, natural flavor), carob bean gum, guar gum, pure vanilla flavor (water, cane alcohol, sugar, vanilla bean extractives), acacia gum, vanilla beans], chocolate chip cookie [enriched flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, brown sugar, butter (pasteurized cream), chocolate chips (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla extract), cage free eggs, moisturlok (rice syrup, grape juice), salt, baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)].
“Ah! Finally real ice cream!” Shilpa says excitedly. She points out that milk is first on the ingredient list, and that this ice cream sandwich also features butter (versus milder margarine) and real vanilla (versus “natural flavors”)—all factors that seemed promising.
The verdict: The ice cream layer in the CoolHaus chipwich had countless specks of vanilla bean, and tasters unanimously said that this was the best ice cream we tested. Nina loved the “intense vanilla flavor,” and Carly gave this ice cream tens in flavor and texture. It would have been a strong contender for the number one spot, had the cookie not fallen just short of expectations. Everyone agreed with MacKenzie when she said the cookie was too soft, and had an artificial aftertaste. Although there was a persistent murmuring that this contender was “too bougie for an ice cream sandwich,” tasters agreed that CoolHaus would be a solid treat on a hot summer day.
The Creamy Classic: The Original Chipwich Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich
The ingredients: Ice cream mix (milk, cream, sugar, condensed skim milk, corn sweetener, fructose, whey, stabilizer [guar gum, soy lecithin, egg yolk, locust bean gum, carrageenan, standardized with sugar]), chocolate chip cookies (enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], brown sugar, palm oil, chocolate chunks [sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract, salt], sugar, eggs, invert sugar, butter, whey, natural vanilla extract, salt, baking soda), semisweet chocolate chips (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, dextrose, sunflower lecithin), natural vanilla flavor.
The verdict: As the template, the original, the trailblazer, the name-copyright holder, Chipwich brand chipwich had to live up a lot of hype. There was something familiar about each bite—Nina called it “classic.” Carly noticed some light cinnamon notes in the cookie—not overpowering like it was in the Toll House—and tasters agreed that the chocolate-chip-lined ice cream layer made us feel like we’d done something right in life to end up here. Each bite of cookie was soft without too much give. Chipwich scored high marks, but ultimately fell just behind our winner.
The Corner Store Champion: 7-Select Ice Cream Sandwich Cookie
The ingredients: Chocolate chip cookies {enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), brown sugar, sugar, palm oil, semi-sweet chocolate chips (sugar, unsweetened chocolate, dextrose, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, vanilla extract), pasteurized eggs, margarine (palm oil, water, soybean oil, contains less than 2% of salt, whey, natural flavor, mono & diglycerides, soy lecithin, vitamin a palmitate, beta carotene for color), corn syrup, contains 2% or less of natural flavors, salt, baking soda, ammonium bicarbonate}. ice cream (milk, cream, buttermilk, sugar, whey, corn syrup, skim milk, contains 2% or less of natural flavors, carob bean gum, cellulose gum, carrageenan, mono and diglycerides).
Shilpa predicted that the high brown sugar content in these cookies would contribute to a complex toastiness. She describes the ingredients list as really decent—milk, cream, and buttercream in the ice cream! As Shilpa says, “It’s practically homemade quality.”
The verdict: Just moments after tasters took their first bites of 7/11’s ice cream sandwich, they began blurting out praise—speaking over each other to express surprise and delight. “This is a cookie I would eat on its own,” said MacKenzie, who loved the warm brown sugar nuttiness in the cookie. Associate cooking editor Antara Sinha noticed that there was a good hit of salt to balance out the sweetness too. The ice cream had a nice toothsomeness to it, with enough structure to hold everything together. For our absolute favorite chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich, you’ll have to head to your corner store.
