Baskin Robbins - Pralines 'N Cream

Pralines 'N Cream - Vanilla Flavored Ice Cream with Praline-Coated Pecan Pieces & Caramel Ribbon

This week we do a Baskin Robbins original -- Pralines 'N Cream.  The story goes that Irv Robbins and his wife Irma were at home enjoying a bag of pralines that they had brought back from a recent trip to New Orleans when inspiration hit.  Irv rushed to the kitchen to mix the pralines into vanilla ice cream with a bit of caramel and a new flavor was born.  The flavor immediately became one of their all-time best sellers and scoop shops have learned never to rotate it out of their thirty-one flavor line-up.  So popular is the flavor, that it has spawned copycats.  Haagen-Dazs' introduction of their Pralines & Cream flavor (note the & in place of the 'N) in 1984 led to a lawsuit from Baskin-Robbins which thought it had trademarked the flavor.  The Haagen-Dazs flavor is still in freezer cases in 2016 so Baskin-Robbins must have lost exclusivity in that suit, but there's no denying who is the original.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid reveals an unusually pretty top of the pint.  The carton is not quite full and the shape of the cream has some nice folds to it.  A couple of caramel swirls are visible along with a general caramel-ly tinge to the vanilla base.  Eating my way in, the caramel swirls are thick and sweet.  A bit more orange and a bit more sticky and sweet than the usual caramel swirl.  The pecans are dispersed throughout the pint and the praline coating was a bit more toffee-like and crunchy than I was expecting.  It's been a while since I've had this flavor -- I had forgotten that they weren't just regular nuts.  Honey or candy-coated nuts is a common holiday treat in my family so it is not like I am objecting.  The vanilla base provided a decent backdrop but with the ribbon and the mix-ins it did not stand out by itself.

Certainly a successful flavor.  I can see why it has remained popular for all of these years.  Personally, I might prefer just a straight pecan & caramel combination without the toffee-like praline coating but I think I'm in the minority as 'praline' is featured very prominently in the name of the flavor.  I wonder if the Haagen-Dasz flavor is much different.  Perhaps I'll try that one soon as that would make for a fun showdown.