Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream

[By Nick, New for End of 2014] For those who follow me on my various other social media outlets, you'd know I went on a tour of Greyston Bakery at the beginning of January. It was around the same time that Ben & Jerry's new flavor was hitting store shelves. Now if you don't know, Greyston Bakery is the bakery that supplies Ben & Jerry's with all of their fudge brownies (but not the blondies or cheesecake brownies). While I was at Greyston, I got to see the factory and even try freshly baked brownies that were on their way to the deep freeze to meet their fate in a pint of Ben & Jerry's. To say that was a magical experience wouldn't be doing it justice.

Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Half Baked Ice Cream

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Ice Creams mixed with
Gobs of Peanut Butter Cookie Dough & Fudge Brownies

I've been on the look out for this pint ever since it replaced Candy Bar Pie at my local grocery store. Wait, let's backtrack for a second. The main reason I'm so excited to try this flavor is that Graeter's Buckeye Blitz is my favorite ice cream flavor of all time and is not available anywhere in my area. Ben & Jerry's on paper has the chance to make something magical here. Let's see just how they can do.

Removing the lid, something seems to be missing here. I see all the components except my beloved Greyston brownies. Digging down about a third of the way in to pint, there's still no sign of them. Let's talk about what we do have.

First off, we have Ben & Jerry's chocolate base which is thankfully in less abundance than the peanut butter base. It's well known I'm not a fan of their chocolate and that's the same case here. Even with it being less than the peanut butter base, the chocolate was still trying to overpower everything. That said, the peanut butter base held its own and helped to make the chocolate more appealing. While it's no Grater's, it's still a good flavor profile when combined. I'd rather have them remove the chocolate base altogether though but a man can dream.

Next is the peanut butter cookie dough. Oh man, this stuff is good. Same consistency and texture of their standard cookie dough albeit a bit grainier from the added peanut butter. This cookie dough is literally everywhere and quite large. I'd say they're slightly larger than a standard marble. I can see why I haven't found any brownies so far because they take up so much room on their own. That said, this cookie dough is beyond delicious and helps with the peanut butter base to shut down any sign of the chocolate side.

Speaking of brownies, I did manage to find a landfill of them in the bottom half of the pint. They're just as perfect as you'd expect. It will always amaze me how the texture of these brownies stay chewy and gooey even when frozen. Sadly, there wasn't any cookie dough down here where the brownies were. I'm going to guess my pint was poorly mixed and resulted in the denser brownies sinking to the bottom and the cookie dough being on the top.

All that said, this is one of the best flavors Ben & Jerry's has released in recent memory I'm going to be grabbing a few more of these to see if I can get a better mixed pint to see how it is when I can get a chunk of brownie and cookie dough on one spoon. This doesn't dethrone Graeter's or come in my Top 5 of Ben & Jerry's flavors, but I say go out and give this one a try before it gets replaced by whatever Ben & Jerry's has in store next. (throwing out my guess for the next limited batch: A Greek Froyo Version of a popular flavor like Chunky Monkey)

Verdict?  Not mind blowing but a great flavor overall
Buy Again?  A few more pints won't hurt...

Dubba's Scoop: Well, there was no shortage of brownies at the top of my pint. Big giant brownies to be precise. The top third was mostly brownies, the middle third was mostly delightful peanut butter cookie dough, and the last third is a treat for another day. This one is definitely worth a try.