Proper Pie Co. in Richmond, VA

Buttermilk raspberry.

New Zealand-style hand pies are a thing. I had no idea that they were until my brother introduced me to Proper Pie Co. several years ago. As a lover of pie both savory and sweet, of course this was a slam dunk for me. Now every time I visit Richmond we make a stop at Proper Pie, grabbing some hand pies for lunch and choosing from an even wider selection of dessert pie slices for dessert. You can't lose at Proper Pie, but here are my favorites: 

Buttermilk Raspberry - The buttermilk doesn't need anything added to it, but I love raspberry, so no harm done. For the uninitiated, a buttermilk pie is texturally somewhere between a chess pie and a custard pie: solid, but soft. It's super rich, so something tart cutting through works the magic.

Chocolate Raspberry Cream - Chocolate and raspberry are typically two separate, complementary flavors, but in this pie it is a single flavor. The union is, in a word, sublime. The cream pie is topped with a white whipped cream with sifted cocoa powder and a few raspberries giving it a straight-out-of-Great-British-Bake-Off look to it. It goes without saying that this pie would earn a handshake from me. 

Honorable mentions: Peaches & Cream and Sweet Potato Pecan...but let's be honest and say it's all good.

Furniture City Creamery in Grand Rapids, MI

Since the pandemic, I have thrice made the journey from Chicago to Grand Rapids for ArtPrize. An annual autumnal visual arts competition featuring entries from around the world, ArtPrize is an impressive spectacle to behold. It takes over central Grand Rapids with competing art displayed in galleries, hotel lobbies, restaurants, bars, vintage stores, knick-knack shops, museums, parks, and more. They print maps of all of the participating venues so people can choose which part of town to stroll around hunting for art.

ArtPrize is one of my favorite things.

Happily, these trips also allow my wife and I to visit with our friend Annelise who lives close to downtown Grand Rapids in the East Hills neighborhood. As luck would have it, this is the same neighborhood as Furniture City Creamery. (To an outsider, it may seem like an odd name for a scoop shop, but pre-Depression-era Grand Rapids was the center of the furniture industry.)

Furniture City Creamery has a solid mix of classic flavors and inventive flavors. Here are three of the most memorable ice creams I've had there:

• Treasure Bar - Sweet cream base with toasted coconut, chocolate, butterscotch, and graham cracker. Pure bliss.
• D'ough - In their take on cookie dough ice cream, the ice cream doesn't merely contain cookie dough...it tastes like cookie dough! The flavor is a collaboration with a local bakery.
• Hot Honey Cornbread - A spicy after burn accompanies this ice cream rippled with corn bread. It is good, I'm glad I tried it, and it is also not my thing. The spicy desserts I gravitate toward are usual Mexican chocolate.

At this creamery, one is bound to find something to tantalize the tastebuds. Grab a scoop while roaming East Hills during ArtPrize!

Here are some of my favorite ArtPrize entries over the years.

2021. Ted Lott, Nomadic Domiciles

2022. Deanna Taylor, Nature's Beauty

2021. Artist and title unknown. My apologies.

2024. Edgar Hernandez, Neon Oasis

Chill in Akron, OH

It is pretty rare to order five flavors of genuinely unique ice cream concoctions. My dad and I did just that at Chill in Akron, Ohio. Located right across the street from Lock 3 ("Akron's Central Park"), Chill is a no-frills spot with at least one option of where to walk and enjoy your scoop. Or grab a cone before an Akron RubberDucks game at nearby Canal Park. Really, if you DEVOte any time to Akron, be sure to hit Chill. Who knows? Maybe you'll run into the Black Keys!

Onto the ice cream...

