Häagen-Dazs - Brownies à la Mode

Brownies à la Mode - Vanilla Ice Cream with Brownie Pieces and a Fudge Sauce Swirl

Back to the Häagen-Dazs Destination Series for their Brownies à la Mode flavor.  Where exactly is a brownie-centric ice cream taking us?  Chicago!  Evidently Chicago is the birthplace of the brownie.  The popular legend has it that the brownie was invented at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago during the time of the World's Fair of 1893 as a small cake-like dessert which was durable enough to be included in box lunches.  It was an immediately success and similar recipes started showing up in cookbooks across the country within the next decade.  

With this flavor, Haagen-Dazs hopes to replicate the success of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie which has been one of that brand's most popular flavor since it was introduced over twenty-five years ago.  That said, there is a key difference.  Ben & Jerry's uses a chocolate base aimed at providing people with an intense chocolate experience while Häagen-Dazs uses a vanilla base seemingly to mimic a brownie with an accompanying scoop of ice cream (à la mode).

Removing the lid, the top of the pint shows a lot more color and texture than I was expecting.  Many small brownie pieces are visible as well as quite a bit of the fudge swirl.  I have to say, I've been pleasantly surprised by the Destination Series flavors -- there is always more going on in the pint than I imagine looking at the name of the flavor in the freezer case.  Here, the pleasant surprise is the fudge swirl.  Digging into the pint, the brownie pieces are much smaller than those in a typical Ben & Jerry's pint, although they are still soft, chewy and chocolatey.  And they are quite numerous.  There is no shortage of brownie pieces, but just delivered to you in smaller bits.  The fudge sauce reminded me of Hershey's chocolate syrup which I used to put on my vanilla ice cream when I was a kid.  It had a little bit of that back-of-the-throat kick to it.  The vanilla base was overpowered by the brownies and the mix-ins but it gave the pint a different feel to it than a chocolate base would.  This is a flavor with a lot of chocolatey mix-ins and not an "all chocolate" pint.

I very much enjoyed this flavor.  Haagen-Dazs has managed to introduce a brownie mix-in into their product line while avoiding a direct copy of Ben & Jerry's.  If you like a scoop of vanilla with chocolate sauce to go with your brownie, then give this flavor a try.