Manhattan Beach Executive Chef Creates ‘Best Ice Cream Sandwich Ever’ for South Bay

By Bryan Tsunoda on February 25th, 2013

Jessica Jordan, Executive Chef at Fish Bar Manhattan Beach loves ice cream and believes that she can develop an ice cream sandwich far superior than the ones available today.

In doing the research, Jessica tried every single ice cream sandwich she could find. Some of the existing brands on the market, she found, add air to their ice cream so that they can extend their profit margin. The end result is that the ice cream becomes fluffy when you bite into it.

Jessica felt that Diddy Riese in Westwood was the best offering she could find, but because of the warm cookie, it wouldn’t be something that could be mass produced. And while Diddy Riese makes freshly baked cookies each day and has a great following, they don’t make their ice cream. Instead, they use Dryers ice cream.

Working with Manhattan Beach Creamery, where Jessica develops all of the ice cream flavors, she created the Cream’wich: a generous scoop of homemade ice cream sandwiched between two freshly baked cookies.

The cookies in Cream’wiches are par baked. The end result is a cookie-dough flavor and a texture that dosen’t make the sandiwch crumble when bitten into.

Each Cream’wich is made by hand at Manhattan Beach Creamery. The current production is 3,000 sandwiches per week utilizing 3 full time employees. Because there aren’t enough hours in a day, Jessica would like to maximize production into the night hours.

When Jessica approached the folks at Standing Room, they asked her if she could make them a special Peanut Butter and Bacon ice cream. She agreed and so you can find that exclusive flavor there. You can also read Michael’s review of Standing Room.

I tried the chocolate chip / vanilla ice cream Cream’wich and I’d have to agree with Jessica. Because the cookie is par baked, it doesn’t crumble and make a mess when you bite into it. Further, the ice cream is dense and very refreshing because it isn’t filled with air.

Several cookie flavors are available including chocolate chip, red velvet, oatmeal, and macadamia nut. Ice cream flavors include vanilla, chocolate, mint chip and cookie dough. Prices vary from $3.75 to $4.00 and a 6 pack goes for $19.95.

Wednesdays at Manhattan Beach Creamery is “Make your own Cream’wich day”. You get to select your own cookie and ice cream to match.

Jessica told me, “It’s the beginning of an empire.” She has purchased carts and in fact, Terreanea Resort has three of them and will be offering the Cream’wich in various areas of their vast property. She also expects to be able to mass produce them so that they can be offered nationwide. Finally, she hopes to soon offer a gluten free version and expects that to be very popular.