The ice cream sandwich was invented in the 1890s by New York City street vendors who combined ice cream with two wafer-thin cookies. Today, there are many variations available, including gourmet cookies and exotic ice cream flavors.
The traditional ice cream sandwich consists of a layer of vanilla ice cream literally sandwiched between two thin wafers of chocolate brownie, though there’s certainly plenty of room for improvisation. The ice cream in an ice cream sandwich could run the gamut from vanilla to chocolate to cookies and cream, with many other flavors available. The outer shells could be gourmet cookies, sweet crackers, candy bars, or other suitable treats. An ice cream sandwich might also be covered in chocolate and sprinkled with traditional ice cream toppings.
The ice cream sandwich is thought to have been invented in the 1890s by ice cream vendors who worked the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side in New York City. Italian street vendors often sold sweet wafer cookies called pizzelle along with homemade ice cream and other goodies. Some sources theorize that vendors would combine a layer of ice cream with two wafer-thin cookies and promote them as the easier-to-use “ice cream sandwiches.” Early accounts of the sale of ice cream sandwiches indicate that the total cost of the treatment is one cent.
The ice cream sandwich’s popularity has grown steadily, which has led to several local dairy companies and ice cream shops like Isaly offering their own versions to customers. Eventually the ice cream sandwich became a mass-produced addition to other ice cream novelties, such as candy, popsicles, and Eskimo cakes. While the ice cream industry has relied on vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge wafers as the standard recipe for ice cream sandwiches, smaller companies and gourmet ice cream parlors have continued to offer their own variations.
Today, it’s not unusual to find a wide variety of ice cream sandwich flavors in grocery store freezers, and many specialty ice cream shops allow customers to create their own ice cream sandwiches with gourmet cookies and exotic ice cream flavors. A popular alternative to the traditional vanilla ice cream filling is a Neapolitan version with sections of vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice cream. There are also sugar-free and low-fat versions of the ice cream sandwiches available for those consumers on a special diet.
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