Tag: Jeni’s

Orange Blossom Chiffon.

Powdered Jelly Donut.

Sweet Potato with Torched Marshmallow.

Everything Bagel.

These are all Jeni’s Ice Cream flavors that existed before the company had its own chocolate chip cookie dough. Until now, the super premium ice cream company from Columbus, Ohio has steered clear of the American favorite made popular by Ben & Jerry’s in the 80s; yet apparently, the scoop-shop-staple is in demand on the other side. A brand new limited time collaboration with streetwear brand Lonely Ghost has gifted basic flavor lovers with Double Dough — chocolate chip cookie dough swirled into a buttery brown sugar custard.

The premium price tag of Jeni’s pints comes at the cost of the premium ingredients they source, and this flavor is a shining example of just how good a top-tier grocery store ice cream can be. The brown sugar custard is incredible. It is dense, it is rich, it is sweet, and it is surprisingly salty. There is an impressive buttery depth to the texture from the use of egg yolks that makes the execution of custard versus ice cream really apparent. It’s beautiful, and it really does bring the rich molasses-adjacent notes of brown sugar to the foreground in a way that perfectly honors eating raw cookie dough.

The lone mix-in is the dough itself, and while initially I was thrown off by their small size, what they lack in heft, they make up for in density. The pieces are small, pea-sized balls of cookie dough that are far from what most chunk-enthusiasts want to see when popping off the lid on a premium pint. However, they’re everywhere, and they’re packed full of gritty cookie dough texture that really brings the double dough concept to life. With how strong the brown sugar is in the base, there isn’t a ton of extra flavor from the pieces, but the crunchy bittersweet chocolate chips stand pretty firmly against the wash of lovely sweet and salty custard.

While it doesn’t push the boundaries of ice cream innovation like many of Jeni’s more recent releases, Double Dough is an elevated take on a fan-favorite flavor that is sure to satisfy both creamy connoisseurs and more standard scoopers alike.

DISCLOSURE: I received a free product sample from Jeni’s. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: Received from Jeni’s
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 127g) 330 calories, 20 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, 210 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 28 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

Click here to read our previous Jeni’s Ice Cream reviews

The pint of Jeni’s new Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop-Tarts Ice Cream says there’s only one way to enjoy the toaster pastry: “It has to be brown sugar cinnamon, frosted—served buttered, warm, soft, and gooey right out of the toaster.” Those are fighting words as people eat Pop-Tarts microwaved, frozen, or straight out of the foil wrapper – which is my preferred method.

This new limited time collaboration flavor is a tribute to what is the “…best thing to spring out of a toaster.” It’s remarkable and should be a permanent flavor.

Jeni’s didn’t just break up a bunch of Pop-Tarts and drop it into vanilla ice cream. Instead, it crafted a brown sugar-cinnamon ice cream with crumbled pastry and a caramel swirl.

First off, Jeni’s always passes the texture test, which is critical as no one wants to arm wrestle rock-hard ice cream before enjoying it. I was joyfully able to take a room temperature spoon and scoop it right out of the pint. This texture also translates to how the ice cream ate: super smooth and creamy. Gotta love that high butter fat content!

Fat also equals flavor, so it was also so dang flavorful. I could taste that ooey gooeyness with just a hint of cinnamon for that toasted Pop-Tarts quality. Cold ice cream is obviously the very opposite of being toasted and ooey-gooey, but I reveled in the delightful mind trickery.

This epicness was also largely because Jeni’s only uses high quality ingredients – from the grass-fed milk sourced from local suppliers to each component carefully curated to replicate the toaster pastry’s flavor.

It visually looked like a light brown ice cream with light brown pieces, which was the crumbled pastry part. But, of course, Jeni’s also elevated said pastry to shortbread for a more buttery deliciousness. The only ding was the caramel swirl. What swirl?! That would have added a nice visual touch to the pint, but it didn’t affect how much I enjoyed it.

But, per the ingredient list, she made this magic with cream, milk, cane sugar, cinnamon caramel sauce – made of cream, brown sugar, sugar, and honey – and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla. That build is night and day compared to the Pop-Tarts’ ingredient list of corn syrup, dextrose, high fructose corn syrup, and caramel color.

I also tried this head-to-head with a buttered Pop-Tart (My first ever! Also, Pop-Tart ice cream sandwich, anyone?!), and it made me marvel again at the astounding attention to detail. I tasted that hint of salt crucial in all sweet goods, but the ice cream also replicated the pat of salted butter on top of my freshly toasted Pop-Tart. Chef’s Kiss.

This limited time flavor dropped online and in scoop shops on 6/22, so get yours ASAP. If you haven’t had Jeni’s and you’ve been thinking about it, this is your sign!!

Purchased Price: $12
Size: One pint
Purchased at: Jenis.com
Rating: 10 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 Cup / 127g) 340 calories, 22 grams of fat, 1 gram of trans fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 65 mg of cholesterol, 250 milligrams of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 29 grams of total sugars, 0 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of protein.

What is Jeni’s Powdered Jelly Donut Ice Cream?

