The Little-Known History Of Ice Cream Sandwiches

Ice cream sandwiches are a staple of the iconic ice cream truck found across the U.S. And like the ice cream truck, ice cream sandwiches have a long history of delighting curbside customers. Back in the late 19^th century, ice cream sandwiches went by a more whimsical name, hokey pokeys, and they sold for just one penny each. But the pieces of inedible paper that the slab of ice cream was sandwiched between were only there to make hokey pokeys portable, they weren't part of the sandwich. 

Food history writer Jeri Quinzio told The Boston Globe that the paper method was "messy and not very convenient, so somebody came up with the idea of using crackers or cookies." She also said that ice cream sandwiches were "written about a lot in newspapers" around the turn of the previous century because they were "quite the innovation." On August 19, 1900, daily New York City newspaper The Sun printed a short article about ice cream sandwiches being sold for the first time from a wagon that pulled up at the corner of Nassau and Wall streets. The sandwich "was made of two graham wafers and a slab of ice cream between," it said. "The cost of a sandwich was one, two, or three cents, according to the thickness of the slab of ice cream."

The U.S. is not the only country to have come up with an ice cream sandwich. Similar to the intrepid vendor mentioned in The Sun article, Iran's bastani-e nooni uses wafers to sandwich the country's unique, stretchy Persian ice cream. Singapore also sells its own style of ice cream sandwich, made with wafers, rather than cookies.

Some countries take a more literal approach. In addition to wafers, Singapore sometimes wraps its ice cream sandwich in bread. Vendors serve various flavors of ice cream in either a slice of white bread or rainbow bread that is flavored with pandan, a tropical plant that adds a sweet nuttiness as well as color to food. You will also find ice cream sandwiches made with sliced open buns or small loaves of bread in Thailand and Vietnam, where the ice cream might have a sprinkle of chopped peanuts. In Sicily, brioche con gelato (gelato sandwiched in a brioche bun) is so popular that it is not uncommon to have one for breakfast or lunch.