Sara Lee Caramel Peanut Brittle

After the success of Sara Lee's cookies and cream, I definitely had to try some more flavours. I was grocery shopping last night and as luck would have it, Sara Lee ice creams were on sale so I picked this up, as it sounded the most intriguing to me.

Described as "Made with fresh cream from selected Australian dairies, and swirled with a gooey caramel fudge and crunchy peanut brittle pieces coated in real milk chocolate". It made me hungry. 

I was a bit worried about what state the ice cream would be in though after the long trip home from the grocery store. And there were a few ice crystals around the edges from the re-freeze. However, I had nothing to worry about as when I scooped away that top layer, it gave way to a perfectly fluffy texture.

The picture above shows just a tiny hint of what I would find when I scooped further...

TONS of chocolate-coated peanut brittle pieces! I really love when an ice cream has tons of bits in it. It's hard to avoid them but trying the base itself, I would guess at vanilla - however it did have a hint of caramel.
Not much sign of the swirl so far, but as I only ate off the top layer I hope there is more to be found further down. 

The peanut brittle pieces are delicious with the ice cream - perfectly sweet and salty. The chocolate coating just helps to bring it all together. I enjoyed my sample of this ice cream a lot and will definitely be finishing this off in time and possibly buying again.

Flavour Comparison - Cookies & Cream (Connoisseur and Sara Lee)

Connoisseur and Sara Lee both have a premium cookies and cream flavour, and since Connoisseur has been a favourite of mine for years and I'd only tried the Sara Lee take on it this week, I thought it'd be fun to do a comparison. 

Connoisseur describes theirs as "crushed dark chocolate cookies crumbled through smooth vanilla ice cream", while Sara Lee proclaims "made with fresh cream from selected Australian dairies, real bourbon vanilla and packed with chunks of dark chocolate cookies."
Based on the description alone, Sara Lee sounds like a winner. I love a good description.

Visually, on the surface, there is hardly any difference between the two ice creams, though Sara Lee's (right) is slightly darker. Both have chunks and tiny crumbles of Oreo-style cookies throughout, giving both vanilla bases a grey colour. This is just how I prefer my cookies and cream ice cream!

A few scoops down to each and it becomes clear that Connoisseur wins in the chunks department, there are many cookie bits in the ice cream and some were very large. Sara Lee, on the other hand, while theirs had less/smaller cookie chunks, there was more cookie overall incorporated into the ice cream, giving it a darker colour and a stronger chocolate flavour.

Honestly, it's very hard to pick a winner here. I'd definitely go for both, being a fan of Connoissuer's line and especially this flavour, but I also think Sara Lee has converted me to their ice cream with this flavour as well. Both are excellent and perfect if you are like me and perfer the cookie side of the cookies & cream equation.