Milkjam Creamery - Malted Corn Crunch

Malted Corn Crunch - Malted Milk Ice Cream with Candied Corn Flakes Crunch

The third of the April Childhood Cereals flavors (instagram link here) from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called Malted Corn Crunch (instagram link here).  It features a malted-milk-flavored ice cream with candied corn flakes as mix-ins.    Corn flakes are a popular cereal to use for ice cream mix-ins.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the malted milk base has an off-white color and several of the corn flake mix-ins can be seen right away.  In the first spoonful, I actually taste the malt right away.  This is about the maltiest base that I have ever had.  The candied corn flake pieces provide some sweetness to offset the malt.  This seems a little backwards to me.  Usually, I see malt as a way to mute or offset flavors which are excessively sweet.  Here, the malt is strongest flavor.  I do not have malt that often, so I try to enjoy the flavor for what it is.  It is not bad.

This is a very malty cereal-based flavor from Milkjam.  It is pretty good, but I think you have to be a malt-lover to really love it.  Some people do love their malt, in which case this flavor may be for them.

Milkjam Creamery - Pineapple Ooey Gooey

Pineapple Ooey Gooey - Malted Milk Ice Cream, Ooey Gooey Cake and Caramelized Pineapple

 

Milkjam Creamery of Minneapolis has flavors for January (instagram link here) and today's flavor is Pineapple Ooey Gooey (instagram link here).  This ice cream features a malted milk ice cream with mix-ins of ooey gooey butter cake and caramelized pineapple.  Ooey Gooey Butter Cake is a dessert popularized in the Saint Louis area.  I have had several flavors which use it in ice cream including flavors from Jeni's, Ample Hills and a more basic flavor from Milkjam.  Caramelized pineapple sounds like a fun addition to the mix.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the malted milk ice cream base has an off-white color to it.  Quickly I encounter the mix-ins as I eat my way down.  The gooey butter cake is soft and chewy and the caramelized pineapple is a bit tangy but also has a bit of caramel flavor to it.  The malt flavor of the base is evident and acts to mute the flavor of the caramelized pineapple just a bit.

This is an interesting and unique flavor.  It reminded me a little bit of Jeni's Pineapple Upside Down Cake flavor but instead of a sweet pineapple and cherry, they use a caramelized pineapple and malt.  I enjoy and applaud the uniqueness of this flavor.  I did not love it as much as I wanted to,  Perhaps I prefer a sweeter pineapple?  That could be a personal preference.  This is worth sampling if you get the chance. 

Milkjam Creamery - Aunt Darleen

Aunt Darleen - Strawberry Ice Cream with Malted Pretzel Crumble

 

The final flavor from Milkjam Creamery's August Summer Cookout collection (instagram link here) is called Aunt Darleen (instagram link here).  This is a strawberry ice cream with a malted pretzel crumble.  This looks a bit similar to Jeni's recent Dolly Parton-inspired flavor Strawberry Pretzel Pie, though their own link says that it is more of a reference to strawberry pretzel 'salad'. (Google recipe search here).  I must admit that I have no idea where the name Aunt Darleen comes from.  I googled and I couldn't fine anything.  But Milkjam is much cooler than I am in terms of their pop culture references, so it wouldn't surprise me if it a reference to a song I don't know about.  Ok, let's check out this flavor.

Removing the lid, the strawberry base has a light pink color with a couple of darker red dots in it.  I also see some rough textured mix-ins which are probably the pretzels.  Digging in, the strawberry base is quite good.  It is the kind of strawberry that tastes like a strawberry shake.  The pretzel crumble provides the expected crunch.  I don't notice too much salt.  It is probably in the mix, but it is not as salty as some pretzel mix-ins are.

This is a good pint from Milkjam Creamery.  It's very pleasant and agreeable like most strawberry ice creams are and the pretzels provide a little bit of crunchy interest into the mix.  It is not quite as bold as some of Milkjam's other implementations, but its hard to dislike this flavor.  Strawberry fans will enjoy this.

This concludes their August Summer Cookout collection which in addition to this flavor included Smoked Peach Crisp, Lemonade Stand and from a previous season Gimme S'more.  Smoked Peach Crisp is my favorite of this month, but they are all pretty good.  I am looking forward to next month.

