Irresistible Ice Cream Sundae Toppings

Estimated read time 5 min read



Serving homemade or store-bought ice cream with a topping bar for guests to customize their dessert is a sweet hosting hack. Surprise and delight at any party or gathering with homemade ice cream sundae toppings, from candied nuts to fruit-infused syrups, and crumbles or shavings of cookies. Upgrade your add-ons for the ultimate dessert station with these recipes.

Coconut-Candied Cashews

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


A double dose of coconut, in the form of fine, dried shreds and coconut sugar, gives the candied nuts a toasty warmth and earthy, molasses-like flavor. Be sure to bake the cashews on a greased unlined baking sheet; aluminum foil or parchment paper will cling to the sticky mixture and make stirring difficult. 

Nutty Citrus Dukka

Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Torie Cox / Prop Styling by Thom Driver


We’ve tailored this dukka — an Egyptian blend of nuts, seeds, and spices — to complement ice cream and other sweet dishes. We love how the bright floral orange zest tastes against the bitter cocoa nibs, crunchy peanuts, and aromatic coriander.

Homemade Caramel Sauce

Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Lydia Pursell

Homemade caramel sauce can take nearly any dessert to the next level, but it’s a quintessential topper for the ice cream sundae of your dreams. This one uses both butter and cream — and the perfect amount of salt to balance out the sweetness.

Italian Rainbow Cookies

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Shell Royster


Our Neapolitan Sundae calls for wafer-thin slices of Italian rainbow cookie, which can be made ahead and will be a hit at the topping table.

Banana-Caramel Sauce

Photo by Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Prissy Lee

This super-fast sauce comes together in just minutes and makes a next-level topping. Chunks of sweet, ripe banana get pureed into the cooked caramel, yielding a thick, rich sauce.

Ladyfingers

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Shell Royster


The light, airy cookies best known for their role in tiramisu bring their sugary exterior and vanilla scent to our Tiramisu Sundae, where they’re coarsely crumbled.

Balsamic-Port Hot Fudge

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


Balsamic-port hot fudge is intensely rich and is for kids and adults alike. Ruby port, with notes of ripe red berries, simmers with tart balsamic vinegar to become a tangy reduction that amps up cocoa’s earthy and fruity notes. Unlike store-bought fudge topping, this sauce has no stabilizing additives to prevent it from separating as it cools on ice cream, but the clean, unique taste is well worth the aesthetic difference.

Peanut Butter Stracciatella Whipped Cream

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


Peanut butter stracciatella whipped cream, streaked with shards of rich dark chocolate, is a fluffy, cloud-like riff on the popular chocolate-flecked gelato. A cold chocolate bar will be too brittle to shave the large, slightly thick shards that are stirred into the whip, so warm it slightly in the microwave before using a Y-shaped peeler to create large, dramatic pieces.

Brûléed Banana

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


F&W’s Paige Grandjean mixes sugar with the oil from orange peels then caramelizes the sugar mixture over bananas until melted and golden brown using a kitchen torch. The technique can be used to give any ice cream sundae the banana split treatment.

Salted Honey-Scotch Sauce

Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Christina Daley


For this boozy riff on butterscotch sauce, Scotch whiskey is added during the last few seconds of simmering so the sharpness of the alcohol cooks off, leaving behind a subtle, malty flavor.

Brown Butter Crumble

© Christina Holmes

Sprinkle this rich, buttery crumble on any frozen dessert. We love it on vanilla ice cream with chocolate and caramel sauces for an outrageously good sundae.

Ruby-Red Cranberry Syrup

© John Kernick

Make this pretty, sweet-tart syrup with fresh or frozen cranberries to pour over any dessert in 30 minutes.

Chocolate Shell

© Nicole Franzen

Former F&W culinary director at large Justin Chapple makes his version of Magic Shell (a sauce that quickly hardens when poured over cold things) with coconut oil to give it additional flavor.

Peanut Brittle

© Kana Okada

Joanne Chang makes shards of peanut brittle with a generous pinch of cinnamon for great flavor and crunch.

Belgian Chocolate Fudge Sauce

© Tina Rupp

This ganache sauce is rich and not overly sweet. It’s a supremely versatile recipe that’s suited for all sorts of dessert applications; over ice cream or other chilled sweets, it’ll firm up to form a truffle-like topping.

Strawberry Sauce

© Tara Fisher

The berries in this ultra-fresh ice cream topping are cooked briefly with vanilla bean to enhance their sweetness.

Crispy Rice Topping

© Frances Janisch

Add a sweet little snap-crackle-pop to your sundae with this simple recipe for caramelized Rice Krispies.



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