Soon after publishing my review of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, I began to receive comments and emails informing me that Blue Bell's had churned their own interpretation that all other cookie dough flavors should fear. Popular for good reason, Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream packed with gobs of cookie dough would be hard to overcome. But knowing how capable Blue Bell's homemade vanilla ice cream was, if they could compete in the cookie dough department, this could be a serious showdown.
Blue Bell boasts that this creation is comprised of, "A rich, creamy ice cream with chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough and chips of dark chocolate." The initial layer of ice cream looks similar to that of Ben & Jerry's, with chocolate chips and cookie dough creeping up and out of the vanilla base. The dark chocolate chips strewn about the ice cream, as well as the cookie dough, ensure a little extra something in every bite. Sliding my spoon around the outside portion of the pint, I grab the homemade vanilla and some dark chocolate chips, leaving the chunks of cookie dough for future enjoyment.
Blue Bell's vanilla ice cream does not disappoint. The dark chocolate chips are a nice contrast to the base and provide some additional flavor over standard chunks of milk chocolate. Smooth, yet still fluffy, this is an ideal foundation to display a delectable mix-in like cookie dough. Using Ben & Jerry's cookie dough as the gold standard, I'm ready to see what Blue Bell has brought to the battle. I locate a large lump of dough and load it on my spoon.
This cookie dough lacked the overly granulated, raw-sugar feel of that in Ben & Jerry's version. Instead, these bordered on tasting of actual baked cookies upon first inspection, slowly fading into that granular texture I was expecting as they broke down. The consistency was significantly softer than that of Ben & Jerry's, resulting in a chewiness unrivaled by other brands. The tiny tid-bits of chocolate chips added a slight chocolate crunch into each bite.
Not only were the bits of cookie dough delicious, they were also abundant. I was hard pressed to not get at least one in every bite unless purposely avoiding them to taste the vanilla all by it's lonesome. I could have started a bakery if I had saved all these dough balls and baked them up. The first few bites were impressive, but this was one of those flavors that grew on me the further I investigated. By the end of the pint I was ready to give the slight nod to Blue Bell's batch.
Where I Found It: BI-LO
Grade: B
