You’ll need silverware to get a grip on the sandwich from Guastavino. ICE cream may be a year- round treat, but the ice-cream sandwich is summer’s domain – and local chefs are seizing the day, dream ing up sophisticated cre ations for their dessert menus.
Cherry gelato, lavender ice cream, puff pastry and even real bread are starring in the latest take-offs on the Good Humor classic.
The gooey rendition at Isabella’s on the Upper West Side – homemade vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl between three layers of fresh-baked bitter chocolate cookies – is “nice and crunchy,” promises chef Lincoln Carson, from the big grains of sugar-in-the-raw rolled into the cookie dough.
Carson says his new rendition of the American classic is “still pretty true to what it was originally,” but while you could pick it up and eat it, he warns that “might be a little bit messy, so I think a spoon is the way to go to get everything off the plate.”
That would mean caramel sauce, too.
Chef Daniel Orr of Guastavino admits his creation is actually a “knife and fork” ice cream sandwich – but that doesn’t stop diners from using their fingers to break off pieces of the sweet-spiced puff pastry palmieres stuffed with chocolate and vanilla ice creams and whipped cream, and dipping them into the strawberry marmalade, warm chocolate sauce and pistachio butter cream.
At Larry Forgione’s Signature Café at Lord & Taylor, the American-focused chef is using real bread for his creations – butter toasted brioche filled with strawberry and vanilla, and chocolate nut bread with peanut butter ice cream.
Elizabeth Katz puts an Italian spin on her version at Spring Street’s Fiamma, sandwiching amaretti cookies with cherry and chocolate gelatos.
And on the Upper West Side, Aix’s Jehangir Mehta joins in with cold comfort of coriander cake, lavender ice cream and cherry compote.
At Times Square’s Blue Fin, chef Jim DeStefano is alternating two kinds of cold, sweet sandwiches. One is a dense, toasted almond cake filled with vanilla ice cream with toasted almond brittle and red peach sorbet on the side and thinly sliced roasted peaches on top. The other is lemon genoise with apricot sorbet and raspberry compote inside.
“I think it’s just a fun dessert,” says Christopher Siversen, executive chef for event planners Bridgewaters at the South Street Seaport, explaining why the childhood favorite has been such a hit this summer.
“I did a special request that was like a fudge brownie outside and the inside was mint ice cream with pieces of marshmallow and toasted hazelnuts,” he says.
“It was an unusual combination but it actually came out pretty good – the mint was so refreshing and then the soft chewiness of the marshmallow inside the ice cream and the crunch of the hazelnut was sort of Italianesque.”
Less unusual – though anything but common – are the fudgey bricks layered with chocolate ice cream scored at the ice cream cart stationed on Pier 40 run by Lunchbox Food Co. across the highway.
And anyone who’s fallen for ‘wichcraft’s creamwiches will surely love the upscale Flatiron sandwich-maker’s cold new addition – sugar cookies filled with strawberry ice cream.
They’re sure to put you in good humor.