My dad got Grandma J's Peanut Butter Rice Krispies and Lavender Queen Bee. I got Buttered Popcorn, Dr. Pepper Float (Dr. Pepper sorbet swirled with vanilla ice cream), and Call Me Any Lime (Honey and lime ice cream with a red raspberry swirl), a somewhat sickly colored flavor that was sublime. I wish Chill were closer because all five flavors we tried were delicious. In fact, each of the flavors would be worth getting again were there not so many tempting options to choose from. There were 30+ flavors, including:

• Peach, Please! (peach cheesecake)
• Hazelnut Latte
• Blackberry Crisp
• Sweet and Salty (dark chocolate with pretzels)
• The 9AM French Toast and Bacon (french toast ice cream with maple and bacon)
• Tiger Tail (orange ice cream and black licorice ice cream)
• El Nino Jalapeno (jalapeno corn bread)
• Extra Spicy Mango (mango ice cream steeped with habanero)

Chill also has two locations in nearby Medina. Check 'em out!

Parlor Doughnuts (located in multiple states)

Pictured: Cookies N' Cream, Cherry Cheesecake,
Coconut Cream, and Hibiscus Glazed

I have seen the future and it is Parlor Doughnuts. Just as Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has grown from a humble Columbus, Ohio operation into a nationwide phenomenon, so will Parlor Doughnuts take over the USA. They are already off to a good start with locations in 13 states. Happily, I have eaten at them thrice: twice in Indiana (including their headquarters in Evansville) and once in Kentucky on my recent tour de south.

So what makes Parlor Doughnuts so special? Creative flavors, new spins on classics, and a donut design that is guaranteed to please.

What is this doughnut design, you ask? Beyond being gigantic, these doughnuts solve the cronut problem. Parlor Doughnuts makes layered doughnuts, fried to perfection with a crisp exterior and a flaky, doughy middle. Whatever they have done to seal the exterior successfully keeps the oil from seeping into the center--my biggest complaint with cronuts. They are neither a yeast doughnut nor a cake doughnut. Appearance-wise, Parlor's doughnuts are like croissants baked into a circle, whereas cronuts looked like doughnuts, only taller. And best of all: ALL of their doughnuts are made in this style, unlike cronuts which were always a specialty doughnut in short supply.

In my three visits to Parlor Doughnuts, I have tried a bunch of flavors: Strawberry Shortcake, Cookies N' Cream, Turtle, Coconut Cream Filled, Raspberry Pistachio, Hibiscus Glazed, Cherry Cheesecake, and their best seller, French Toast. Some of their doughnuts have filling, while others offer creative toppings. My favorites have been Hibiscus Glazed, which is their classic doughnut with no filling, and French Toast, which has cinnamon on top and layers of maple within. A lot of their flavors skew in the dessert column vs. the breakfast column, but for an occasional treat I will make an exception and eat dessert for breakfast.

Another cool thing is that each Parlor Doughnuts location has a unique logo. My only complaint is that the headquarters in Evansville, IN was out of their location-specific XL shirts.

Louie & Honey's Kitchen in Winston-Salem, NC

Photo from Louie & Honey's Facebook page.
Ours didn't last long enough to take a photo.

I went to a wedding in Winston-Salem. It was the centerpiece of a grand tour de south my sweetie and I went on. Friday night included a welcoming reception for the wedding guests and I was lucky enough to get the bride's ear for a short conversation. (She had, like, a hundred people to talk to over the course of the evening.) Naturally, that conversation had me asking for her tips for sweets in Winston-Salem. Without hesitation, she directed me to Louie & Honey's Kitchen for their cinnamon rolls. The one catch: I needed to get there early because they sell out.

I couldn't tell you if it was the excitement of all of my family being together for the wedding or the prospect of life-changing cinnamon rolls--it was the former--but I didn't sleep very well that night. But you know what they say: The sleep-deprived bird gets the cinnamon rolls! I was able to be at Louie & Honey's shortly after 8am, squeezing in just before the line stretched out the door.

Growing up, we had a saying in the south when you feel a food so deeply that you know it is the best version of itself. That food is "the truth." And, let me tell you, these cinnamon rolls were the truth. The dough was perfectly chewy, enough that it made you savor each bite. The seasoning complemented everything else, rather than overpowering. Best of all, the frosting tasted like it had caramel in it, but not cloyingly so. (Before you ask, it was not a cream cheese frosting...and all the better for it.) And, let me tell you, these cinnamon rolls were huge.

