Attention: Durham, North Carolina!

I’ve been working at Francesca’s (on 9th Street) as a part time barista since February.  If you’re from Durham, undoubtedly you’re familiar with it.  It’s exciting for vegans in that they actually make soy gelatos!  And you know, this isn’t California.  The South isn’t exactly full of soy gelato.   However, until recently, those handmade soy gelatos really didn’t live up to the packaged So Delicious, Purely Decadent, or Tofutti soy ice creams found in stores.  At least they didn’t to me.  They’re not bad, mind you… just not as rich and creamy as a pint of Purely Decadent Peanut Butter Zig Zag, or Tofutti Blueberry Cheesecake, or So Delicious Turtle Trails, or… well, my dear vegans, it doesn’t really matter what they weren’t as rich and creamy as, because I’m happy to tell you it’s a brand new world here at Francesca’s!

The lovely and illustrious Tina, who makes all the gelatos and sorbettos in these here parts, has come out with a soy peanut butter chip gelato, and it is 100% fantastic.   It’s still a little lighter than the aforementioned brands, but that’s gelato for you.   It has less fat than ice cream as a general rule.   But the peanut butter chip is creamy and peanut buttery and just so so good!  As an employee, I get to eat little tastes of the gelato while I’m at work, and I must admit that I’ve been “tasting” the hell out of the peanut butter chip.  Quality control!  Gotta make sure it’s still fabulous every couple hours… or every few minutes…. or every few seconds…

The peanut butter chip is good in all sorts of ways.  It’s good just in a cup, it’s good in a cone, it’s good in a coffee float, it’s good in a soy milkshake, it’s good with some espresso poured over it, it’s good here or there, yes I will eat it anywhere!  I will eat it in a house, I will eat it with a mouse… Yes I like it, daddy-o, Yes I like soy gelato!

Erm, Dr. Seuss aside, my new favorite way to eat the peanut butter chip is in a COOKIE SANDWICH.  A cookiewich!  Francesca’s has 2 types of vegan cookies on hand, and the better of the 2 is the peanut butter cookie, which was just begging to become a peanut butter cookie peanut butter chocolate chip gelato sandwich.  Whoo, that’s a lot of words.  Let’s just call it a peanut butter cookiewich.   Anyway, I couldn’t say no to the poor cookies.  If they really wanted to be cookiewiches, well then cookiewiches they would be!   I’m supportive like that.

First I took two peanut butter cookies and smooshed some gelato on the flat side of one of them, like so:

Smoooooosh!

Then, to sweeten the deal, I added a little swirl of chocolate syrup:

CHOCOLATE

I won’t lie to you.  It’s Hershey’s.  It’s not particularly healthy nor particularly good, but it is vegan and it was on hand at work.

Then, I added the other cookie, and voila!

*drool*

Cookiewich!  It was extraordinarily rich and filling and DELICIOUS.   I was quite the happy vegan.

Now, this particular confection isn’t on the menu at Francesca’s, but you can buy 2 cookies and a bambini of gelato and it comes out to $3.75 + tax.  $4.04 when you factor in the tax.   Or you can just go with one cookie and have an open faced cookiewich.  Just as good, really.   It doesn’t need a lot of gelato.  A bambini is plenty.   Anyway, I can’t speak for the others, but I would be happy to assemble this treat for you.  And if I’m not on shift, you can always just scoop the gelato out of your little bambini cup and squish it onto the cookie with a fork yourself.

Om nom nom!   Allons-y!   À Francesca’s, tout le monde!