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Where To Eat
SANTAN SUN NEWS | OCTOBER 7-20, 2017
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Moms’ Ice Cream Sammies get sweet response BY COLLEEN SPARKS Staff
A downtown Chandler business is becoming a go-to spot for people screaming for ice cream and craving chewy, warm, fresh cookies. Ice Cream Sammies on West Boston Street, slightly south of Commonwealth Avenue, has been hopping with families, individuals and businesses seeking scoops of the popular, cool American dessert sandwiched between cookies since it opened about a year and a half ago. The cookies, ice cream and brownie bowls, as well as shakes, sundaes, floats and waffle cones, are made from scratch. The flavors are tested and fine-tuned by the owners’ family members and friends. The milk from the ice cream is pasteurized on-site to give customers the best tasting sweet combination, said co-owner Jaime Votaw of Chandler. She and fellow co-owner Ariana Cooper, also of Chandler, met and became friends through their sons, who played soccer together. They own the dessert haven with Jaime’s husband, Joel Votaw, who’s involved with the financial end of the business while the women are involved in the day-to-day operations. Customers can generally pick from eight different types of cookies a day, with even more options during the holiday season. They can choose from about 20 to 25 different flavors of ice cream per day. The staff makes its own caramel, ice cream base, ice cream and other mix-in items, including carrot cake and waffle cones. Some ice cream flavors include vanilla, chocolate, chocolate chip, rocky road, bubble gum, cotton candy, salted caramel, mint chip and strawberry. Ice Cream Sammies mixes up the ice cream choices with a carrot cake flavor, made using from-scratch carrot cake, as well as cookie butter, created with Biscoff toffee-flavored cookies and Biscoff cookie butter folded in, and a churro flavor, a cinnamon ice cream with homemade Snickerdoodle cookies mixed into it that tastes like the frieddough pastry. S’mores cookies contain homemade marshmallows.
Photos by Kimberly Carrillo/Staff Photographer
Ariana Cooper (left) and Jaime Votaw, co-owners of Ice Cream Sammies on West Boston Street, show off one of their creations: double chocolate chip cookies with mint chocolate chip ice cream.
To pair with the ice cream, customers can choose from many favorite cookie flavors, including chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, Snickerdoodle, sugar, peanut butter and oatmeal with white chocolate and coconut. The only food that is not made in the shop is the fresh glazed doughnuts from BoSa Donuts. Customers can buy a Doh! Sammie, which is ice cream paired with a doughnut. The doughnut is cut in half, ice cream is added in the middle and it’s put in a special press to warm the outside of the doughnut, as well as seal the edge up, leaving a warm, caramelized doughnut. “You’ve got a lot of corporate dessert places,” Jaime Votaw said. “We thought we just want Chandler to have that hometown mom-and-pop feel. We wanted it to be fresh. We thought, it’s easy to do. You know what you’re eating at home every day. We wanted to taste like home. “We can add more milk fat, adjust sugar,” she added. “We have complete control over our process.” Cooper added the ice cream has “no chemicals” added to it and everything sold to customers has been made within
Candice Beltran, lead ice cream tech at Ice Cream Sammies, prepares a treat.
time I think I have a favorite, they come up with another flavor!” Shaheen Siddiqui, a physical therapist and owner of Crossroads Orthopedic Physical Therapy in Chandler, also loves the business. “Ice Cream Sammies is delicious,” Siddiqui said. “The ice cream and cookies are amazingly fresh! My whole family enjoys going there — we look forward to it every time!” Jim Brown, who owns Fish Window Cleaning in Chandler, said Ice Cream Sammies is his “favorite place for dessert.” “Freshly baked cookies and ice cream – it does not get any better,” Brown said. “The only problem is all the choices. I always get two different cookies and taste test a few flavors of ice cream.” Votaw, an avid baker since childhood, enjoys tinkering with the recipes and says she and Cooper pay attention to the little details. The chocolate chips in the ice cream are altered to ensure they melt in people’s mouth rather than tasting frozen or waxy. “I just love baking,” Votaw said. “I like anything baking oriented. I remember as a kid always making cookies and cakes.” She and Cooper got the idea to start
five days at the business at the most as it sells quickly. Chandler City Councilmember Nora Ellen, who is also an associate broker, is a fan. “Ice Cream Sammies is such a fabulous place to go for some delicious cookies, ice cream and their unique ice cream sandwich,” Ellen said. “I have met friends there and we always enjoy the cheerful atmosphere and leave feeling very satisfied with the fun and great dessert they offer! It’s a great location Two cookies with carrot cake ice cream and Frosted Flakes cereal as “edges,” and perfect place or toppings, is one combination customers can order at Ice Cream Sammies. to go after a show, school or a fun their business after eating in a restaurant date!” in northern California when her son, Jonas, For $5.25, customers can choose two now 17, and Cooper’s son, Thatcher, now 16, cookies with a creamy scoop of ice cream were playing in a club soccer tournament in the middle and topped with their choice of “edges,” which include chocolate in 2014. The two women tried ice cream sandwiches at the eatery but found the sprinkles, pieces of Oreos, Lucky Charms cereal marshmallows, Fruity Pebbles cereal cookies and ice cream mediocre and thought they could do better. and mini Gummy Bears. “If you’re going to eat it, make it worth Around the winter holidays, Ice Cream your while,” Cooper said. “I was like, ‘This Sammies will sell a red velvet cookie and is a cool concept.’” red velvet ice cream, as well as caramel Over about the next year, Votaw pecan praline ice cream and a maple spice tried out different ice cream and cookie cookie. As the temperatures cool off, recipes at home, with their children customers can also indulge in pumpkin sampling them. Votaw and Cooper have snickerdoodle cookies and pumpkin ice three children each. Cooper, who earned cream. Closer to Christmas, the shop will a bachelor’s degree in child psychology provide molasses and peppermint cookies, with a minor in business at University of as well as peppermint stick ice cream. New Hampshire, said she was a “good Customer Tami Stoltz loves the many taste tester” for the treats. choices in cookies and ice cream. The two were already friends from “We were so excited when they bonding at the kids’ soccer games. Cooper opened in Chandler; we love supporting has experience helping do product photo small, local businesses and these ladies shoots for websites and publications for have really done a fabulous job,” Stoltz a local blogger. Votaw had helped her said. “From the cookie batter ice cream husband run a construction business, to the fresh baked s’mores cookies to the brownie bowls, where do I start? Every see
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