 

 

Bebe Zito - Dat Malt Dough

Dat Malt Dough - Malted base Ribbon with Chocolate Ganache Cookie Dough

 

Today we return to Bebe Zito in south Minneapolis for their Dat Malt Dough flavor (instagram link here).  Piecing together details of the flavor from the flavor page, the instagram link and the ingredient list on the side of the carton, it looks like there is malted cookie dough in the base ice cream and also malted cookie dough mix-ins plus there is also chocolate ganache as a mix-in.  Sounds good.  The name of the flavor sounds like a slang or dialectical way of saying "that malt, though" which the double entendre on the 'dough'.  And sure enough, someone at Mental Floss wrote an article on the history of the expression "That <noun> though".  Enough nerdy linguistics, let's check out this ice cream!

Popping off the lid, there is this nice marbly look to the top of the pint.  The darker color of the chocolate ganache looks half-mixed into the malted cookie dough base.  Plus there is a sizeable cube of cookie dough right on top.  Digging in, I can taste the malt right away.  The cookie dough flavor in the base does not stick out, but the base here is just a vehicle for the mix-ins.  The cookie pieces are quite good.  They are salty and chewy.  Next there are larger chunks of chocolate ganache.  These are soft and chewy as well. Chocolate ganache is an excellent mix-in.  I like the fact that it can be made gooey like or sauce or it can be made chewy almost like a flourless brownie.  Altogether this is very delicious.  The malty base complements the two types of mix-ins very well.

This is an excellent flavor from Bebe Zito.  This might be an odd comparison, but it reminded me a bit of Ben & Jerry's Half Baked flavor, but better.  Half Baked is Ben & Jerry's most popular flavor every year for several years now and I think Dat Malt Dough tops it.  This flavor has a more interesting base with malt in it.  The cookie dough is better, the ganache is like a better version of brownies.  So, as eclectic of a comparison as this is, I mean it as a great complement.  If Half Baked is also your flavor and you want to see a local shop one-up it, then check out Dat Malt Dough.

 

 

Bebe Zito - Peanut Butter Puppy Chow

 

Peanut Butter Puppy Chow - Peanut Butter Malted Base with Chocolate Covered Peanuts

The next flavor comes from Bebe Zito of south Minneapolis.  This one is called Peanut Butter Puppy Chow and it is one of their regular flavors.  I bought it at the scoop shop on 22nd Avenue South and Lyndale.  The flavor name reminded me of the old Purina dog food commercials from when I was a kid, but googling for videos of the old commercials led me to a ton of videos for a snack which is called puppy chow -- basically rice chex cereal (or something similar) which is first coated with a chocolate-peanut-butter sauce and then coated with powdered sugar.  Looks a bit messy to make, but it does look tasty once it's done.  How will this translate into an ice cream?  The flavor description paints this as a classic peanut-butter-and-chocolate combination some minor twists -- malt in the peanut butter base and the chocolate is covering peanut mix-ins.  Let's see how this turns out.

Removing the lid, I see a light-colored peanut-butter base with lots of chocolate-pieces drizzled on the top.  Bebe Zito likes to add toppings to the top of the pint right before placing the lid.  I like this idea.  Digging in, the peanut butter base is quite delicious without being too heavy.  I do not specifically taste the malt, but I think this is a case where the malt is used to mute the flavor of the base.  The result is good peanut butter flavor, but not too rich.  Digging in, the chocolate-peanut mix-ins are more complex than I was expecting.  It is not a simple chocolate-covered nut such as in a flavor like Vanilla Swiss Almond.  The nuts also have a caramel-like syrup on them.  I don't if it is caramel or a melted toffee.  Anyhow, the taste is great.  Like the base it creates a sweeter and less rich mix-in than I was expecting.  There is some chocolate in the mix as well, but the caramel/toffee surrounding the nuts is the more predominant flavor in my opinion.  The nuts themselves provide quite a bit of crunch.

I really enjoyed this pint.  I was expecting a simple peanut-butter chip implementation, but the mix-ins were more interesting than I was expecting.  The melted-toffee-chocolate-nut combination was delicious and went well with a muted peanut butter base.  If you'd like a lighter, sweeter twist on peanut butter and chocolate, give this one a try.