Let me put it another way: I purchased four cinnamon rolls from Louie & Honey's Kitchen as well as a dozen doughnuts from a different local spot since my family would all be eating breakfast together. Everyone at the table, and I mean everyone, kept coming back to the cinnamon rolls, unanimously agreeing it was the best of the bunch. So, if you find yourself in Winston-Salem, wake up early, skip the doughnuts, and buy enough cinnamon rolls that you get a whole one for yourself. You may not be able to eat the whole thing in one sitting, but it is a feat worth trying.

Butter & Cream in Decatur and Atlanta, GA

Years ago, I was in Decatur with some friends for a wedding and the bride and groom declared I "had to try" some ice cream place they liked. Now, as a loyal patron of Morelli's, I had my doubts. What could possibly be worth foregoing a trip into the city to eat ice cream there? The answer: Butter & Cream. And after trying it for myself I too was a believer.

On my recent tour de south with my sweetie, we spent a couple days in Atlanta. We went to museums, ate soul food, shopped, checked out parks, and, of course, made detours related to my sweet tooth. (Emily has a sweet tooth, too, but typing "sweet teeth" felt awkward.) When I discovered that Butter & Cream had expanded into Atlanta proper it felt worth a second visit. This time, I was doubting myself. Was it really as good as I remembered? After all, what are the odds one city has two standout ice cream purveyors?

We decided to test our luck and drive to the Atlanta scoop shop. As GPS struggled to get us there, we figured out that this location of Butter & Cream is on Atlanta's BeltLine, a former rail line converted into a public park. (Unlike Chicago's 606/Bloomingdale Trail or Manhattan's High Line, Atlanta's BeltLine is an incredible 22 MILES LONG!) So we parked and took a little stroll amongst the locals walking, jogging, and biking along the BeltLine.

Butter & Cream was easy to find. On a warm summer day, just look for where the trail of happy ice cream consumers are coming from. And happy they were. While I don't remember the specific flavors I had back in 2016, the standouts of this trip were my Brown Butter & Toasted Milk and Emily's Chocolate Sorbet. And with that, Butter & Cream proved once again that two outstanding ice cream purveyors can co-exist in the same city.

Jeni's - Three Winners and a Dud

The aforementioned "three winners."

When I first blogged about Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in 2012, they were only in area of Columbus, Ohio (AKA the perfect halfway point when driving from Chicago to Virginia). Based on those visits, they made my list of Top 25 to Visit. Since then, they have slowly started taking over the country with pint in many grocery stores plus locations in eleven states, including several locations in Chicago. Jeni's is always innovating, so occasionally I find myself placing orders online to get the latest flavor since they don't always last long in scoop shops. Here is my review of four recent flavors:

Strawberry Pretzel Pie - From first bite I started asking myself, "Is this the best ice cream I have ever had?" While I think Toscanini's probably has an edge over Jeni's, this is undoubtedly the best I've ever gotten from a mass produced facility and the best to have ever graced the inside of my freezer. Sure the strawberry and pretzels are nice, but there is something magical in the base that made my tastebuds pause to savor. Made in collaboration with Dolly Parton to benefit her non-profit, you can feel good eating it as well. Get on Jeni's email list for the next time they manufacture this flavor because it sells out FAST.

Maple Soaked Pancakes - They could have just lazily made a maple ice cream with pancakes thrown in, but, no, they incorporated the buttery flavor necessary to make this a genuine breakfast experience. Promoted for National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, I only consumed the flavor at more conventional times because some slopes are too slippery to risk taking.

Sunshine - A flavor designed to raise awareness (and funds) towards children's mental health, I knew I wanted to support...and not just because it sounded delicious. A grey ice cream boasting of tasting "like sunshine on a cloudy day," it is a fruit ice cream with mouth-puckering punches of lemon, tangerine, and passion fruit. While not as over-the-top incredible as Jeni's buttermilk frozen yogurts--perhaps their best creations overall--this is still a must-try flavor.

Everything Bagel - Cream cheese ice cream is an excellent base for cheesecake ice cream. So imagine that. Now subtract enough sugar from the cream cheese base to make it more savory than sweet. Not add onion and garlic. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Thankfully, I only sampled the flavor, which was enough to send me running away at full speed. But some people must love it because this is not the first time they've had the flavor. So don't take my word for it; try it for yourself!

