An ice cream throw down brought on by a bunch of idiots and one fussy blogger

In the world of foodies and bloggers, there has been an ice cream sandwich throw down brought on by a bunch of “Idiots” from the team at You Idiot  http://idiotsbeingidiots.blogspot.com/ which is a blog about life in Toga town.  They challenged local restaurants in Saratoga to come up with their best version of an ice cream sandwich.  The contenders are as follows: The Wine Bar - Strawberry Basil Ice Cream w/ Chocolate Balsamic Cookie. 28 Tables - Lucky Charms Ice Cream Sandwich. Comfort Kitchen - House-made vanilla bean ice cream between two house-made pizelles, chocolate ganache, salted caramel peanuts. Wheatfields - Coconut Macaroon and Amaretto Gelato.

When a fellow blogger at FUSSYlittleBLOG  http://fussylittleblog.com/ heard this was going down, he challenged the Idiots by saying that Albany had the best ice cream sandwiches and he really heated things up in this cool competition by adding four restaurants from the Albany area. Here is what the Capital is throwing down with:

The City Beer Hall- Cinnamon raisin cookie from All Good Bakers filled with apple cider donut ice cream from Bowman Orchards

Creo- Blood orange and fennel ice cream with a pistachio cookie dipped in dark chocolate Kahlua

New World Bistro- Valdeon-fig ice cream, pine nut cookie and choc-PX sherry-fig sauce

All Good Bakers- Brandywine semifreddo with brown butter and cinnamon basil cookie.

When I heard this was going down, I made sure to find out the details as quickly as possible so I could get my hands on these incredible concoctions.  I headed up to Saratoga and made my way around to try these frozen treats and let me just say that this throw down is best idea ever! People will vote for their favorite ice cream sandwich and the 2 winners from Saratoga will go against the 2 winners from Albany for the ultimate idiotic fussy little contest.  After sampling the 12866 versions, I am voting for Comfort Kitchen and Wheatfields.  First off, the sandwiches were huge, which in the eyes of a sugar addict like myself, is a critical part. The Comfort Kitchen version was incredible with the addition of the salted caramel peanuts. I also LOVED the homemade ice cream and pizelles - nice touch.

The Wheatfields version was excellent because it was unexpected.  The combo of the coconut and amaretto was perfect!

28 Tables put up a good fight but I thought they could have used a better and richer ice cream and they were a little small.

Honestly, I wouldn’t turn any of these down and actually, I may need to head back up for another round because I am hooked!  If you want to participate,  visit the local restaurants mentioned above.  Then comment or email the team at You Idiot to cast your vote for the Saratoga restaurants or comment/email the FUSSYlittleBLOG to cast your Albany votes.

If I were going to come up with the ultimate ice cream sandwich, I would use a chocolate chip cookie on one side and a peanut butter cookie on the other.  Sandwich some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in between then roll it in crushed up peanut and pretzel pieces.  Any of these restaurants want to make me one? I challenge you :)

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Strawberry Shortcake ice cream from Bowman’s Orchards

Strawberry picking has been a wonderful tradition for me and mom since I was a little girl.

For many years we went to Oranacha Farm in Clifton Park where we could get some of the most delicious bright red strawberries.  Our reward for all of our hard work would be the frothy strawberry lemon cooler they made in the quaint little shed on the property from their fresh strawberries and just squeezed lemons.  It was summer in a glass.  When the farm closed many years ago, we were on a mission to find a good replacement and Bowman’s Orchards was it!  The strawberries in their fields are so wonderful, sweet and perfectly ripe it’s hard to pick them without eating more then you save.  What’s even sweeter is our reward has gone from a “strawberry cooler” to “homemade ice cream”- upgrade!! After we picked 12 pounds of strawberries, (I use the term “we” lightly because this adventure usually consists of my mom pointing to “the best” strawberries and I get to fetch them :) ) we headed in to check out the ice cream selection.  Now I have had their ice cream before and it’s out of this world.  The flavors I usually get are some combo of the Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie or Cider Donut which has chunks of their homemade donuts mixed in! I know, I know it’s not even right it’s so good!  I was determined to get 2 out of the 3 aforementioned flavors until I saw a new summertime treat that I Had. To. Have!

Strawberry Shortcake ice-cream made from just picked strawberries, pieces of pound cake and cake batter all swirled into their frozen homemade concoction.  These were no small bits and pieces either.  There were huge chucks of cake and strawberries that made this the ultimate picking reward.  To read more about what I thought of the ice cream, please visit http://www.saratoga.com/bitten/  Thank you!

Banana Split from Martha's Dandee Creme

Who screams for ice cream!?!? This girl does if it’s from Martha’s Dandee Crème!! After a little break from filming, “Bite Me” is back and I couldn’t be happier to have the famous Martha’s ice cream shop be my first stop. When I pulled in at 11:00 on a rainy Tuesday morning, there was a line of people getting ice cream including the local post office delivery person, people working in the area and a bunch of kids. My first thought was that this place must have some kick ass ice cream. My second thought was how soon can I have some? I sat down with Dennis Lafontaine who has owned Martha’s not once, but twice! The Lafontaine family purchased Martha’s back in the 80’s from the original owners Martha and Carl. They ran the business for 17 years serving not only ice cream, but running a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner as well. When Six Flags started buying up properties in the area (Martha’s is located across the street from The Great Escape which is owned by Six Flags), the Lafontaine family decided to sell and get out of the lucrative ice cream business- temporarily.

After signing a 5 year “no compete” clause, Dennis and his family decided to buy all of the property back and bring this landmark back to being a family run business. All I know is that the enormous banana split they made for me was fantabulous!!!! First of all, the bowl they serve it in could be a small swimming pool it is so big. After filling it with a ton of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream, they load it up with all of the goodies including rich hot fudge, marshmallow sauce and tons of whipped cream! After sampling the 3 ice cream flavors and toppings, I can see why this place has been around for over 50 years. It was some of the creamiest most flavorful soft serve I have ever had! The toppings were decadent but not over the top and I could easily have finished the whole thing if I weren’t so embarrassed. ☺ Martha’s is also know for their ice cream cakes where you can pick any combo from their 35 flavors and have them turn it into a show stopper for your next party. You could also just get one for your self to celebrate the deliciousness of their ice cream too! If you’re in the Lake George area, you definitely have to make time from some ice cream at Martha’s!

Almond Joy ice cream from The Ice Cream Man

Feeding into my sugar addiction with ice cream from The Ice Cream Man in Greenwich, NY is one of the most delicious ways for me to get my fix.

I’ve been going to this ice cream shop for years so I was super excited to be able to feature them on “Bite Me.”  This quaint little shop actually makes over 300 varieties of ice cream! Yes I said 300!  Although they usually only offer around 30 at a time (It's hard enough to choose from 30 because they all look SO good).  While filming, I got to assist in the making of their most popular flavor, Almond Joy.  Joyful indeed!  This frozen treat starts out with sweet cream and coconut.  I got to add the chocolate covered almonds to the mix which means this batch is going to be extra chocolaty.  The one thing I love about ice cream is that it’s ready to eat right away.  I was able to have a bowlful immediately after making it which makes me happy.   I can see why Almond Joy is their best seller because it was off the charts delicious!  Imagine an Almond Joy combined with the richest and freshest ice cream you have ever had all in one bite.  The Ice Cream Man only uses fresh cream and the best ingredients they can find which is why their ice cream is so good.  Julia purchased this business last year and it was an easy transition for her since prior to that, she was the retail manger for 14 years.  Making the leap from employee to entrepreneur has sure paid off and Julia will continue to sweeten our days with some of the best ice cream around.

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/42274098]