Ice-cream sandwiches are the hotnew dessert

Reports are calling them the new cupcake.We bite into the trend to find out more…

Throwing a summer soiree? This might be perfect as a chilled meal-ender. Forget the souffles and panacottas – the dessert that’s getting all the attention is the ice cream sandwich. It might sound simple enough – a slab of ice-cream between two biscuits, but it’s a dessert match made in gourmet heaven! Top food sites have named the fad among the `Five most exciting food trends for 2014′.
Fusion food: Last year, top pastry chefs predicted that cupcakes, doughnuts and croissants would be soon out of the food scene and unusual food combos, one of them being the icecream sandwich, would grab all the attention. Affirms food blogger Shanti Padukone. “Fusion food is big, with foodies ex perimenting a lot.
For instance, I recently had a brownie sandwich, which was a toasted sweet bun, with brownie and chocolate sauce. I also tried a doughnut ice-cream, which is essentially toasted bread with icecream in it. The texture of these desserts is what makes them popular; they have something crusty accompanying an ice-cream which is cold, smooth and flavourful.
I’m not surprised that this trend is becoming huge; the climate here too makes you wanting for more,” she says. The ice-cream sand wich is climbing on to the top of the dessert list at restaurants across the country.
What’s so special about it? “The ice-cream sandwich is simple but delicious; it combines two most-loved desserts – cookt ies and ice cream, which make this dessert very popular; it’s ideal for the summer too,” reveals dessert specialist Pooja Dhingra.

Fun combinations: You can offset several flavours with each other. Try cold strawberry or green mint with crispy, sweet biscuit, bitter coffee ice-cream with bland cookie crust and more. While Dhingra votes for flavours like red velvet, walnut cookie with Belgian chocolate; chocolatier and pastry chef Sanjana Patel has tried something new with the ice-cream sandwich. “I used caramel sea salt, the flavour of the year, as well as passion fruit and strawberry sorbet and hazelnut-chocolate truffle between two macaroons. Each bite is a play between textures and a burst of flavours,” she says.

This summer, let the cookie crumble in your mouth with a cool explosion of flavours.