Banana split and chimney sweep’s gelato. (Nancy Lindahl/Contributed)
No one describes August better than Natalie Babbitt in the prologue of “Tuck Everlasting”:
“The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot.
“It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after.”
Like banana splits, ice cream sundaes, hot fudge, and all other cold, creamy luscious ways to treat yourself in the dog days of summer combined with a little boozy element and a little caffeine because, you know, August. A new spin on an ice cream social to meet the back-to-school parents?
You can make your own ice cream but there are so many genuinely great ice creams out there, both in the freezer aisle of the grocery store and in artisanal shops like Shubert’s, Savor and La Flor de Michoancan that it’s more fun to buy your ice cream and focus on interesting toppings.
First among toppings would have to be chocolate syrup or hot fudge. My favorites for hot fudge are from Stonewall Kitchen — Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel Sauce and Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce. Or you can make your own hot fudge sauce in under 10 minutes
Quick-and-easy hot fudge sauce
Recipe by Jessee Szewczyk makes about 2 1/2 cups.
Some hot fudge sauce recipes require a number of time-consuming steps but this recipe streamlines the process to create a quick-and-easy hot fudge. In this version corn syrup, milk, vanilla extract and salt are heated on the stovetop until simmering, then poured over semisweet chocolate chips — no candy thermometer needed. Once the chips are melted, the mixture is whisked together to create a smooth and glossy hot fudge sauce. While warm, the sauce has a perfectly pourable texture, but even when it hits cold ice cream it remains soft and spoonable. It can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container and quickly heated in the microwave for 10–15 seconds for an impromptu sundae. While serving it spooned over ice cream or a banana split is a guaranteed win, it’s just as delicious stirred into milk to create a quick chocolaty beverage.
Ingredients:
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (about 12 ounces)
• ¾ cup light corn syrup
• ½ cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal or ½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt
Directions: Place 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips in a medium heatproof bowl. Combine ¾ cup light corn syrup, ½ cup whole milk, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal or ½ teaspoon Morton kosher salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, whisking often to dissolve corn syrup, about 5 minutes. Immediately pour over chocolate chips and let sit uncovered 2 minutes, then whisk until smooth.
Do ahead: Hot fudge sauce can be made 1 week ahead. Cover and chill.
Banana Foster
Remember banana splits? A scoop of vanilla a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of strawberry ice cream, two long slices of banana along the sides, a drizzle of chocolate syrup and butterscotch, a dollop of whipped cream, a sprinkle of chopped peanuts and a maraschino cherry on each scoop? Now imagine it with a scoop of coffee ice cream, a scoop of Sicilian pistachio, a scoop of vanilla bean and a banana sauteed in butter, brown sugar and rum.
Bananas Foster
Ingredients:
• 4 servings
• 2-3 bananas, peeled
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ¼ cup dark brown sugar
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ cup rum
Directions: Slice the bananas in half lengthwise and brush with the lemon juice. Melt the butter with the sugar in a 10-inch skillet. Add the bananas and sauté until just tender. Sprinkle with the cinnamon. Remove from the heat and add rum. Carefully ignite the fumes with a long match. Use a long-handled spoon to baste the bananas with the warm liquid until the flame burns out.
Line an oval serving dish with a couple of slices of warm banana and top with ice creams, a drizzle of salted hot fudge sauce, whipped cream, a sprinkle of chopped pistachios and maraschino cherries.
Salted chocolate sundae
A chocolate lover’s sundae, this Salted Caramel Sundae recipe by Paige Grandjean has a slightly savory edge and serves two people.
Ingredients:
• 1 cup cubed store-bought brownie
• 2 scoops dark chocolate ice cream, divided
• 3 tablespoons salted honey Scotch sauce, warmed, divided
• ¼ cup chocolate covered pretzels, roughly crumbled
• 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch flaky sea salt
Directions: Place ½ brownie cubes in a tall glass, top with 1 scoop ice cream and drizzle with 1 tablespoon honey scotch sauce. Add remaining brownie cubes, and top with remaining scoop of ice cream. Arrange pretzel pieces around ice cream, garnish with a piece of brownie and drizzle with olive oil and remaining 2 tablespoons of honey sauce. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Salted honey-Scotch sauce
A boozy riff on butterscotch sauce, add the Scotch whiskey during the last few seconds of simmering so the sharpness of the alcohol cooks off leaving a subtle malty flavor.
Ingredients:
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons Scotch whiskey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
Directions: Stir together brown sugar, honey, butter and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium, stirring often, until mixture is smooth and melted, 2-3 minutes. Stir in heavy cream. Cook, stirring often, until mixture is thickened and foamy, 3-4 minutes. Sir in whiskey and vanilla. Sauce will bubble vigorously. Simmer, stirring constantly 30 seconds. Remove from heat, serve warm. Sauce can be stored in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
Tiramisu sundae
For Hallie Meyer, the owner of Manhattan’s Caffé Panna, which specializes in affogatos, the combination of ice cream and coffee is a no-brainer. “It’s just the best combination on the planet because the ice cream has all the qualities that the coffee doesn’t and vice versa. Fat, cold, sugar, and cream is the opposite of acid, roasted, water, sharp,” she tells me. “So they kind of complement each other the way that red wine and steak do.”
Tangy mascarpone whipped cream layered with coffee ice cream, ladyfingers and a dusting of cocoa powder — ciao bella!
Ingredients:
• 1 tablespoons mascarpone,
• ¼ cup heavy cream
• 2 scoops coffee ice cream, divided
• 3 tablespoons cooled espresso or coffee liqueur, divided
• 3/4 teaspoon Dutch process cocoa, divided
• 2 crunchy ladyfingers or similar cookie coarsely crumbled, divided
• 1 Pirouline rolled cookie
Directions: Stir mascarpone in a medium bowl until smooth, about 30 seconds. Gradually add heavy cream, whisking constantly until soft peaks form, 2-3 minutes. Place 1 scoop ice cream in a pint glass. Pour 1 tablespoon cooled espresso over ice cream, and top with about 2 heaping tablespoons mascarpone cream. Dust with ¼ teaspoon cocoa. Sprinkle with half the crumbled ladyfingers. Repeat process twice ending with mascarpone cream and cocoa. Garnish with Pirouline cookie.
In Marcella Hazan’s classic Italian cookbook, “The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, Hazan was artfully bringing together booze, coffee and ice cream as a gently caffeinated endcap to a good meal. If you’re the person who always has a bottle of scotch in the cabinet, try Hazan’s “Chimney Sweep’s Gelato.” The dish is a three-ingredient balancing act of smoky, toasty, cooling flavors — a wildly chic dessert to pull off at the end of a big lasagna party or Feast of the Seven Fishes. It starts with a scoop of vanilla gelato or a good vanilla ice cream from the grocery store, which is topped simply with a teaspoon of finely ground espresso and boosted with a tablespoon of scotch, poured into the bowl to pool around the ice cream.
For Hallie Meyer, the combination of scotch and coffee also makes perfect sense. “When you pair espresso — good espresso — with alcohol, what ends up happening is that you kind of dull the bitterness of both,” she says. By using dry, ground espresso, instead of brewed coffee, she explains, you get more of the coffee’s nutty, roasty scent, rather than the bitter, acidic notes. And take some advice from Hazan and use a high-speed blender to blitz it into a fine powder that will cover the scoop of ice cream like soot on a chimney.
It’s August, it’s bananas out there with heat and school and traffic — you deserve a treat. Break out the ice cream and Scotch.
Thanks to Joni German for splendid ice cream dishes, and I apologize for the meltiness of the photos — hard to keep that stuff cold!
