Long lines and jostling with each other as necks are stretched to read the current flavors are so last year.

By Nancy K. Crevier

How lucky are we to have two premium ice cream shops anchoring ends of our town? Holy Cow Ice Cream on Church Hill Road has been a Newtown institution for generations (though not always under the same owners and previously known simply as The Ice Cream Shop) and Ferris Acres Creamery on Sugar Street has offered delightful desserts for over a decade.

Long lines and jostling with each other as necks are stretched to read the current flavors are so last year, though. Now, we place orders online, arrive at an assigned time, or line up at a distance from each other to tell a masked and gloved employee (Hello? Is that someone I know in there?) what frosty delight will satisfy us.

And it is, in its own coronavirus-demanded way, truly satisfying to have a confection in hand, delicious, even as we miss the camaraderie of long lines and spur-of-the-moment decisions to get a scoop or two of this week’s special flavor.

Where and when I grew up, ice cream flavors were pretty basic: vanilla, chocolate, strawberry … and if we were really going wild, French vanilla or — the requisite birthday party flavor — Neapolitan, a block of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate that when peeled from its rectangular container could be neatly sliced to satisfy everyone around the table with all three flavors.

Jars of chocolate fudge, caramel, butterscotch, and strawberry were lined up in our cupboard, the embellishments that made our plain flavors quite exotic. Summertime meant fresh berries stirred in. But who would have dreamt of the flavors that would one day tickle our palates?

Quarantine has given us time to experiment with making our own ice cream, just as the disappearance of yeast and flour from the store shelves indicates to me that there is a whole lot of baking going on.

It is a lot harder than it seems to make a quality dessert from cream, sugar, eggs, and imagination. Making a custard that is not too “eggy” and, believe it or not, one that is not too creamy, takes experimenting. Fortunately, nearly all failures are still pretty edible.

Finding the perfect home ice cream maker, getting the temperature of everything just right, is challenging. There is a temptation to rush, and that is the devil in the process.

We have not found the perfect recipe yet, but we are willing to keep trying.

In the meantime, we are happy to plan ahead, put on our masks, and make the most of our good fortune to live in a town blessed with some of the best ice cream in the tri-state area.

And what is better beneath any ice cream than a brownie? This recipe, based on one from the King Arthur flour bag, is quite the suitable base to start off a sundae. Top it with seasonal berries, banana slices, nuts, and homemade fudge sauce, and you are on your way to dessert nirvana. Enjoy!

Brownies, Thanks To King Arthur

This recipe, based on one from King Arthur Flour, makes an awesome brownie, perfect with any ice cream. It has been altered ever so slightly and uses whole wheat flour, as opposed to white flour … it just makes me feel like it’s a healthy treat, what can I say?

1 cup unsalted butter

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

1¼ cups Dutch process cocoa

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon espresso coffee

powder

1 tablespoon vanilla

1½ cups whole wheat flour

1½ cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Stir in the sugar, cook until it is hot and just bubbling.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs, cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder, and vanilla. Slowly add the hot butter/sugar mix and stir until smooth.

Stir in the flour. Wait 15 to 20 minutes, then stir in the chocolate chips and spread batter in the pan.

Bake for around 30 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. (I like to undercook them ever so slightly.)

Remove from oven and cool on rack. Cut into delicious pieces … a little bit of warm brownie under ice cream is not a bad thing!