Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Turns 20!

Just over 20 years ago, scoopers at Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops – acting on an anonymous tip from a fan – posed this classic question: what if they put cookie dough into ice cream? It was a revolutionary idea in the world of ice cream at that time, and one that would become one of Ben & Jerry’s best-loved flavors! But making the flavor was easier said than done.

Today, Ben & Jerry’s Chunk Feeder machinery helps put big chunks into lots of different flavors, but back then, the standard machines couldn’t handle the big raw gobs of dough! Instead, to make the ice cream, the production team hand cut huge blocks of cookie dough into big chunks that would be thrown into the vanilla ice cream base at the last minute. Yes, every batch of Cookie Dough ice cream was hand made in a batch freezer!

It was labor intensive, time-consuming, and exhausting. Peter Lind, longtime Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Guru who worked to develop the flavor, searched for an easier method. He contacted Rhino Foods, another progressive, local Vermont business that produced cheesecake, baked goods, and other mix-ins for frozen desserts. Ted Castle, the owner, was a former All-American hockey player at the University of Vermont. His brilliant idea: make the ice cream into pucks and slapshot them into the ice cream! Ted’s idea, and a few secret techniques, combined with a committed effort from our production crew led to success at the Chunk Feeder. On March 20th, 1991 Ben & Jerry’s rolled the first pints of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream off the line. It was the first time that Cookie Dough was able to be produced quickly and in large quantities!

Now, two decades later, Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough is still a fan favorite. It is one of only three flavors to be featured in pints, quarts, mini cups, and in scoop shops and ranks among the top performing flavors every year. Happy Birthday, Cookie Dough!