Today on Food on Fridays we take a look at an Eisbrötchen, also called an Eisbrioche.

Now, Brötchen is the German word for “bread-roll or bun”.  Eis is the word for ice cream or gelato. Brioche is the German word brioche, a sweet bread-roll or bun. So, the word Eisbrötchen/-brioche would appear to mean “ice cream on a bun or sweet bun.” Chris spotted a sign for them recently  at one of the gelato places in town, so you know I had to try them as part of my research for the blog.

BTW, I’ve included in the gallery below a couple of fun photos I took of that cafe’s giant ice cream cone sign. During the day, it’s just huge and colorful; at night, it lights up as a bright neon ice cream cone beacon. It’s unlike anything I ever saw in Italy, so perhaps this kind of sign is more German? Except it’s at a gelato place owned by Italians. Go figure.

But I digress. Anyway, it turns out the Eisbrötchen that this place has turns out to be something that sort of resembles a gelato-filled hamburger bun. You get your choice of any gelato flavor as the “filling” that goes between the halves of the bun. After you order, the gelato is placed on one half of the bun, then the other half of the bun is put on top, and then the whole thing goes into like a waffle-iron-like gadget to seal the sides together. I didn’t actually see the whole process – it happened too fast, but at the end, the whole thing was stuck together some how, with the gelato oozing out of breaks in the sides.

While it looked like a hamburger bun on the outside, and the consistency of the roll was indeed much like that of a regular hamburger bun in the U.S., the taste was surprisingly sweet. It wasn’t like gelato on a regular roll – not that I have ever actually had that, you understand, and nor do I expect that that would have been a good thing.

But then again, I’m not sure that this was a good thing, either. The combination of the gelato and sweet dough was so overpowering on the sweet scale that I could only manage a few bites. Perhaps you can control the sweetness depending on the kind of gelato you pick? Not sure. But if you want to join in the research, come on over and I’ll treat you to one.

After all, while “ice cream on a roll” does sound a bit odd, just think of it as an ice cream sandwich … by another name.