Cookie Dough Ice Creams Ranked From Worst To Best

The culinary genius that first dropped wads of unbaked cookie dough into ice cream deserves a shrine in their honor. Credit often goes to Ben & Jerry's, who offered the mix-in in 1984 at the company's flagship Vermont scoop shop at an anonymous fan's suggestion. Decades later, the concept is a regular in ice cream parlors and freezer sections around the world, blending two of life's purest pleasures in a singular goodie.

So many ice cream crafters keep a cookie dough recipe as part of their portfolios and it can be tricky to find the ones that make the most of this magnificent formula. Not one to remain ignorant about such subjects, I took to the grocery stores in my area and scooped up a slew of cookie dough ice creams from various producers to find out which cartons make the magic happen and which get lost in a delicious illusion. 

With spoon in hand and a dream in my heart, I dug deep into a collection of cookie dough ice cream options to learn the truth. The details of my assessment can be found at the end of this article. All prices are accurate as of August 2024 and dependent on location.

Walmart wants so badly to be a part of the cookie dough in-crowd, dropping a Great Value version of the designer flavor into its already-packed freezer cases. This brand operates under the notion that if you give the world a bargain treat that competes with the bigger brands, your shoppers will follow you anywhere. The trouble with that philosophy is that the product has to follow through on the promise it makes, something Great Value Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream has difficulty accomplishing.

While it might be a great value, this carton doesn't do the world of cookie dough ice cream any favors. There's practically no flavor in any aspect of this carton — not in the ice cream, not in the cookie dough, and not in the chocolate. That's a shame, because at under $2 for half a quart, it really is affordable. This is one instance where you get what you pay for ... and you're probably not going to be happy about that.

If you're an artisan ice cream creator calling yourself Rebel, your Cookie Dough flavor had best be bodacious. Such a name suggests you're operating outside of the mainstream, signaling to ice cream fans that the contents of the tub are destined to dazzle senses and change hearts and minds. And with a bunch of promises like full-fat, lactose-free, and keto circling the lid, there's a lot to live up to, especially being priced at nearly $6 a pint.

In reality, this overpriced pick rebels against everything I love in an ice cream, especially one supposedly loaded with cookie dough. Instead of a more direct line to a clean ice cream recipe, there are all kinds of weird substances on the ingredients list. Lactase enzyme is added to take care of the lactose in the cream and milk — a fudgy way to achieve lactose-free status. There are also artificial sweeteners and monk fruit in addition to real sugar. Despite an intense vanilla flavor, there's restricted access to actual cookie dough and almost no "chocolatey flakes" as promised on the label. Maybe this Rebel should consider having a more identifiable cause.

Known for its high-protein, low-sugar frozen treats, Halo Top gives it a glow — er, a go — with a purportedly health-friendly take on Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. The front of the package touts 16 grams of protein under a banner proclaiming this is "light" ice cream, which refers to the trim 120 calories and 3 grams of fat per ⅔-cup serving. That's neat and all, but the real issue here is how the cookie dough in this highly-processed freezer food plays on the taste buds.

Actually, it plays havoc on them. The weird marshmallow texture of the ice cream base makes it literally hard to swallow. There's almost no discernible cookie dough presence in the bites I took. And the fact that it pats itself on the carton for being a light ice cream means there are all sorts of artificial sweeteners present, in addition to real sugar and ultra-filtered skim milk. For a cookie dough that tries so hard, it sure comes up short on enjoyment. There's nothing heavenly under this halo top.

There's a reason Blue Bell features a cow on its Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream container: Milk is the lifeblood of the whole industry, and this creamery is none too shy to bring attention to its source. The idea that a dedicated ice cream producer should have a dependable base to drop globs of luscious cookie dough into seems like a logical assumption to make. It's a conclusion I drew before taking a spoonful, and the results after tasting were milky at best.

By "milky" I mean both "unclear" and "taste too much like milk and not enough like ice cream." How is such a thing even possible? I was expecting a rich scoop but found something paler instead. The lid announces there are both natural and artificial flavors, which should increase the odds of a flavorful creation, but the vanilla is so dilute it seems like an afterthought. And the tiny nuggets of cookie dough scattered throughout the carton? They look more like chickpeas than cookie dough. They also taste like chickpeas. No thanks.

Store brand ice cream often competes nicely with bigger brands, something Kroger gets terribly wrong with its Deluxe Jammed Chocolate Cookie Dough frozen dairy dessert. Notice the name makes no mention of ice cream; this is because the base is processed differently from actual ice cream and contains different ingredients, which prevents the product from qualifying. It's more like scoopable soft serve with add-ins, which sounds like a fun twist on a familiar flavor.