Ample Hills Creamery from Brooklyn, NY

Astoria location.

My last pre-pandemic trip was to New York City. Having been numerous other times, I decided to give that trip a focus: pizza (R.I.P. Domenico DeMarco, founder of Di Fara), bagels, and Ample Hills Creamery ice cream. From the factory in Red Hook to the shop at the south end of the High Line in Chelsea to a few blocks from Madison Square Garden before a Rangers game, Ample Hills had the flavors that kept me coming back. This past January when I was flying back to Chicago after the holidays with family, I used my four hour layover to take a quick bus trip from LaGuardia to the Astoria location.

Here are my favorite flavors I have tried so far:

Salted Crack'd Caramel: burnt caramel ice cream with chocolate covered buttery crackers

Every so often I have a flavor that awakens my tastebuds in a way that makes them seem somehow more alive than they have ever been. This is one of those flavors. Burnt caramel 4eva.

Egg-carton flight.

Snap, Mallow, Pop!: marshmallow ice cream with baked rice crispy clusters

When I think of marshmallows in ice cream I usually think of that cloyingly sweet fluff. Or I think of toasted marshmallows blended into the base. This flavor is neither, embracing the subtlety of the marshmallow found in Rice Krispies Treats. That, plus the puffed rice? Yum.

The Munchies: pretzel-infused ice cream with Ritz crackers, potato chips, pretzels and crushed M&M's

Crush the pretzels to dust and blend them into the base. Why, oh why, haven't I thought of this? Too often pretzels in ice cream soften into disappointment. Here you get the flavor and the texture of the mix-ins. Personally, I wanted more chocolate but still a must try flavor.

To make matters even more exciting, every location of Ample Hills Creamery features an original flavor specific to that particular location. I can't say I've tried them all (yet)--especially the Jersey City location or the one in Long Beach, CA--but trying their different flavors is definitely ice cream crawl material.

Cook-Out Milkshakes

For what seems like ages, a subsection of Earth's population has been clamoring for the fast-food chain Cook Out to branch out beyond its native North Carolina. And in the past few years, it finally has! There's a Cook Out in my hometown of Hampton, VA and multiple locations in my second home, Richmond. Where else can you get a combo meal that lets you choose your two side items from a list that includes a bacon wrap, a corn dog, a quesadilla and more? Not only that but you can get a good barbecue sandwich there--that's minced pork barbecue for you non-Southerners--and Cheerwine for your beverage...

...or, for a small fee, you can upgrade your drink to one of Cook Out's forty milkshake options! Barbecue, a corn dog, a quesadilla AND a milkshake all in one inexpensive combo meal? Yes, it's true!


Here's the rundown on my favorite have-to-use-a-spoon milkshakes at Cook Out, having tried more varieties than I care to admit:

1.) Cherry Cobbler / Peach Cobbler (tie) - Don't make me choose between these two; they are equally tasty. Real fruit + Nilla Wafers for cobbler bits = a textured flavor sensation.

2.)Chocolate Chip Cheesecake / Strawberry Cheesecake (tie) - Again, it really is a matter of mood. Following a similar formula to the cobbler milkshakes, this flavor swaps the Nilla wafers for bits of cheesecake, which changes the overall flavor of the ice cream base for the better. The chocolate chips are actually flakes that add some bite to every spoonful.

3.)Blueberry - Again, real fruit is the star of the show here, blended with perfection into the ice cream base. I have memories of getting this flavor driving north on 95 back when Cook Out was only in North Carolina.

4.) Peanut Butter Fudge - This one folds bits of chocolate fudge topping into a peanut butter base creating an ooey-gooey flavor that is sure to please.

The Dairy Godmother in Alexandria, VA

Oyster ice cream? Don't worry, you won't find that at the Dairy Godmother. But at nearby Mount Vernon, one learns that oyster ice cream was a popular savory flavor during George Washington's time, ice cream having been introduced to the U.S. by Thomas Jefferson. But suppose you're in northern Virginia and have a sweet--not savory--cold treat in mind?

