Milkjam Creamery - Nana's Pudding

Nana's Pudding - Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Kool Whip, Nilla Wafers

 

Milkjam Creamery of south Minneapolis has released its June flavors (instagram link here).  The theme is "nostalgic favorites".  The first of these flavors is called Nana's Pudding (instagram link here).  It is a roasted banana ice cream with swirl of kool whip and vanilla wafer mix-ins and it is available only in pints.  This flavor is based on the classic "banana pudding and vanilla wafers" recipe.  A google search for this recipe returns more hits than I can count.  I do remember it being so popular that when my mom bought a box of Nabisco's Nilla Wafers when I was a kid, the box itself often features pictures of this dessert on the back and had it's own recipe for it printed on the side.  I have had a few banana-and-vanilla-wafer themed pints before from Steve's, Graeter's and Phin & Phebes.  It will be fun to see how Milkjam's flavor compares.

Removing the lid, I can see the textured yellowish color of the roasted banana base with some of the "kool whip" swirls of whipped cream visible in it.  I also some several generous-sized chunks of vanilla wafers visible right away on top as well.  Digging in, the banana flavor is quite strong, aromatic and sweet.  I love it, but you have to be a fan of sweet banana.  I have written before about how I find there are two types of banana flavoring: the earthy banana-bread banana and the sweet banana-cream-pie banana.  This is definitely a banana-cream-pie banana.  The swirl of whipped cream adds to this as well.  You don't get big hunks of whipped cream by itself, but the presence of this swirl definitely makes the banana sweeter.  The vanilla wafer chunks are some of the larger that I have seen in an ice cream flavor which is a good thing.  They provide a lot of chunk to this otherwise creamy and sweet pint.

I loved this banana-pudding-and-vanilla-wafer pint from Milkjam Creamery.  This is my new favorite implementation of this flavor.  I tastes a lot like banana cream pie which is my favorite type of pie.  In addition to being sweet, the banana flavor is quite strong as well.  I don't know how they got the banana flavor to be strong while keeping the bananas looking nice and yellow, but whatever it is, it worked.  A warning, though, that this is a very strong and sweet flavor which might not be everyone's cup of tea.  But if you are a fan of that type of banana pudding then you will love this flavor.

 

 

OddFellows - Host of Cupcakes

Host of Cupcakes - Chocolate-Infused Sweet Cream Base with Chunks of Homemade Chocolate Cake and a Liquid-Nitrogen Frozen Whipped Cream

 

Today is the fifth flavor in my recent six-pint "Bodega Capsule" shipment from OddFellow's Ice Cream in Brooklyn.  See my first review in this shipment for more details on this collection of flavors.  A note to local readers that I bought these pints online and they are not available in local grocery stores.  Today's flavor is called Host of Cupcakes which is a pun on "Hostess CupCake" which is often found being sold in a bodega.  The base is a chocolate-infused sweet cream and the mix-ins are chocolate cake pieces and liquid-nitrogen frozen whipped cream.  I am curious as to what makes "chocolate-infused sweet cream" different from simply "chocolate" and I am also curious about the liquid-nitrogen frozen whipped cream.  I have had a cupcake-themed flavor before from Coolhaus, but that was a white-cake cupcake and this flavor is chocolate.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the base ice cream has a light brown color -- lighter than the usual chocolate color.  Digging in, I can taste the chocolate for sure, but I can tell what they mean by "chocolate-inflused sweet cream".  It reminds me a bit of the 'chocolate cookie milk' bases that I see occasionally (for example see this Coolhaus pint).  I suppose this is probably 'chocolate cupcake milk'.  Perhaps they soaked the cream in cupcake pieces for a while and then strained them out before chilling and churning?  Anyhow, although it is mild by design, it is still quite delicious.  Soon, I encounter the mix-ins.  The cupcake pieces are quite small -- they are a bit hard to see in my photos below -- but they are soft and chocolatey when I do bit into one.  The whipped cream sections are interesting.  They are small and taste like whipped cream (probably because they are!).  They are not super-cold or anything so I suspect the deal with the liquid nitrogen was a way to fold them into the base without mixing them into the base.  It worked!  There are small pockets of whipped cream which are not blended into the base.

This is a fun and interesting Hostess CupCake-themed pint from OddFellows Ice Cream.  It is a bit more subtle and nuanced than I expected -- mild chocolate-infused base which small tastefully added mix-ins -- but still quite tasty.

