A look at the creations that take ice cream to another level
There is, of course, no single surefire guaranteed way to put somebody in a good mood. But ice cream comes close and an ice cream sundae adds even more deliciousness.
Perhaps a sundae even helps sell the idea that ice cream is a meal unto itself? Karissa Grey, a scooper at Cremeland Drive In in Manchester said that while scooped ice cream and sundaes sell about equally well, as the day gets later customers are more likely to order sundaes. “Some days it’s just scoops, other days I get a lot of orders for sundaes, but we definitely sell more sundaes in the afternoon than we do in the morning.”
How to sundae? Here are some ideas from some area sundae purveyors.
• Rhubarb Sundae
$4.35 from Richardson’s Farm (170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com)
“It’s a standard sundae,” owner Jim Richardson said, “two scoops of ice cream, whatever kind of sauce, whipped cream, nuts, and cherry. But in this case the sauce is our homemade rhubarb. Several years ago a woman came running up to the front door, pointing at our rhubarb, going, ‘Is that rhubarb?’ I wondered what was wrong with her — it’s obviously rhubarb, but she said she’d never seen it before. I asked her where the heck she came from, and she said, Maryland. I just shook my head.”
Richardson admitted that rhubarb is a bit old-fashioned.
“When I was a little kid,” he said, “my grandmother always had a rhubarb sauce on the stove in the springtime. And you had to have it to thin your blood. If you didn’t thin your blood in the springtime, you’d overheat in the summertime. So anyway, after the Maryland lady left, I thought, ‘Geez, I haven’t done that in years,’ so I made a big pot of rhubarb sauce.”
The rhubarb sauce was popular enough that Richardson added strawberry-rhubarb and blueberry-rhubarb ice creams into his rotation. “It sells better than plain strawberry does,” he said. “We have a constant demand for it.”
• Strawberry sundae
$6.75 for a small at King Kone (366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com)
Known for their massive soft-serve ice cream cone, which you can get dipped or with toppings, King Kone also offers banana splits and sundaes, which are equally generous in size. Sundae offerings include hot fudge, peanut butter, pineapple, hot butterscotch, brownie and, for your berry cravings, a Strawberry Sundae, which you can get with your choice of soft-serve. At a recent visit, options included vanilla, chocolate, peanut butter, blueberry and, for maximum flavor, strawberry. The strawberry soft-serve was topped with syrupy strawberries, whipped cream, nuts and cherry.
• The Dudley Special
$7.98 at Dudley’s Ice Cream (846 Route 106, Loudon, 783-4800, facebook.com/dudleysicecreamshop)
“It’s like a banana split, without the banana,” said scooper Damaris Gilbert. “There’s three scoops of ice cream, and three — all of the toppings match up to the flavors, so there are strawberries on the strawberry [ice cream] and hot fudge on the chocolate ice cream, but what kind of topping matches up to vanilla? Well, pineapples are kind of the same color.”
Gilbert said that in her professional opinion the Dudley’s Special should be split between two or more people. “If I was going to eat a banana split or a Dudley’s Special or either of them, I would bring a team, personally,” she said, “but loads of people eat it by themselves. The Dudley’s Special is one of those mysterious types of things with aura where you remember when someone orders one. You remember the specific person who ordered it.”
• Ice Cream Sundae (bespoke)
A small for $6.50 at Granite State Candy Shoppe (13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com)
“I wanted to make you happy today,” said scooper Tasha Ross, “so I made you a lovely small sundae which consists of two scoops. I added one scoop of fudge brownie and another scoop of our peanut butter cup ice cream. On top, I put a little bit of chocolate fudge, and peanut butter sauce. The toppings I added were mini peanut butter cups and I also added some almonds since how can you have fudge brownies without almonds? And then I finished it off with some rainbow sprinkles and topped it with whipped cream and cherries.”
