The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

There are certain Ben and Jerry's flavors that I know exist but that I rarely or never see in stores; however, every time I go to Tim and Tom's Speedy Market they seem to have a single pint of one or two of these rare flavors.  On my most recent trip they had a pint of Cake Batter AND a pint of Cinnamon Buns.  I snagged the only pint of Cake Batter and thought really hard about grabbing Cinnamon Buns, but ultimately passed.  I'm still a little ashamed to walk out of a grocery store with 5 containers of ice cream and nothing else (but 4 is somehow ok, I don't even know). Cake Batter is Yellow cake batter ice cream with a chocolate frosting swirl. This ice cream tastes and smells exactly like yellow cake batter.  Upon opening the pint I was instantly hit with the wonderful aroma of eggy, buttery batter.  I am not a huge fan of yellow cake.  I mean, if someone hands me a piece I will eat it, but if I have a choice between yellow cake and a different...

Raspberry Cheesecake was the second of two new-in-2015 Talenti flavors I found (for the first time!) recently.  I really disliked Chocolate Cookie Dough, but thankfully, Raspberry Cheesecake was much better.  This flavor is Cheesecake: heavy.  Cheesecake gelato: not heavy.  There's some science in there somewhere, but all we know is, when we blend real pieces of raspberry cheesecake and sweet raspberry vinaigrette, we never want to eat our desserts on a plate again. First impression:  Wow, the base really tastes like cheese, but a mild cheese, so not offensively cheesy. Mmmm Cheese. We need more cheese in our desserts.  As this gelato began to melt, it even smelled cheesy.  This was a great cheesecake base, one of the best I've ever tasted.  The mix-ins weren't overly bold, so the base was the starring element of this flavor. The raspberry swirl was also quite good, but it was not thick enough or prevalent enough to thoroughly enjoy. ...

Today I am going to write about the ice cream I ate on my birthday (this past Tuesday)! I'm sure you, Dearest Readers, have been anxiously awaiting my post about my birthday ice cream consumption. Because, obviously, all you do all day is wait around for me to write about ice cream. Obviously. If you weren't aware, Dairy Queen has a Blizzard Fan Club, and if you are a member, you get a free Blizzard on your birthday. Of course, I signed up for the Fan Club on my birthday, fully realizing they probably wouldn't give me a free Blizzard. And in fact, the confirmation email saying you've joined doesn't come until 24 hours after you've joined. Probably for this exact reason. Knowing full well I would probably not get a free Blizzard, I stopped at Dairy Queen on my birthday with my friend, Charlie, regardless. And as I am the most behind-the-times ice cream blogger out there, I decided to get the Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Smash Blizzard, which was released back i...

What a glorious day! I have finally tried all of the David's Famous Custard flavor. I feel great joy and like part of my life's work is complete. However, I am also excited about hints I've heard of David's releasing some new flavors soon (I think one of them will be orange). But until that exciting time, I'm going to relish my accomplishment a bit. This flavor is described as Since there's nothing better than a piece of rhubarb pie with a big scoop of David's Famous Vanilla Custard on top, I thought the world needed a Rhubarb Custard. If you like rhubarb as much as I do, you'll love the heavenly sweet, sour, tangy flavor! There are a depressingly small number of rhubarb ice creams in the world. In fact, the only other one I can think of is Sweet Science's Rhubarb Cinnamon Almond, which I haven't had, but Madeline raves about. However, if I am wrong and there are some other rhubarb flavors out there, please do correct me. But I also...

This week I finally got my hands on two elusive Talenti flavors introduced in 2015, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Raspberry Cheescake.  I have a review of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough first, and a review of Raspberry Cheesecake is up next. Do you remember how, when you were a child and you did something stupid, your parents would say, "We're not angry, just disappointed."   Soul crushing.  I don't think there is a word in the English language more fraught with emotion than disappointed  when used in this context.  I want you to summon all of those childhood memories; really get in tune with how it felt to disappoint  your parents when I tell you, dearest reader, that I didn't dislike Talenti's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, I was just disappointed in it. *Gasp*  CCCD is described as A flavor loved by kids and adults who are secretly still kids, our upgrade of a beloved classic blends bits of real chocolate chip cookie dough and swirls of dark butte...

