Today’s Spotlight is on the Ice Cream Sandwich.

An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert made of ice cream between two biscuits, wafers, cookies, or other baked goods. The ingredients can vary by region, with Ireland using wafers and the United States commonly using cookies. The current form of the ice cream sandwich is vanilla ice cream between two chocolate cookies.

Ice cream sandwiches have many nicknames, including giant sandwich, chipwich, cream between, vanilla slice, and slider. You can also make an ice cream sandwich cake by layering ice cream sandwiches between whipped topping, fudge, caramel, nuts, and M&M’s.

The biscuits on the outside of ice cream sandwiches have holes so they don’t expand and bubble up while baking. This process is called “docking” and can also be seen on saltine crackers, graham crackers, and pie crusts. Because baked goods lose moisture while cooking, docking provides places for the moisture to escape.

History and Background

It’s believed that a pushcart salesman in New York City invented the ice cream sandwich in 1899. The salesman and others began making Ice Cream Sandwich’s by hand and selling them from their carts to New Yorkers in the heat. The original ice cream sandwich sold for a penny in 1900 from a pushcart in the Bowery neighborhood of New York. The ice cream sandwiched between milk biscuits became a hit.

The ice cream sandwich soon rose in popularity and recipes for the dessert cropped up in newspapers around the country. Writers recommended readers recreate the sandwich with shortbread or sponge cake.

According to Food Network, the only other recorded use of cookies in an ice cream sandwich was 50 years earlier in 1928, when George Whitney, an ice cream vendor in San Francisco created the IT’S-IT Ice cream sandwich by putting vanilla ice cream between two oatmeal cookies and dipped the whole thing in chocolate.

Another account claims that the modern ice cream sandwich with the chocolate wafer was invented in 1945 by Jerry Newberg. Newberg sold his creation at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, PA. But it does sound like Jerry Newberg was late to the party.

 

Here are some fun facts about ice cream sandwiches:

• The first ice cream sandwich used sponge cake and graham crackers to sandwich the ice cream.
• The first ice cream sandwich used paper instead of biscuits.
• Ice cream sandwiches were a hit with Wall Street workers in 1899.
• Ice cream sandwiches were first mass-produced in 1945.
• The 30-44 age group buys the most ice cream sandwiches.
• The eastern seaboard consumes almost 50 percent of all ice cream sandwiches.
• The ice cream in ice cream sandwiches doesn’t feel like normal ice cream because it’s thicker and chewier.
• They take much longer to melt than normal ice cream.
• Ice cream sandwiches are the second best selling novelty ice cream in America
• They were developed as a cheap treat, but soon became a staple at high-end eateries.

 

Here is an Ice Cream Sandwich Recipe For you to Try:

Ingredients:

• 10-1/2 ice cream sandwiches
• 1 jar (12 ounces) caramel ice cream topping
• 1 carton (12 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 1/4 cup chocolate syrup
• 2 Symphony candy bars with almonds and toffee (4-1/4 ounces each), chopped
• Maraschino cherries, optional

Instructions:

1. Arrange 9 ice cream sandwiches in a single layer in an ungreased 13×9-in. dish.
2. Cut remaining ice cream sandwiches to fill the spaces in the dish.
3. Spread with caramel and whipped toppings.
4. Drizzle with chocolate syrup.
5. Sprinkle with chopped candy bar.
6. Cover and freeze for at least 45 minutes before serving.
7. If desired, garnish with cherries.
8. Enjoy!

 

Here are some statistics about ice cream sandwiches and sandwiches in the United States:

• 48 ice cream sandwiches are eaten every second in the USA.
• Americans eat more than 300 million sandwiches every day.
• The average American eats around 200 sandwiches a year.
• 47% of adults eat a sandwich on any given day.
• The world consumes approximately 15 billion liters of ice cream annually.

 

National Ice Cream Sandwich Day is celebrated annually on August 2. The day honors the ice cream sandwich. We’d love to hear about your favorite ice cream sandwich. Let us know in the comments.