Too bad it isn't that. The weird, wheaty, and highly artificial flavor of the base gets in the way of how the marble-sized bits of cookie dough taste, which doesn't make much of a difference, since those are pretty bland. There's also a sprinkling of chocolate flakes, but not enough to redeem the transgressions committed by the rest of the contents. This may be jammed with goodies as the lid proclaims, but it should be jammed with a-whole-lot-betters. At least it's one of the cheaper selections in the store.

Even if the name is just a made-up thing, the flavor of Häagen-Dazs ice cream is supposed to be the real deal. One of the first brands to flag ice cream as a designer treat, this tiny container has always held a fair amount of fascination for me; I'm not the most eager Häagen-Dazser on the block, mostly due to the premium price. So I was stoked to give Häagen-Dazs' Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream a go, thinking there'd be a stunning difference I could taste from the first bite.

Oh, I tasted the difference, all right. For being such a fabled brand, this high-priced pick sure doesn't show up with the flavor. It's more like an okay version of ice cream, something that long ago would be seen as a deluxe treat but now only rises to the middle of the spectrum. The vanilla base is unimpressive, and the balls of cookie dough are minuscule and disappointingly un-gourmet. Instead, what comes through most are the tiny pieces of chocolate. For this ice cream fan, Häagen-Dazs feels more like Häagen-Dazsn't.

The originator of the cookie dough ice cream craze, Ben & Jerry's offers several variants on the core template, shaking things up with candy mix-ins and silky swirls of ribbony sauces. I aimed for the real deal and stuck with straight-up Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor to get a sense of how the trend-that-lasted got its start, and to see if it's held up through the years. How could it not still be a pinnacle product?

Pretty easily, it turns out. For being the OG of the cookie dough creamery scene, Ben & Jerry's falls flat. The ice cream is just okay, the cookie dough cylinders are so-so, and the chocolate chips don't rise above "meh." I would've thought the ice cream champ could hold onto the prestige it started out with. It seems as though those who came afterward have gotten a better handle on the cookie dough scoop. Maybe other Ben & Jerry's cookie dough versions are superior. Either way, it may be time for the original to get an upgrade so it can keep up with the young guns.

Pairing Nestlé Toll House cookie dough with premium ice cream is such an obvious win. The name is synonymous with chocolate chip cookie magnificence, and the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag is more than likely one that home cooks have noshed on as their introduction to cookie dough delight. Hopes were sky-high for a supreme ice cream with classic cookie dough showing up to represent its heritage.

Sadly, for being the de facto originator of edible cookie dough, Nestlé can't rise to the occasion when incorporating its signature creation into a frozen treat. There's almost no vanilla perceptible in the ice cream, and the cookie dough seems to have no taste at all. The only thing I could taste were the chocolate chips, which would be great if I were taste-testing chocolate chip ice cream. But in the arena of cookie dough ice cream, Nestlé Toll House just doesn't bring it home.

Why wouldn't a well-known Oregon dairy like Tillamook tip its hat at the cookie dough ice cream trend? Ice cream is just really delicious milk filled with sugar and fun flavors, after all, and a dairy should be tops at producing something like that. Even if the company's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream dips a toe in the confectionary world, it shouldn't be that challenging to toss a doable dough into a satisfying ice cream.

Oh, it's a challenge, all right, and one that Tillamook has a bit of trouble rising to meet. The greatest issue in this formulation is an overwhelmingly malty ice cream that hides any trace of the flavor in the cookie dough chunks. Is it the grain the cows are fed that tips the scale in this direction, or just an unexpected side effect of the whole dough-in-cream mash-up? For over $5 a carton, you shouldn't have to wonder.

It turns out Target's Favorite Day brand is more than capable of producing a pleasant Cookie Dough Ice Cream, a discovery that made for a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a dimmed-down version of everything in the formula: mellow ice cream, ho-hum dough, and the yada-yada of chocolate chips. It wouldn't be the first time a house brand from the big red bullseye missed the mark.

Lo and behold, this signature sweet is plenty delicious. Smooth ice cream meets delightful dough pieces with a smattering of crisp chocolate flakes dispersed throughout. The one drawback that kept it from floating higher on the list is that it doesn't do anything more than hit the right notes in the right order. I would have enjoyed an extra blast of chocolate flakes to make the base more interesting or larger dollops of dough to give the carton an edge over the others. As it stands, this is more than just another pretty package, but a little extra magic could send it even higher in the ranking.

Dairy-free snackers aren't left in the cold thanks to So Delicious Dairy-Free Cookie Dough, featuring a creamy coconut milk base and dark chocolate chips. A non-dairy base can sometimes come across as thin, something I considered as I opened the carton. At this point in the taste-test, I was also starting to wonder which ice cream brand offered the highest concentration of cookie dough. Does every producer toss in a few lumps and call it a day, or is there a brand that really provides a plethora of dough to dig into? It's hard to eat ice cream with your fingers crossed, but that's just what I did.

