Few people recognize cookie dough’s versatility.
Your kids ate all the Play-Doh? Give those rascals some cookie dough. Out of plumber’s putty? Use a bit of cookie dough to fix that leaky faucet. Need a quick stuffing for your Thanksgiving turkey? Shove some cookie dough up its poultry-hole and call it a day.
Maybe none of those are good ideas. Maybe Google Image searching “poultry-hole” wasn’t a good idea either. Maybe I’m unsure how to transition from talking about turkey orifices to gelato, so I’m just going to pretend I never wrote these first two paragraphs and start over. Were you expecting Pulitzer Prize writing here? Because I’m pretty sure any writer who uses the word “poultry-hole” more than twice is instantly disqualified, and I just hit number three.
One of seven new Talenti flavors for 2015, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough seduced me with visions of a cookie dough gelato base speckled with plenty of chocolate chips. Due to the container’s lack of a description aside from the flavor’s title and ingredients list, this is what I was expecting.
I was wrong.
Instead, this flavor features a vanilla bean gelato with swirls of dark butter fudge, mixed with bits of chocolate chip cookie dough.
Sugary sweet in scent, the vanilla gelato base possesses the strong vanilla flavor and subtle bitterness of a vanilla extract — different, but not undesirable. The fudge swirls’ sharp cocoa flavor alludes to watered-down chocolate syrup, but winds up choked by the potent vanilla gelato.
Worst of all, the cookie dough bits are the Waldo of this flavor; I’m looking, but I just can’t seem to find ‘em. After consuming more than half the pint, I had encountered around five chunks of cookie dough. Their chocolatey, brown sugar flavor suggests a spot-on rendition of cookie dough, but what’s the point if they’re barely present?
At least I can say one good thing about this gelato: according to the Talenti website, the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor is both kosher and vegetarian. Rest assured, people. You will find no meats inside this pint. You won’t find very much cookie dough either. Hrmph.
For a flavor titled “Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough,” the cookie dough really seems to take a backseat here. This flavor needs at least twice as much cookie dough to live up to its name. Frankly, Talenti’s new Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough gelato feels more like a pint of glorified vanilla ice cream.
This is one dessert I’ll be keeping out of my poultry-hole, I mean, mouth-hole.
(Nutrition Facts – 1/2 cup – 210 calories, 90 calories from fat, 10 grams of total fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 25 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein..)
Item: Talenti Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Gelato
Purchased Price: $4.69
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Stop & Shop
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Gelato flavor is similar to vanilla extract. Kosher and vegetarian. No meat inside here.
Cons: Fudge swirls are choked by vanilla flavor. Very few cookie dough bits. Excessive use of poultry-hole.
They call it vegetarian not because other companies slip meat into ice cream (well, today they could be adding bacon) but I assume to let us know there isn’t any gelatin in it (and you know where that has been…). Dunno if they also made sure the sugar wasn’t processed with bone char, that can be a deal breaker for some. I think bone char isn’t used as much today, although I could be wrong, but foods aimed at veggies and especially vegan put that info on the label for the orthodox. If it has honey in it, some veggies don’t eat that either. But not using gelatin is a biggie, it’s hard to find mainstream junk food without it, so that would be a definite plus for the veg crowd. Or anybody who’s grossed out by the origin of gelatin (I advise not reading about how it’s made).
I do not even know the way I finished up here, however I
assumed this post was once good. I do not realize who you are but definitely you are going to
a well-known blogger if you aren’t already. Cheers!
Thanks for the honest review. I enjoyed the other Talenti flavors I’ve tried so far and was hoping that I got a bad batch of the cookie dough – obviously not! Will not be buying this flavor again. Very disappointed.
I was very disappointed . Only icecream. 5 chunks of chocolate chip cookie dough and very little chocolate syrup. But we live the southern pecan pie.
To each their own, I suppose. I really enjoyed this gelato, though I can’t compare it to too many ice creams due to lactose intolerance. The only downside for me was the small quantity of actual cookie dough.