The traditional ice cream sandwich consists of a layer of vanilla ice cream literally sandwiched between two thin chocolate cookie wafers, although there is certainly a lot of room for improvisation. The ice cream in an ice cream sandwich could run the gamut from vanilla to chocolate to cookies and cream, with many other flavors available. The outer shells could be gourmet cookies, sweet crackers, chocolate candy bars or other suitable treats. An ice cream sandwich could also be coated with chocolate and sprinkled with traditional ice cream toppings.
The ice cream sandwich is thought to have been invented in the 1890s by ice cream vendors working the streets of Manhattan's Lower East Side in New York City. Italian street vendors often sold sweet wafer cookies called pizzelles along with homemade ice cream and other treats. Some sources theorize that the vendors would combine a layer of ice cream with two thin wafer cookies and promote them as more user-friendly "ice cream sandwiches." Early accounts of ice cream sandwich vending indicate the total cost of the treat to be one cent.
The popularity of the ice cream sandwich increased steadily, which led several local dairy and ice cream companies such as Isaly's to offer their own versions to customers. Eventually the ice cream sandwich became a mass-produced addition to other ice cream novelties, such as fudgesicles, popsicles and Eskimo pies. While the ice cream industry settled on the vanilla ice cream and soft chocolate wafers as the standard ice cream sandwich recipe, smaller companies and gourmet ice cream shops continued to offer their own variations.
Today it is not unusual to find a large variety of ice cream sandwich flavors in grocery store freezers, and many specialty ice cream outlets allow customers to create their own ice cream sandwiches from gourmet cookies and exotic ice cream flavors. One popular alternative to the traditional vanilla ice cream filling is a Neopolitan version featuring sections of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream. There are also sugar-free and lower fat versions of ice cream sandwiches available for those consumers on special diets.
