We Tried Every New Fall Ice Cream Flavor From Jeni’s — Here Are the Reviews

Yes, you can channel the flavors of a sweet potato casserole into a pint of ice cream.

If you thought ice cream couldn't be cozy, think again. To some people fall might mean hunkering down with a bowl of warm soup, but for me — at least now — the flavors of fall can be captured in an ice cream.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has become known for creating unexpected (but undeniably appetizing) flavors, like Skillet Cinnamon Roll, Powdered Jelly Donut, or even limited-edition eclipse-inspired pints. The Columbus, Ohio-based brand’s latest release aims to capture the taste of autumn in four completely new products — plus a returning favorite — and I got a chance to try them all.

Related: These Ice Cream Makers Are Creating an Entire Dessert Experience, All in One Pint

Jeni’s fall collection introduces Miso Butterscotch Brownie, Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline, Bay Leaf Cheesecake, and Pumpkin Seed & Rye Cookie — it also includes a seasonally appropriate staple from the brand, Brown Butter Almond Brittle. Beth Stallings, Jeni’s Head of Innovation, says the limited-edition lineup was “inspired by the way we all literally want to consume fall, maybe more than any other season. It’s about late harvest, that fine balance between sweet and savory, and our craving for fresh and comforting foods.”

Sweet and savory is an apt description because this collection has pints that will satisfy people who want the occasional hint of salt in their ice cream or are searching for something that’s not particularly cloying. Notes of nuttiness are also a clear theme, starting with the only flavor in the assemblage that isn’t new: Brown Butter Almond Brittle. This ice cream is tangy and rich and has a strong almond taste remarkably similar to marzipan. Small pieces of brown-butter-almond candy provide little pockets of sweeter, brown sugar-like flavor.

While brown butter and almonds can certainly taste autumnal, the other installments in Jeni’s fall collection dive even deeper into the season’s signature tasting notes, ingredients, and nostalgic dishes. Want to know which ones you should try? Here is my official review of each new offering from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams:

Miso Butterscotch Brownie

This has a buttery, toasted sugar and miso cream base, with pieces of dark chocolate fudge brownies scattered throughout. It definitely falls in the sweet-savory camp, thanks to the miso that adds a touch of saltiness and some subtle earthy notes. The chunks of brownie aren’t very big — I’d call them crumbles — but there are a lot of them, so you’re not lacking for brownie flavor.

The verdict? This is a great option if you want something with chocolate and caramel notes — but also more complexity. It definitely won’t fill the same void as a brownie-packed pint of Ben & Jerry’s (which I usually find to almost focus more on the mix-ins, less on the ice cream), but it would be a sophisticated end to a dinner party or a sweet-but-not-too-sweet option for movie night.

Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline

The Sweet Potato Marshmallow Praline offering manages to channel all the flavors of a marshmallow-topped sweet potato casserole at Thanksgiving into one container of ice cream, and I was extremely into it. Jeni’s has produced a Sweet Potato Marshmallow Brûlée option before, and this is a more seasonal evolution of that.

The new treat is made with spiced sweet potatoes, marshmallow sweet cream, and candied pecans, but the sweet potatoes are blended into the ice cream base, giving it a warm orange color and pure sweet potato flavor in each bite. I was really impressed by how strongly the root vegetable’s flavor came through: It genuinely tasted like I was eating a roasted sweet potato.

Related: Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Toasted Marshmallows

The ribbons of marshmallow sweet cream are big and bold enough that you can clearly identify them as actually being marshmallows — unlike ice cream brands, where they tend to disappear into the rest of the product. And they’re a welcome pairing with the more spice-forward sweet potato ice cream. It’s the pieces of candied pecans that really cement this dessert’s similarity to the classic sweet potato casserole, in addition to sprinkling in bits of crunchy texture.

Speaking to how the brand develops its unexpected ideas, Stallings notes, “Where we start depends on the season and the overarching collection concept. One thing that never changes is the emotional tie. Where do we want to transport people? Are we embracing a season, whisking ourselves off to a fantastical place, building an entire world around flavor, or are we traveling back to a specific time?” The answer to these questions is obvious for this ice cream: It will undoubtedly transport you to a Thanksgiving table.

Bay Leaf Cheesecake

With a bay leaf-infused cream cheese ice cream and swirls of crushed graham crackers, this new item is a less obvious nod to fall. But the subtle use of bay leaf lends the creamy treat just the right amount of herbaceousness, which reminds me of the season when we start cooking with warm spices and woodier herbs. Bay leaves can be fairly bitter when raw, but that doesn’t come through here at all — instead they add only a touch of floral flavor, to complement the ice cream’s sweetness.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this ice cream also tastes very vanilla-forward, which Stallings confirmed, explaining that when brainstorming the flavor it “started as a conversation with our culinary team — I was talking about a fig leaf, pine, and mascarpone dessert I had last summer in Italy. How I loved the cool, refreshing, slightly herbaceous, and almost-vanilla-like notes of it. That meandered to this whole conversation about bay leaves and how, before vanilla was widely available, they were used to add depth of flavor to creams and custards.”

Hints of fragrant herbs and florals help keep this dessert light on your palate. Unlike the very rich nature of most cheesecake ice creams, Jeni's rendition manages to be refreshing. My only reservation with the final product is that the graham cracker crumbs are very finely crushed and tend to disappear into the background, with the cheesecake flavor overpowering them. I won't tell you what to do, but I would recommend serving a scoop of this aromatic ice cream with seasonal fruit, like some baked apples or a poached pear.

Pumpkin Seed and Rye Cookie

Maybe the most unusual of the bunch, Stallings tells me that this creation “started as a pumpkin seed ice cream, using a combination of roasted pumpkin seed oil and pumpkin seed butter for a rich, nutty ice cream.” The result is a treat that has a beautiful earthy-green hue, studded with brown chunks of homemade rye cookies.

The taste of this ice cream isn’t overpowering, and I wouldn’t say you can detect a strong pumpkin seed flavor. Instead, it’s fairly mellow, but you'll still get nutty and toasty notes, and it strikes a nice, light balance between sweet and saline. The rye cookies are the star of the show in my opinion — their caramelized sweetness and malty essence add complex layers of flavor.

Related: 21 Pumpkin Dessert Recipes to Keep Your Kitchen Smelling Like Fall

Rye has a signature flavor profile that’s hard to miss, and Stallings points out that this was an intentional choice; “We knew that rye — with its rich-brown flavor notes of honey and brown sugar, toasted grain flavor, and slightly coarser texture that gives this cookie an almost granola-like texture — would really pop. There’s a little pumpernickel flour in the cookie, too, which enhances the rye flavor.”

The texture of the rye cookie holds up quite well to being encased in ice cream; it still has that granola-like texture Stallings describes, which makes it easier to distinguish the add-in from the surrounding ice cream, unlike some of the other flavors (such as Miso Butterscotch Brownie). This ice cream isn’t the kind of dessert I’d crave at midnight or expect a kid to love, but it is a delicious exploration of nutty flavors, and I think it’d be perfect for scooping on top of a slice of pecan pie or serving sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies.

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