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May 2006

Updated July 2009

Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Ice Cream & Sorbet

Blisscotti Ice Cream Sandwiches

The Treat Evolves...With An Age-Old Cookie

CAPSULE REPORT: Cookie ice cream sandwiches where almond biscotti replace the cookie to create what might be the first ice cream sandwich concept for adults. What could be bad? Nothing—we think it’s a great idea, the next big thing in ice cream sandwiches.

Gosh, is it 25 years since the Chipwich was launched? It seemed like what one of our mentors used to call a “blinding revelation of the obvious.” Perhaps somewhere, clever people had been sandwiching ice cream between large chocolate chip cookies; but Chipwich made a national occupation of it. (Check out our review of Ciao Bella’s deluxe version.)

So, why did it take another 25 years for the debut of the Italian version, the biscotti-wich—or, as it is more gracefully named, the Blisscotti? For one, the mushrooming of coffee beaneries and cafés have pulled biscotti from Italian neighborhoods and specialty stores to the fashion food forefront. For another, the food technology needed to be worked out. There were always recipes for soft, chewy, pliant chocolate chip cookies. But even though biscotti can be made softer by the addition of butter or oil to the dough*, by their very nature, biscotti are rock-hard: marrying the texture to sink-your-teeth-in ice cream requires work.

*In the traditional recipe, eggs only are used to bind the dough.

The Blisscotti approach uses thin biscotti (each side of the sandwich is half the thickness of regular biscotti), coating the ice cream-facing side with dark chocolate. It’s a super idea. It not only introduces a bit of chocolate, which adds dimension to the sandwich no matter what the flavor of ice cream; it protects the cookie from getting soggy from contact with the ice cream. The ice cream and biscotti are both made in-house; both the product and the manufacturing process have patents pending.

Founders Linda and Lou Yaseen worked for many years at Dove® Bar in marketing and sales and manufacturing, respectively. Unlike many people who have a great concept, they knew how to make it happen. Since distribution is key, they obtained a distribution agreement with Dreyer’s†, effectively guaranteeing that what could have been a specialty store product will be a ubiquitous mass-distributed one relatively soon.

†Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream is a division of Nestlé, S.A., which also makes Häagen-Dazs, Edy’s and Nestlé ice cream products

So, how does it taste?

From left to right: Silky Strawberry, Very Vanilla Bean, Marvelous Mint Chip, Creamy Coffee Chip, Lively Lemon Zest.

There are many different recipes for biscotti: some are rock-hard, others are softer. (To read about the origin of biscotti—which date back to Ancient Rome—and to get Mario Batali’s modern-day recipe—click here.) Blisscotti did a great job with the biscotti portion, figuring out how to maintain the qualities people enjoy in good biscotti in something that needs to be frozen. The result is good almond flavor in pliant biscotti: when you bite into it, the cookie portion doesn’t shatter all over you; and its texture pairs well with the giving texture of the ice cream.

The ice cream is good, and mint chip ice cream lovers (we are one!) will find the chocolate chip mint flavor to be especially good. Our second favorite flavor is the coffee chip. We didn’t taste the lemon, but we would love for the food scientists to go back to the drawing board and put just a tad more depth of flavor into Silky Strawberry and Very Vanilla Bean.

Blisscotti are 5 inches long and 1-3/8" high and 3.5 ounces. Enough for a snack or a small dessert—the equivalent of a biscotti with a small amount of ice cream—it’s a light treat when you want something special but not filling. However, this is finger food, so you wouldn’t serve Blisscotti at a formal event.

But for informal parties, showers, barbeques, poolside, and any other occasion where a combination of fun and high quality is indicated—and until they become as common as the Chipwich, an element of delight and novelty—they’re a new way to delight family and friends.

At 230 or 240 calories apiece (strangely, plain Vanilla Bean has the same caloric content as the two richest flavors, Mint Chip and Coffee Chip, at 240), a Blisscotti weighs in the same as a full scoop of superpremium ice cream. But with Blisscotti, you can have your cake (or biscotti) and eat it too.

Ice cream lovers are always looking for something new—and here they have it.

Biscotti Reading List

Biscotti, by Lou Pappas Seibert. A collection of 30 delectable recipes, charmingly illustrated. Helpful tips on baking and serving biscotti. Serve with espresso plus the delicious historical anecdotes in the book. $9.95. Click here to purchase or for more information.	Biscotti and Other Low Fat Cookies, by Maria Polushkin. More than 50 biscotti recipes with tantalizing flavor combinations, plus array of addictive meringue cookies that have no fat and just 15 to 20 calories per cookie. $10.74. Click here to purchase or for more information.	Sweet Maria’s Italian Cookie Tray, by Maria Bruscino Sanchez. The owner of a bakery in Waterbury, CT has re-created the cakes and cookies of her youth, from drop and molded cookies to filled cookies, biscotti and biscuits, taralle and pizelles. $10.74. Click here to purchase or for more information.

Make Your Own Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ice Cream Treats, by Charity Ferreira. Recipes, a buying guide and tips on the basics, such as softening and shaping ice cream. The book also contains recipes for homemade ice cream in traditional flavors like coffee, dark chocolate and vanilla bean. Click here to purchase or for more information.	Cuisipro Ice Cream Sandwich Maker. Take your favorite cookies, your favorite ice cream, and create...heaven. Make perfectly-formed ice cream sandwiches every time.  Click here to purchase or for more information.