 

 

Pumphouse Creamery - Malted Vanilla with Malted Milk Balls

Malted Vanilla with Malted Milk Balls - Malted Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate-covered Malt Ball Pieces

Today's flavor is from the Minneapolis-based Pumphouse Creamery.  This is a non-seasonal flavor from their regular line-up called Malted Vanilla with Malted Milk Balls.  The flavor name tells almost all the story.  Reading the flavor description, the malted milk balls also have a chocolate coating -- so they are basically Whopper candies.  I have not had this exact flavor combination before, but checking my archives I've found a couple which are fairly similar.  The Museum of Ice Cream had a flavor called Malt Shake which had uncrushed chocolate malt balls in a chocolate base and the Graeter's Malted Pretzel Ball flavor had a vanilla base with uncrushed malted pretzel balls.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the malted vanilla base has a white coloring and there are specks of the malt-ball mix-ins visible.  Digging in, the ice cream does not have an overly pronounced malt flavor to it the way some malted vanillas do.  Some flavors do this.  They use malt more to mute the base flavor than as a flavor itself.  Scattered throughout the pint are the crushed malt ball pieces.  The flavor here is mostly chocolate, but there are little pieces of malt attached to these, so I can tell that these come from crushing whopper-like candies and are not simply chocolate chips. 

This is a decent pint from Pumphouse.  The malt flavor in both the base and the mix-ins was much milder than I expected.  It reminded me more of a vanilla chocolate chip implementation but with a twist of malt.  Still an enjoyable pint.  Those looking for a malty twist on vanilla chocolate chip should check this out.  Otherwise, try sampling the flavor at the scoop shop to see if it is malty enough for you.

Sweet Science - Strawberry Malt

Strawberry Malt - Strawberry Mascarpone Ice Cream Swirled with Malt Ice Cream

Today is yet another new flavor from Sweet Science Ice Cream in Saint Paul.  I got this as part of a choose-your-own-four-pack curbside pick-up, but their scoop shop in the Keg & Case Market is now back open so you can now buy pints there.  The flavor is called Strawberry Malt.  It is two bases strawberry-mascarpone and malt swirled together.  This is the second strawberry flavor from the same four-pack from Sweet Science -- the other being the recently reviewed Strawberry Stracciatella.  This is a completely different flavor.  Instead of a strong-and-tart strawberry sauce in a vanilla base with chocolate chips.  The strawberry here is muted twice, once by mascarpone in its own base and then muted again by swirling it with a malt base.  Let's see how this tastes!

Removing the lid, I see the very light pink color of the strawberry-mascarpone base with a little bit of the yellowish-white color of the malt base.  Digging in, the strawberry is mild but delicious.  The blending with the mascarpone is done in such a way as to not give any specific cream cheese aftertaste.  I have never had a malt-only base before. Instead, I usually encounter flavored with are 'malted' -- that is, malted vanilla or malted chocolate.  When I try the malt base by itself, the malt flavor is fairly mild, but I do notice it if I focus.  When the two bases are in the same spoonful, it further mutes the strawberry as I described above.  As I step back and get an overall impression of the flavor mix, it does remind a lot of a strawberry shake that would get at a diner or ice cream parlor.  Not too intense on the strawberry or malt but very creamy and delicious.

I enjoyed this strawberry malt pint from Sweet Science.  It is delicious and pleasant and accurately recreates the flavor of a shake or malt which I might get at a neighborhood malt shop.  It doesn't really pack a powerful punch, so I might personally pick a strawberry flavor which is more intense (like the recent Strawberry Stracciatella), but this is still quite delicious and if a hard-ice-cream version of a strawberry malt is what you crave, this works well.

Milkjam Creamery - Ooey Gooey

Ooey Gooey - Malted Milk Ice Cream with Salted Gooey Butter Cake

I stopped by Milkjam Creamery in Minneapolis and found a flavor available in pints which I had not yet tried, so I picked it up.  This flavor is called Ooey Gooey.  It is based on Gooey Butter Cake, a dessert popularized in Saint Louis, Missouri.  I have had flavors based on this type of cake, from both Jeni's and Ample Hills.  It will be interesting to see how Milkjam compared to these.

Opening the lid, I see a cream-colored base with one of the cake pieces visible on top.  Digging in, the base ice cream is quite soft.  Then I encouter the cake pieces and they are quite soft.  "Ooey Gooey" is definitely a good description for this entire pint.  The flavor description says that the base is malted milk.  I may taste a little bit of malt, but it is not too malty.  The cake pieces and the base ice cream have similar flavors.  It is mainly the texture which allows me to recognize them in my head as I eat each spoonful.  The whole pint is rather sweet.  Ooey gooey and stick sweet.