Though So Delicious can't hide the coconutty flavor of the coconut milk, it's a blessing instead of a curse and distinguishes the non-dairy delight from the very vanilla pack. There are also plenty of perfectly spherical pearls of cookie dough, generously distributed and easy to spot (whew!), as well as flecks of bittersweet chocolate that melt easily and blend nicely with the other elements. Is the base a bit grainy? Sure, but it gives the whole mix a certain sugary rawness that mimics actual cookie dough, which works smashingly. When they called it So Delicious, they weren't kidding.

Whether you know it as Edy's or Dreyer's, this high-quality ice cream maker churns out classic flavor after classic flavor, always keeping up with the latest blends without losing sight of its roots. Having a Cookie Dough offering among the company's Slow Churned collection gives this classic producer a chance to merge old standards with new flavors, with the potential for a serious contender.

The upside of Dreyer's decision to innovate: The carton captures the authentic texture of cookie dough beautifully, with brown sugar finding its way to the top tasting notes. The vanilla ice cream is soft and pleasant and sits patiently in the background while the scattered chocolate chips wait their turn. If there's a drawback to this delicious dessert, it's that the elements don't always coincide on the spoon, which means sometimes you get a cookie dough experience, and sometimes you get a chocolate chip experience instead. But the flavors are superior enough to pull it all together.

Old-fashioned happiness springs from a carton of Blue Bunny, even if the flavor is one of the more contemporary creations on the menu. With a boastful name like Super Chunky Cookie Dough, the Bunny had better come through with the goods. The company could have played it more modest, but it chose to crow about its creation instead. Whether or not it can withstand scrutiny is entirely up to the spoon and the taste buds.

How sweet to find out Blue Bunny can walk the talk. This recipe dresses up a super-creamy vanilla base with ribbons of decadent caramel sauce that give your tongue something to do when it's not seeking out pellets of cookie dough. The chocolate chips are supremely bittersweet, adding a dash of complexity to an already-layered dessert. For revealing such a thoughtful take on cookie dough ice cream that does its name proud, Blue Bunny hops high in the ranking.

I was seriously jazzed to stumble upon a carton I'd never heard of before on my search for cookie dough ice creams to taste-test. Dr. Bombay is brand-scooping new to my ice cream-adoring eyes, with a psychedelic label to match its groovy "Bewitched" reference. All of the brand's flavors get fun names, and Rollin' In the Dough was an easy add to the list.

What a find this treat turned out to be. Rich, creamy ice cream with a generous swath of what the label calls "chocolate chip cookie swirls" that turn out to be thinned-down dough infused with heavy brown sugar and butter notes. The chunks of cookie dough have a nice tooth, and the chocolate flakes are perfectly distributed to include a flurry in every spoonful. It's exciting to learn that an unexpected entrant in the race for cookie dough ice cream supremacy turned out to be a total triumph.

Upscale vegan ice cream is becoming a more widely accepted direction for frozen treats to expand in, thanks to premium offerings from creators like Wicked Kitchen. Plant-based ingredients might make a diehard ice cream aficionado side-eye the carton, but this thoughtful producer does its best to present an experience that's more than ice cream adjacent. Regardless of the milk source, the authenticity that comes through in the company's Dairy Free Cookie Dough recipe makes this selection a peak experience among all the frozen desserts on the list.

What's so enchanting about Wicked Kitchen? Just about everything. The cookie dough nuggets are exceptional in taste and texture, with a touch of unexpected crispiness. There are mini chocolate chips instead of shavings, and it's all suspended in a super-rich vanilla base that manages to be convincingly milk-like. I wouldn't have expected this plant-based brand to best the traditional ice cream creators. Lo and behold, it's the pinnacle of cookie dough deliciousness.

Taste and texture were the obvious drivers for this ranking. With such a wide variety of ice cream producers on the slate, it was relatively easy to see which formulas worked best as a cookie dough option and which came up thin — literally. The creamier the base, the sturdier the hold on the dough pieces. And while this put bonus points in the luxury brand column, there were a few surprises that let the store brands pull ahead.

Full-dairy versus alternative milk ice cream also provided a clear comparison point. With coconut, almond, and oat milk versions of cookie dough ice cream crowding the court, my assumption was that they couldn't hold their own against the more traditional ingredient content. So when these nicer ice creams held their own against the indulgent profiles of real dairy, the competition become much more heated. Ultimately, it came down to how well the bite at the end of the spoon felt and tasted as a stand-alone ice cream experience. Those bites were then stacked against one another to achieve a final hierarchy.