Granite State Candy sells more than 25 flavors of hard ice cream at any given time, Ross said. “If you order a large [sundae], you can add an extra flavor. We have four vegan flavors that are available in kinder, small, large, pint, or quart-sized. And our sundaes come in micro, small, and large sizes.”
“Because,” she repeated, “we want you to be happy.”
• Medium Three-Topping Sundae
$9.76 at Social Club Creamery (138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com)
At the Social Club Creamery there are two ice cream menus. One menu is permanent, featuring always-there, familiar flavors, like double chocolate, maple latte, honeycomb or gooey butter cake. Additionally there is a second, smaller menu of seasonal flavors that changes each month. In July, for instance, it’s possible to order black raspberry chip, blueberry cheesecake, raspberry-brownie batter, or strawberry lemonade sorbet, which is vegan.
Asked to make a “very good sundae,” scoopers Maddie Dwyer and Chloe MacNevin consulted briefly and made a medium sundae with three toppings — a scoop each of Patty’s peppermint and double chocolate ice cream, with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles. This particular sundae has not been named yet, they said, but if it were, it would be a staff favorite.
• Happy Cake Bowl
$6.51 from Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations (608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com)
A Happy Cake Bowl is a sort of hybrid sundae, said Sweet Bel’s owner Jennifer Belmore.
“We cut cake up into cubes, and we put it in the bottom of a bowl and then you get to pick your ice cream. You get to pick your hot topping and then it’s covered in whipped cream and sprinkles and a cherry. It’s kind of like a throwback to your younger days when you had a birthday and you had your cake and ice cream. We’ve got away from that for some reason. And who doesn’t love cake and ice cream?”
• Fried Dough Sundae
$10.95 at Cremeland Drive In (250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook)
“The Fried Dough Sundae is pretty popular,” said Cremeland scooper Karissa Grey, “but not as much as the banana split, which is the favorite, especially in the afternoon. But the Fried Dough Sundae is literally just exactly what it says. It’s a piece of fried dough with ice cream, liquid topping, with cream and a cherry.”
The number of flavors of ice cream Cremeland carries depends on the time of year, Grey said. “It really depends on the time of the season, because we’re seasonal. So sometimes we have just our bare-bones flavors, like at the beginning of the season, at the end of the season. And other times, like right now, I think there’s 27 on the board.”
The secret to making a good sundae, Grey said, is attention to details.
“It’s my favorite thing to do,” she said, “making them look nice. It’s important not to rush, honestly. A lot of people, when it gets busy, will just rush to get things out. But you eat with your eyes first, not your mouth, and that plays a big part in — I feel like, that’s one of the things that make people want to come here or not.”
• Large Hot Fudge Sundae
$9.95 at The Big 1 (185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com)
Jeanne Marquis, the owner of The Big 1, said a traditional hot fudge sundae is far and away the most popular of her treats.
“The classic vanilla hard ice cream with hot fudge is the most popular,” she said. “Our parfaits run second to that. We have hot caramel and hot butterscotch sauces as well. They all sell extremely well. And they’re all kind of classics, really.”
• Brownie Sundae
$7.83 at The Inside Scoop (260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com)
According to scooper Courtney Winands, the brownie sundae is the most popular enhanced ice cream dish at the Inside Scoop.
“It’s a fudge brownie on the bottom, with ice cream and a topping,” she said. While you can get any flavor ice cream, she recommends Maine blackberry: “It’s a red raspberry base, with chocolate raspberry truffles. That goes really well with hot fudge, whipped cream and rainbow sprinkles.” She said that when ordering for themselves most customers order a single scoop of ice cream or a kid’s size ice cream. Full-sized sundaes are generally a team effort, she observed.
• Classic Banana Split
$11.94 at Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream (27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com)
Moo’s has more than 30 flavors of ice cream — not counting soft-serve, frozen yogurt, sorbets and other frozen treats — all made on the premises. One of its most popular sundaes is a classic banana split, with three scoops of ice cream, a banana, three toppings, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry, according to its website.