This is an interesting implementation of a gooey butter cake flavor from Milkjam.  The soft texture reminds me more of Jeni's than of Ample Hills, but it is most certainly softer than each of them.  I found it a bit on the sweet side which is interesting because often malt is used to mute sweetness.  Perhaps the balance of malt vs sweetness is something that varies from batch to batch.  At any rate, Milkjam is local and those Jeni's & Ample Hills flavors are not, so if you have a sweet tooth and are curious about gooey butter cake, you could give this flavor a try.

Museum of Ice Cream - Malt Shake

Malt Shake - Malted Chocolate Ice Cream with Malted Milk Balls

Today I return to the Museum of Ice Cream brand for another one of the new flavors that they have released this summer.  This pint is called Malt Shake.  It features a malted chocolate base and malted milk ball mix-ins.  I found the pint at Target in Saint Paul.

Removing the lid, I see that the malted chocolate base is a light brown color and I see one of the malted milk ball mix-ins on the very top of the pint.  Digging in, I definitely taste malted milk chocolate in the base.  The base tastes a lot like a piece of Whoppers candy.  Then the mix-ins themselves basically are Whoppers candy!  They milk ball pieces are appropriately crunchy and malty on the inside.

This is a very simple flavor.  The flavor is not really based on a malt shake.  Instead, it is essentially a malted milk-ball (Whoppers) flavored ice cream with malted milk ball pieces.  This is the first time I have had seen this implementation.  It is done quite well.  This is one of the better Museum of Ice Cream flavors that I have had.  How much you like it probably depends on how much you like malted milk balls, but if Whoppers are your go-to movie theater snack, then you should definitely check this out.

Graeter's - Malted Pretzel Ball

Malted Pretzel Ball - Milk Chocolate Pretzel Balls in Malted Ice Cream

I got a shipment from the Cincinnati-based Graeter's Ice Cream!  Graeter's has a lot of seasonal flavors and I was noticing while shopping online that I haven't tried any of their late-spring/early-summer selections (my shipment last year was in late summer).  They also have a couple of limited batch flavors which look quite interesting.  The shipment almost did not happen.  Often Graeter's runs out of their seasonal and limited batch flavors -- at least online.  It seemed like that was happening to me as a couple of flavors were being marked as sold out, but then one day all the flavors that I wanted got restocked!  And they came, too.  Woohoo!  Anyhow, the first flavor in my shipment is one of the limited-batch flavors:  Malted Pretzel Ball.  It is a malted ice cream with milk chocolate pretzel balls.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the base ice cream is quite light in color.  It is not a pure white, but it could pass for a sweet cream or vanilla.  One of the pretzel balls is visible right away on the top.  As I dig in, the malt flavor is noticeable, but not too strong.  Next I encounter the pretzel balls.  These are excellent.  They are about the size of marbles.  They are salty and crunchy on the inside with a chocolate coating.  They are dispersed throughout the pint, but not quite as many of them as I expected.  They're good when I encounter them, though.

This is a pretty good pint of pretzel ice cream.  It is basically a simpler and lighter version of Chubby Hubby -- malt and chocolate-covered pretzels, but without the peanut butter in the base or mix-ins.  Peanut butter is a big part of Chubby Hubby, though, so this ends up being a very different flavor.  Here, the malted base is simple and not very strong, but it serves as a good vehicle for the excellent pretzel balls.  I would have liked a few more pretzel balls.  I understand you don't want to overdo this type of mix-in but they were hard to find at times.  It is still a solid pint and worth checking out if you like pretzels.

Milkjam Creamery - Who Run the World

Who Run the World - Malted Sweet Cream w/ Caramel Delights & Brown Butter Caramel

Today we return to the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery for a flavor called Who Run The World.  The flavor name is a reference to the Beyonce song Run the World (Girls) which asks the question "Who Run the World?" twenty-seven times and gets the same answer ("Girls") each time.  Milkjam brings this flavor back each March for Women's History Month.  They promptly rename all the flavors during that month of March to the names of famous women.  In 2018, this flavor was renamed to "Oprah" and in 2019 it was renamed to "AOC".  I found this pint last month after it Women's History Month was over and its name had changed back.  The caramel flavor looked different than most of the other pints that I have tried from Milkjam so I picked it up.