Now Dearest Readers, you know I've been in the ice cream game long enough that little surprises me. Especially when it comes to the big players like Ben & Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs, and Talenti. I hear about when they are coming out with a new flavor or taking away a flavor long before the general public. And I am incredibly familiar with their line ups. Or so I thought. Right before winter break, I was out running other errands and I happened to be closer to the larger HyVee in Iowa City, so I decided to do my grocery shopping there. This HyVee doesn't have any brands my HyVee doesn't have, but they do have a wider and more interesting selection of flavors. If you recall, I purchased Haagen-Dazs' Green Tea flavor from this HyVee. Well, when I was perusing the ice cream section back in December, the Haagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream flavor caught my eye. Now, Cookies and Cream isn't a fascinating flavor in and of itself, but I had no idea HD had a version of th...

Bread pudding is not a dessert Madeline and I grew up eating a lot of. And to be honest, the name of the dessert still does not sound appetizing to me. The first time I'd heard of it I was quite confused as to what it was. Was it pudding with chunks of bread in it, like rice pudding? Bread flavored pudding? Bread with pudding on top? When bread pudding was described to me, bread with milk, butter, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, etc. poured on top and baked, the reality of the dessert didn't sound much more appetizing than any of the possibilities I had imagined. Luckily, I tried it anyway. Bread pudding is delicious, and I don't know of any other ice cream company making a bread pudding ice cream! This flavor is described as Our Version of a New Orleans Classic Dessert has Chunks of White Chocolate Bread Pudding That Hints of Custard and Bourbon Sauce.  Upon first glance at this pint, I didn't see much of a bourbon sauce swirl, but upon eating the ice cream, I definit...

Dearest readers, I feel a little bit bad about posting this review.  McConnell's Summer Fruit Cobbler is an absolutely divine flavor that, unfortunately, was only available from May 31 to September 31 so you may not be able to obtain this flavor at the moment.  Straub's must have a pint or two left in stock.  Hopefully this will become available again next summer so you can try this absolutely lovely ice cream. While this flavor is listed on the McConnell's website, there is no flavor description, but it seemed to be sweet cream ice cream with chunks of peach, raspberry swirl, and cinnamon-y crumbles of cobbler crust.  Alliteration for the win! I wonder if there is a different picture on every lid of McConnell's? New ice cream collection? The first thing that struck me about this ice cream was how sweet it was.  To be specific, it was not exceedingly sugary or cloying.  Instead, it was like biting into a perfectly ripe and juicy peach or a ha...

Hooray hooray! Another review of our loot from our recent excursion to Straub's! The McConnell's flavor that Madeline chose was Olive Oil & Salted Almonds. We look at the flavors we picked and realized they all sounded quite sweet, so we figured we should get the one available flavor at the complete opposite end of the spectrum. But before the review, some facts about McConnell's! McConnell's was founded way back in 1949! That's pretty old for an ice cream company! They are located in Santa Barbara, California and supposedly their ice cream machine is a "direct descendant" of the one they've used since 1949. I'm not entirely sure what "direct descendant" means for ice cream machines (like what kinship system do ice cream machine's use???), but McConnell's uses some types of french pot process. Last interesting fact, they purchase the milk they use raw, and then pasteurize it themselves! Fascinating! Now, McConnell...

Man, oh man. Winter break was such an exciting time for ice cream! St. Louis has so many exciting ice cream spots! From ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, to boozy ice cream, to froyo shops, to a burger place also popular for its homemade ice cream! Yep, it is finally time the sisters at Big Muddy took a trip to Bailey's Range in downtown St. Louis. The last weekend we were in St. Louis, Madeline and I ate at Bailey's Range with some of my friends from college to have an early celebration for my birthday! In addition to lots of different burgers, Bailey's has 16 ice cream flavors and 3 sorbet flavors to choose from! Not bad for a sit-down burger joint. There are also two flavors are featured in their "Battle" section, which rotate frequently, the idea being that the ice cream that is less popular and loses the battle gets replaced by a new flavor. The two flavors in the "Battle" section when we were there were Mulled Wine and Cookie Dough. We divv...

When Madeline and I ventured to Jeni's last week, we drove by the St. Louis grocery store Straub's. Neither Madeline and I had ever visited this local chain, known to be quite swanky. I was pretty sure Straub's carried New Orleans Ice Cream Co. and Madeline was pretty sure they carried McConnell's Fine Ice Cream, two brands neither of us had tried. Yes, yes, say what you will about us being terrible ice cream bloggers, but Straub's is the only store in St. Louis with these brands and I haven't seen either of them anywhere in Iowa! Although, I guess I can't vouch for Madeline.  (Madeline says she hasn't seen them in Minneapolis and is 99% sure they aren't distributed there.) While eating Jeni's we decided to swing by Straub's by our way home and see what they sold. Luckily for us, Straub's sells both New Orleans and McConnell's. After almost hyperventilating with joy in the ice cream section (Madeline says: You think we're j...