• Small Banana Boat
$12 at Hayward’s Ice Cream (364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway in Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com)
You are pretty much spoiled for choice with ice cream flavors at Hayward’s in Merrimack and Nashua. There are always at least 45 flavors of hard ice cream, which is made in house. A small banana boat has two scoops of ice cream, two types of sauce, a banana, whipped cream, chopped walnuts and a cherry. Like the ice cream, the sauces can be customized. The choices include strawberry, hot fudge, marshmallow and pineapple.
• Banana Float Sundae
$10 at Trombly Gardens (150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net)
Trombly Gardens is better known as a farm stand and garden nursery but has a steady stream of ice cream customers, said scooper Mackenzie Burke. One of the most popular sundaes is Trobley’s Banana Float Sundae.
“It has three scoops of strawberry ice cream,” she said, “hot fudge, caramel, and butterscotch toppings, with walnuts on it, whipped cream and cherries. Strawberry is our most popular flavor for our banana float sundaes, especially now, during strawberry season.”
Burke said her personal favorite is “chocolate with chocolate on chocolate.”
• Cookie Monster Sundae
$9.75 at Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford (383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com)
A Cookie Monster Sundae is made with bright blue Cookie Monster ice cream, marshmallow sauce, and frozen nuggets of cookie dough, topped with more Cookie Monster ice cream, more marshmallow, and even more frozen cookie dough.
• King Shake
$12.95 at Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery (53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com)
Meaka Cruz is one of the managers at Lickee’s & Chewy’s. She said the store focuses on King Shakes, though the two are very similar.
“We offer a lot of creative sundaes, I suppose,” she said, “but we’re probably more about the King Shakes, which can be made as sundaes. They have chocolate rims on the side and fun toppings to mix with the ice cream, like Nutella, hot fudge, and then nuts and sprinkles. They all have kind of intricate toppings and themes that we typically strive for. A new one that we have right now … [has] Nutella and strawberries. Our chocolatiers decorate the cups with hard chocolate syrup on the side [and] top it with frozen strawberries and a Kinder Bueno bar.”
Cruz has a theory about why ice cream places develop such elaborate desserts with their ice creams.
“I think it’s to be creative and draw people in,” she said. “Everywhere else does something cool and unique, so I feel like each store wants to express themselves and tries to put something great out.”
SUNDAE PANEL
The Big 1 185 Concord St., Nashua, thebig1icecream.com
Cremeland Drive In 250 Valley St., Manchester, 669-4430, see page on Facebook
Dudley’s Ice Cream 846 Route 106, Loudon, 783-4800, facebook.com/dudleysicecreamshop
Granite State Candy Shoppe 13 Warren St., Concord, 225-2591; 832 Elm St., Manchester, 218-3885, granitestatecandyshoppe.com
Hayward’s Ice Cream 364 DW Highway, Merrimack, 424-5915; 7 DW Highway, Nashua, 888-4663; haywardsicecream.com
Hayward’s Family Ice Cream of Milford 383 Elm St., Milford, 672-8383, haywardsfamilyicecream.com
The Inside Scoop 260 Wallace Road, Bedford, 471-7009, theinsidescoopnh.com
King Kone 366 DW Highway in Merrimack, kingkonenh.com
Lickee’s & Chewy’s Candy and Creamery 53 Washington St., Dover, 343-1799, lickeesnchewys.com
Moo’s Place Homemade Ice Cream 27 Crystal Ave., Derry, 425-0100, moosplace.com
Richardson’s Farm 170 Water St., Boscawen, 796-2788, richardsonsfarmnh.com
Social Club Creamery 138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com
Sweet Bel’s Ice Cream & Dessert Creations 608 DW Highway, Merrimack, 670-2161, sweetbels.com
Trombly Gardens 150 N. River Road, Milford, 673-0647, tromblygardens.net