 

 

 

 

Sweet Science - Banana Cream Pie

Banana Cream Pie - Organic Banana Ice Cream with Clusters of Graham Cracker Crust and Swirls of Whipped Cream

Sweet Science of Saint Paul has more new flavors.  They've suddenly gotten very creative during this pandemic.  They've also added the opportunity to 'choose-your-own-four-pack' in their curbside service outside the Keg & Case Market once a week.  So, I was able to select both new flavors and a regular flavor I hadn't tried yet (I had to go with vanilla!) then I could give the fourth pint to a friend.  Today's flavor is one of the new flavors -- Banana Cream Pie.  Long-time readers know that Mint Chocolate Chip is my favorite ice cream, but Banana Cream is actually my favorite pie.  (Note: that I would never mix those two desserts!)  I have actually done a banana cream pie flavor before, from Graeter's.  It'll be fun to see how they compare.  Looking at the ingredients, I think this Sweet Science flavor appears closer to the pie I usually get because it includes whipped cream. The Graeter's flavor includes caramel instead of whipped cream.  Sweet Science does make delicious pie-based flavors.  I liked their Pecan Pie, I really liked their Lemon Meringue Pie and their pie-like flavors Berry Crumble and Caramel Apple Cider Crisp are both excellent.  Without further ado, let's dig in.

Opening the pint, the banana ice cream here is very bright and almost white.  I see some graham cracker pieces right away.  If I look really close, I can see small threads of whipped cream in there.  I wonder if there is more below.  This is a much different look from the other banana-themed pint, Banana Caramel Blondie, that I got from Sweet Science just a couple of weeks ago.  Whipped cream instead of caramel is a big difference.  Digging in, this is definitely the sweeter type of banana  as opposed to 'roasted' or banana-bread type of banana.  The threads of whipped cream do not get any bigger as I eat my way down, but I really like the balance here.  The thicker swirls like in their Lemon Meringue flavor worked well because they were tart.  Here, the thin, thread-like swirls had a sweet creaminess to the banana without being too much.  It actually makes it taste a lot like the pie I usually get!  The graham cracker crust pieces are well done here.  They are well-dispersed, crunchy and of variable size.

I really liked this pint.  I did enjoy the Graeter's Banana Cream Pie pint that I had a while back, but I think Sweet Science does them one better here.  The blending of the banana ice cream with just the right amount of whipped cream makes this taste so much like my favorite pie.  So, now two good banana options from Sweet Science.  The roasted, caramel-blondie combination of Banana Caramel Blondie and this sweet cream pie version.  Yum.

Serendipity - Frrrozen Hot Chocolate

Frrrozen Hot Chocolate - Hot Chocolate Flavored Ice Cream with a Whipped Cream Swirl and Chocolate Shavings

I am still in New York City exploring the ice creams of the area during my holiday visit.  One new thing I noticed on this trip was that the famous Serendipity 3 restaurant on 60th St on the East Side now has a line of ice cream flavors available at many grocery stores.  This restaurant has been famous for decades but is known most outside NYC by its appearance in the John Cusack/Kate Beckinsale Romantic comedy which was itself named after the restaurant.  The most famous dessert on the restaurant menu is called Frrrozen Hot Chocolate (lots of pictures online) so a pre-packaged pint based on their signature dessert seemed like the obvious one for me to try.  It's got chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate shavings.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see the expected brown color of the chocolate base with many of the chocolate shavings visible right away as well as a couple of the swirls of whipped cream.  Digging in, the chocolate base does taste like hot chocolate.  A lot of good chocolate bases have this flavor palate (for example, Häagen-Dazs).  The chocolate shavings are softer than I imagined they would be.  Rather than being crunchy, they had the same texture of the curled shavings that are put on top of a french silk pie.  They are a little more chocolatey than the chocolate base.  The whipped cream swirl intrigued me.  I thought frozen whipped cream was ice cream (sweet cream), but this is lighter and gooey-er than ice cream itself.  The gooey texture reminded me a bit of a marshmallow swirl yet it did taste like whipped cream.  I checked the ingredients to see how they got the texture to come out right and it does look like they used a mixture of Cool Whip-like ingredients (corn syrup, cornstarch, various gums) to keep it gooey when frozen.  Perhaps a little disappointing for purists, but I did not mind.  It felt and tasted like whipped cream when I ate it.

This is a fun pint.  I was not expecting to have Frrrozen Hot Chocolate in a pre-packaged pint when I was visiting New York.  This brand is not a super-premium line of flavors -- it is more of a mid-range  in quality and price. It is certainly not a substitute for a visit to the restaurant, but I did enjoy for what it was.  A fun chocolate & whipped cream flavor.