On to the ice cream!  The base looks quite yellow as I remove the lid.  I expected it to be a bit more caramel colored.  Digging in, the base has a unique flavor.  It is an interesting mix of brown butter, malt and caramel.  Not really like any of those individual flavors, but not too bad either.  Like many other Milkjam flavors, the ice cream is very soft, yet still creamy.  As I continue eating I run into the mix-ins which they list as 'caramel delights'.  Before eating this pint, I was not sure what a caramel delight was.  Is a the girl scout cookie similar to the samoa?  I don't think so.  They are like small caramel candies.  Caramel-flavored Turkish delight might be closer, but I think I may be straining to explain the 'delight' name.  They taste pretty good and go well with the base.

This is an interesting and decent pint of ice cream.  The base is an subtle mix of flavors, though it feels a bit muted.  It certainly does not have an impact matching the Beyonce song.  The candy-like mix-ins sweetened the pint up a bit, but there were not a lot of them.  I did not like the flavor as much as I expected to, but if you like brown butter caramel and are not a sweet tooth, you might like this flavor more than me.

Sweet Science - Malted Vanilla

Malted Vanilla - Malted Vanilla Ice Cream

The Saint Paul-based Sweet Science brand has released its January flavors.  It seems like I just finished their December flavors, but who can complain about having so many new flavors of ice cream each month?  There are two January flavors will I picked up when I was there, but today's pint is one from their standard line called Malted Vanilla.  My sister tried and liked this flavor at the Keg & Case scoop shop the other day and she was teasing me that she had had a flavor which I hadn't tried yet.  So, I picked this pint as a bonus flavor.  Checking my reviews, I see that malted vanilla was the base used in their Dynamo Fudge Swirl flavor from last year.  A malted vanilla is also the base used for Ben & Jerry's famous Chubby Hubby flavor.  Sometimes malt is around to supply its own flavor and sometimes it mutes a stronger flavor.  Let's check it out.

Opening the pint shows the yellowish-white color of the malted vanilla base.  The ice cream has a nice thick and creamy texture as my spoon digs through it.  I can taste the vanilla flavor quite easily since there are no mix-ins and I can also taste the malt -- this is a pint where the malt provides its own flavor and doesn't just dull the vanilla.  It is quite good and it is very creamy.

This is a good pint of malted vanilla ice cream.  The vanilla and malt flavors are balanced quite well so that you can taste both -- one does not dominate the other.  The creamy texture is quite good too.  It's just a vanilla ice cream so it may not be as exciting as many of the other pints that I try, but it could be perfect for a scoop that accompanies another dessert.

Ample Hills - Triple Chocolate Surprise

Triple Chocolate Surprise - Chocolate Malted Ice Cream with Chocolate Fudge Cake, Ribbons of Dark Chocolate Buttercream Frosting and Mickey-shaped White Chocolate Pieces filled with Fudge

I am in New York City all week and I am working my way through the Ample Hills' Mickey Mouse Collection.  See the first review for more details on the collection as a whole and its unique packaging. This is pint two: Triple Chocolate Surprise.  The collection's theme is cake & frosting, here the base is chocolate malted, the cake is chocolate and the frosting is chocolate.  That's triple chocolate!

Opening the square pint, I see another factoid card.  This one is number #007, while the previous one is #009.  Removing it exposes the ice cream.  I see a lot of chocolate!  The base ice cream looks like a milky chocolate with some darker brown swirls visible.  Digging in, I taste chocolate of course.  I can tell right away that the chocolate is malted.  Then there are some heavier chocolate sections within the base.  Like the previous pint, the cake and frosting swirls seem to be blended in a bit more than I expected.  I can taste different types of chocolate but at no type is it obviously a spongy cake piece or a sugary frosting piece.  I think the buttercream frosting helps to let the frosting blend with the ice cream better.  Sometimes frosting swirls taste like candy, not here.  Then I encounter the Mickey-shaped mix-ins (pictured below).  They have a white chocolate exterior and are filled with fudge.  They don't supply a lot of intense chocolate flavor by themselves, but they are fun to crunch on.  Overall the mix is good.  The malted base creates a more measured feel to all of the chocolate flavor.  I am tasting a lot of chocolate, but I don't feel like the point is to overload me with it.

This is another solid pint in the collection.  Like the first pint, it's a more measured and subtly blended pint than I expected.  I felt like I was eating a marbled pint of different chocolates rather than something that was obviously cake and frosting.  It is still quite good, though.  Chocolate lovers should like this.  Chocolate junkies looking for an overdose may still prefer a dark chocolate sorbet or New York Super Fudge Chunk, but this is still good chocolate.