Ample Hills - The Munchies

The Munchies - Pretzel-infused Ice Cream with Clusters of Pretzels, Potato Chips, Ritz Crackers and M&M's

We have reached the final installment of my four-pint shipment from Ample Hills.    The flavor is The Munchies and is one of their most signature flavors.  Ample Hills has a reputation for going a bit over the top with their mix-ins and this is their regular flavor where they pull out all of the stops and toss in as many salty mix-ins as they can.  Other brands have 'lots of mix-ins' type flavors but this pint is one of the few which is not chocolate- or peanut-butter-centric -- in fact it was not for the M&M's, it would not have either.  Thanks to the publication of their cookbook, many of the older Ample Hills flavor's recipes can be found online somewhere and this flavor is no exception.  It is interesting how they infuse the base ice cream with pretzel flavor.  They heat milk with pretzels in it, let it steep for twenty minutes, and strain the milk and proceed.  These details are fun and are making me curious to try this out.

The top of the pint is a doughy color and many small pieces of mix-ins are visible at the top of the pint.  Digging in, the base ice cream does taste like pretzels -- rather cool how that steeping and straining worked out.  As advertised, there are a lot of mix-ins here.  The M&M's provide a bit of color and a small hint of chocolate while the pretzels, crackers and chips provide a bit of crunch and a bit of salt.  The salty mix-ins tended to glob up a bit into larger chunks.  The churning process gave these chunks the consistency of a crunchy cookie dough.  Some of the chunks were large enough that I had to 'cut' them before I could fit them on the spoon.

This was a fun pint.  I liked it, but I did not love it as much as I was expecting to.  I think I may have set my expectations a bit too high based on the fame that this particular flavor has.  Also, sometimes so many different types of mix-ins don't allow me to focus on any particular one.  In that regard, I prefer their Commodore flavor as it allowed me to focus on the potato chips.  Still, if you are a fan of salty mix-ins, especially pretzels, and you are in New York, then you need to try this.