Behind the Scenes of The Tonight Dough starring Jimmy Fallon!

October 16, 2015

What’s better than coming up with one ice cream flavor with Jimmy Fallon? Coming up with two!

Inspired by his time as the host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the first flavor we collaborated with the funny man on was Late Night Snack. You’d be hard pressed to forget this one, with its salty caramel swirl and fudge covered potato chips.

When we found out that Jimmy was moving to a new show, we thought, “Aw, shucks! Looks like that flavor is all done.” But then we thought, “Sounds like an opportunity to make a NEW flavor!” Because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that when one pint closes, another one opens, revealing the opportunity within.

The Inside Scoop

The Ben & Jerry’s team worked with Jimmy directly to develop this flavor collaboration. “We had some flavor profiles we were working on that we sent him to try. There was a lot of discussion around what made sense ingredient-wise that we could tie to either Jimmy, the show, New York City, and so on,” the team remembers. “We brainstormed around names at the same time. It just had to be the right combination. A flavor profile with a lot going on, and a name that made sense for Jimmy and his new gig.”

Once they decided on the name The Tonight Dough, the Ben & Jerry’s team sent three flavor profiles with different ice cream bases and cookie dough combinations for Jimmy to choose from. And the rest, as they say, is make-your-mouth-and-belly-really-happy history.

The winning recipe combines chocolate and caramel ice creams with chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter cookie dough and a crunchy chocolate cookie swirl for an extra-chunky concoction that would knock the socks off your freezer, that is if freezers wore socks.

Sweet Success – With An Important Mission

The Tonight Dough has been one of our most popular new flavors since it launched earlier this year. And although people might dig in because they want to try Jimmy’s new flavor, they keep coming back for more because, well, how could they not?!

But the success of The Tonight Dough is even sweeter because it benefits an organization with a serious and fun mission—SeriousFun Children’s Network.

Jimmy has worked with this organization for a long time. It was founded by Paul Newman in 1988 with the mission of creating opportunities for children with serious illnesses to reach beyond illness and discover joy, confidence and a new world of possibilities through a range of summer camps and other programs – all at no cost to families.

But maybe we should finally let Jimmy do the talking here?

“I’m not overhyping, I’m not overselling – we’ve made the best ice cream ever created,” Jimmy Fallon said. “It’s so insanely good and I’m just happy to be associated with it. And the proceeds go to a great charity.”

Get some tonight! The Tonight Dough is available in pints or at your local Scoop Shop!