Ice Cream Royalty: The Caramel Brownie Blizzard

It’s been several years since I have been a member of the Blizzard of the Month club. As you can imagine, there’s a certain notoriety that comes along with this, including two for one coupons and advance warnings for certain month’s Blizzard flavors. The best part of my current job? It’s located near a Dairy Queen. I won’t lie and pretend that I go there all of the time. Trust me, I would be a happier person if I did but it’s a real thrill to leave this office at noon and drive over to a big red barn serving my favorite stuff.

Do you want to know who’s birthday is in January? Me too. This month the Dairy Queen Blizzard of the Month is Birthday Cake Oreo. There is a lot that I like about this, mainly the birthday cake and Oreo part. Yesterday I realized that the clock was ticking and that the month of January was even more fleeting than my youth. Here’s the thing – the Blizzard of the Month waits for no one. The Pumpkin Pie Blizzard did NOT care that I was rather busy this past October. If you don’t get there in time, then you’re only really punishing yourself.

Fine, I’ve learned the hard way and am now reformed. The Stamford Downtown Dairy Queen is tricky in January. Some days they’re open, other they’re not. I think the guy running it takes vacation, so I was thrilled to call yesterday and get confirmation that the barn was open for business. Perhaps not all that surprising for twenty degree weather, there was no line to place my order. Excited and already salivating, I was crestfallen when the guy at the counter told me that he hadn’t ordered the ingredients for this particular Blizzard of the Month. What?

It’s hard to stay salty when you’re at Dairy Queen. Fine, so I couldn’t try the Blizzard of the Month but that just gives me the opportunity to get reacquainted with my favorite custom made Blizzard Treat. My go to Blizzard order is the Caramel Brownie Blizzard. This isn’t on the menu, but of course they have all of the ingredients, which when combined make for just about the most delicious ice cream in the world.

With the exception of McDonald’s McFlurry ice cream, Dairy Queen soft serve vanilla is the best soft serve ice cream in this universe and I do not say this lightly. The ice cream itself is soft in texture and not too overwhelming in flavor. It lends itself perfectly to having candy folded in lovingly by the Blizzard machine. The brownies that make up this blizzard are always a little on the harder side. This is probably from the cold temperature and the fact that not enough people order this, but here’s why that’s good. Normally, I don’t like caramel. It’s suspicious. It’s not peanut butter and it’s not chocolate. It is sugary. “Hey, let me add some more sugar to my sugar.” But when you mix in the caramel with the hardened brownies, it softens them to the perfectly appropriate texture.

Eating this ice cream, sitting in the sun in the winter weather yesterday rocked. As the Dalai Lama once said, “Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.” Perhaps he was talking about ice cream?