Tastykake products are an enigma to me. Doting Mid-Atlantic grocery store displays alongside the likes of Hostess and Entenmann’s goodies, they form the third part of the triumvirate in the empire of empty calories. The scorn of Michelle Obama twitter followers and yo-yo dieters alike, these bastions of sugar and refined white flour are kept alive, stereotypically, through the impulsive spending of my demographic.
Go figure, but I’m one adult male who has never actually bought – much less tasted – a Tastycake product.
Not that I haven’t been tempted. But thanks to a redoubled effort to restrain unnecessary purchases, I’ve managed to eschew giving my money to Tastykake, instead fettering dollar bills away on fried potatoes, star wars actions figures, and the occasional compunctious charitable donation. Yet even I, in all my budding discipline, could not resist the lure of the combination of ice cream and packaged sponge cake, so when my local grocery store – Weis market – began offering a Butterscotch Krimpet flavor, well, it was game over for Adam’s tips.
Weis, for you non Mid-Atlantic denizens, is a PA-based grocery chain which has recently partnered with the Tastykake brand to release several flavors of ice cream. The Butterscotch Krimpet flavor intrigued me the most, if only because butterscotch is a waning flavor on the step-latter of sweet stuff, and because Tastycake’s iconic product is, without question, the Butterscotch Krimpet.
Iconic, I don’t doubt, but does it make a good ice cream mix-in for the kind of person who seldom gives into the temptation of the cupcake aisle?
In a word. Yes. Scratch that and make it two words. FREAKING YES. How did I never have a Butterscretch Krimpet until now? This is, without a doubt, the best tasting and most original ice cream flavor I have ever eaten from a store-brand product. It starts with the base, which has a rich butter-pecan flavor, minus the pecans of course. It’s smooth and creamy with a sumptuous mouthfeel, while also packing a kind of Ambrosia taste. When I take the first scoop I don’t see much on the way of “Krimpets,” but I soon find penny size pieces of sponge cake that, amazingly, still retain the right balance of chew and flavor, providing another element of richness that tastes unmistakably of cake. Yes, cake, and an underrated one at that.
I really can’t say enough about this ice cream except that I could eat an entire 1.5 quarter container in one sitting. Given that the mix-in of buttery and chewy sponge cake has no hydrogenated oils in the makeup, I’m really tempted to do just that, and chalk it off as a “kinda healthy” daily serving. All joking aside, at just 150 calories per ½ cup serving, it’s more than a reasonable dessert, and given how well it works, I can’t believe more ice cream companies haven’t gone to the cupcake aisle for inspiration. Cookies and candy are old news, we need more twinkies and donuts!
Nice job Weis. You’re ice cream aisle can take my work tips any day. And that’s saying quite a bit considering I am, you know, an actual ice cream man. Now I just got to go buy one of those actual Krimpet things.
Weis Premium Ice Cream: Butterscotch Krimpet
- Rating: 9/10
- Price: $3.00 (On sale)
- Chances I Buy Again: 100%
