I first heard about ice cream sandwiches when I was around 9 years old. There was a short lived tv series in the 1980s called Misfits Of Science and in one of the episodes, a lead cast member dates this young woman and as they are walking around the streets of San Fransisco, she asks him for an ice cream sandwich, which he proceeds to buy from a street vendor. That was the first time I have heard of the treat but I have never had it. Not once.

So what is an ice cream sandwich? An ice cream sandwich is a frozen dessert consisting of ice cream between two biscuits, skins, wafers, or cookies. The ingredients are different around the world, with Ireland and Israel using wafers, and North America using chocolate cookies. The original ice cream sandwich sold for a penny in 1900 from a pushcart in the Bowery neighborhood of New York. Newspapers never identified the name of the vendor in articles that appeared across the country. However, the ice cream sandwiched between milk biscuits became a hit. Soon, pushcarts popped up around the city and country during the summer months selling the portable treats.

Once ice cream sandwiches became popular, recipes for home cooks filled the papers. The sandwich layers included everything from angel food and sponge cake to shortbread cookies. Restaurants offered the ice cream sandwich as a decadent dessert for travelers. By 1940, grocers sold sandwiches made with crispy wafers (which is the kind I have seen more off). Now, I see that there are a few options in India but I haven’t found one in my city, but I will keep looking. They look delicious.