Ever wanted to be able to sneeze while eating a jelly donut without spraying your countertop with powdered sugar? Jeni’s has endeavored to create an allergy season compatible version of the treat with vanilla custard, raspberry jelly, and a brown sugar donut crumble.

How is it?

From how easily my ice cream scoop glided through the top of the pint, it was clear this was going to have the same heavenly consistency as other Jeni’s ice creams I’ve tried. The custard was thick, creamy, and smooth with a slight chewiness, and there were big pockets of both jam and crumble to keep the texture interesting.

Despite the high quality of the ice cream and mix-ins, I was disappointed with how little it tasted like a powdered jelly donut. Each bite had an unfitting cream cheese-like tang, which I suspect resulted from using a salted custard but may have been from a natural flavor added to mimic the taste of powdered sugar. There was also a noticeable nutmeg flavor that, when combined with the sweet and egg yolky custard, made the ice cream taste like eggnog.

The donut crumble wasn’t quite right either. As far as I know, jelly donuts are usually yeast donuts, but the flavor and texture of the crumble led me to believe more inspiration was taken from cake donuts. The nutmeg flavor throughout strengthened that assumption since I associate the spice with plain cake donuts.

Jelly was spot on, though. So spot on that I wished there was even more of it since it was the only thing making the ice cream taste like a jelly donut.

Anything else you need to know?

This is premium ice cream and priced accordingly. If this flavor doesn’t sound 100% up your alley, it might be a bit too expensive to take a chance on. However, Jeni’s ice cream is so high quality and delicious that it truly is worth splurging on from time to time (I’m particularly fond of its buttermilk frozen yogurts).

Conclusion:

I’ve still given Jeni’s Powdered Jelly Donut Ice Cream a decent rating because it’s a tasty ice cream that I’ll have no problem finishing. I don’t know that anyone could be unhappy with the flavors in this pint if they tried it name unknown. But, as a powdered jelly donut ice cream, it was unsuccessful. Seems my countertops (and floor, and pants, and…) will continue to live with powdered sugar on them.

Purchased Price: $8.99
Size: One pint (473 mL)
Purchased at: Whole Foods
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 Cup / 123g) 310 calories, 17 grams of fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 9 grams of saturated fat, 80 mg of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 39 grams of total carbohydrates, 33 grams of total sugars, 0 grams of fiber, and 5 grams of protein.

What is Jeni’s Maple Soaked Pancakes Ice Cream?

Emulating a breakfast staple, it’s fluffy pancakes in salted butter and Vermont maple syrup ice creams.

The side of the pint shares a heartwarming blurb on her inspiration — Young Jeni enjoyed freshly tapped maple syrup, from her grandparents’ trees, with a triple stack of buttermilk pancakes. She soaked them until they became a syrupy, sweet mush.

How is it?

Buddy the Elf would approve and count this as part of his syrup food group!

After pulling back the lid, I could immediately see two swirl colors – a cream one and a light brown sugar-esque one.

From tasting it, the darker part was unmistakably the maple syrup ice cream. It had a light and caramel-like flavor. However, it wasn’t cloying like caramel can get sometimes. Could I tell that it was from Vermont? Nope, but I can appreciate Jeni’s attention to detail. What I can also appreciate is how one manages to freeze real maple syrup without it crystallizing or diminishing the flavor! Food magics.

By the process of elimination, I anticipated the lighter part to be the salted butter portion. It didn’t really have a pronounced taste, but my taste buds did pick up the saltiness.

The pancake was swirled throughout. But the adjective fluffy should really be in quotes because it creates unrealistic expectations! They were also more like pancake pieces, or in today’s snack vernacular, they could be considered pancake bites. The texture was fine. They were crumby, so they reminded me a bit of stale pancakes, but at least they weren’t frozen solid. I found myself hunting for them like cookie dough pieces in vanilla ice cream, but it was a lot more difficult because these were practically camouflaged.

Altogether, this was pretty good and unique from what’s in the ice cream aisle today! I also always appreciate creamy ice cream that’s easy to scoop, with a spoon, right out of the freezer.

Anything else you need to know?

Since day one, Jeni’s has been faithful to her philosophy of high-quality ingredients. All her cream comes from grass-fed cows from a local Ohio milk producer. None of her ice creams have stabilizers, emulsifiers, or corn syrup! Even for the color of this specific flavor, she used hibiscus, apple, and carrot to achieve it. We pay a pretty premium for this, but I think it’s worth it!

While Jeni’s is relatively new to grocery store shelves, she’s been rockin’ it since 2002. If you get a chance to visit one of her 40+ locations, there are scoop shop exclusives (shameless plug for the Pear Riesling Sorbet paired with the Darkest Chocolate ice cream)!

Conclusion:

I didn’t need a unique breakfast flavor analog like this to convince me to eat ice cream for breakfast, but I enjoyed the idea AND execution of this.

Purchased Price: $12
Size: 1 pint (473 mL)
Purchased at: Jeni’s Website
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 serving – 2/3 cup or 123g) 300 calories, 18 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 55 milligrams of cholesterol, 320 milligrams of sodium, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 28 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.