The Dairy Godmother is a frozen custard spot in Alexandria that makes custard in the classic Wisconsin style. (They even sell Sprecher's Root Beer, a Milwaukee classic.) Chocolate and vanilla are always available, along with a specialty flavor that changes every two days. When I went, the third option was the even-better-than-I-ever-hoped Sopapilla. Honey cinnamon meets Mexican vanilla in this flavor, which is topped with crunchy-yet-chewy bits of fried dough. In short, this silky smooth spoonful of sweetness had my tastebuds doing the happy dance more than any frozen custard has outside of Wisconsin. And, believe me, I've tasted tons of the stuff over the years. I even went back for seconds.

Filling out the menu are frozen custard sandwiches (featuring a wide variety of custard flavors, including chocolate-hazelnut), inventive sorbets (pineapple cilantro), creative popsicles (mango lime), daily treats (peach cobbler), and shockingly inexpensive baked goods. My family agreed that everything available sounded and looked worth trying...and everything we had was wonderful.

So, if you find yourself near Alexandria, make the effort--take a lengthy detour if you have to--and visit the Dairy Godmother. As a bonus, you can even sit in the chair Obama sat in when he visited in 2009.

Taza Chocolate Factory Tour in Somerville, MA

Taza's two best: Chocolate Mexicano 70% Dark Chipotle Chili and Coco Besos

You may be familiar with Taza Chocolate. It comes in two round discs, has a course texture and boasts itself as being "Mexican Stone Ground Chocolate." But that isn't all there is to know about their product. Here are some things I learned when I went on the Taza Chocolate Factory Tour:

Molino.

What are the origins of Taza Chocolate? 
Alex, the founder, went to Oaxaca where chocolate is primarily for drinking, not eating. While there, he studied with molineros (mill experts). Taza started in 2007 in Somerville, MA. The goal was to make the Oaxacan style chocolate, but in a way that was both good for eating and drinking. Today Taza still uses molinos (stones used to grind chocolate) from that region, though Taza carves the ridges into them themselves to their chocolate-making specifications.

What is the benefit of the stone ground method?
There is no conching. Conching pulverizes the bean. Taza's stone ground method doesn't pulverize because pulverizing causes chocolate to lose some of its nutrients, like magnesium and antioxidants.

What is the process for making stone ground chocolate?
All of the bean harvesting is the same: the cacao pod is cut from the tree, the beans--actually seeds--and white fruit are removed and placed into wooden boxes to ferment for up to 7 days, the beans are dried on wooden slats for up to 8 days, and then they are packed and shipped.

Because Taza is bean-to-bar, the process in their factory starts here with roasting the cacao bean. Roasting both develops the flavor and loosens the shell. Next, winnowing separates the shell from the nib. (All there is is nib and shell, so to eliminate waste, the shells are used as mulch.) Next the nibs are crushed between the stones. One stone is stationery, while the other rotates. The nib is ground up into a paste known as chocolate liquor, which has a texture like hot peanut butter. The chocolate liquor is then combined with cane sugar in the mixing tank. At this point in the process, chocolate used for the Taza's disc chocolate is ground once more to break down the sugar crystals. Then it goes in a holding tank, followed by tempering for texture and appearance, molding and wrapping. Then you can eat it!

The process is a little different with their bars. For their bars, they use a wheel with more finely etched ridges to lightly pulverize the bean to get a smoother texture. This pulverizing is not as much as a conch used typically in chocolate making. The bars are European style, which is to say they add more cocoa butter.

Why are most of Taza Chocolate's products round?
So it can fit in a cup for drinking chocolate.

Is Taza Chocolate Fair Trade?
No, they are not Fair Trade by choice. Instead they are Direct Trade, which has less intermediaries/bureaucracy via brokers. Instead 100% used toward the product goes to farmers.

Learn anything else?
Sure did:

• Cacao plants are the size of a "fully-inflated American football." They are cut open with a machete.
• The flavor of baba, the white fruit cacao beans (seeds) live in, is like lychee, jackfruit or durian in quality. (The guide said that it is the sweetest fruit he had ever tasted.) Baba is what activates the fermentation. It's called "baba" (which translated to "spit") because originally people sucked the fruit and spit the seeds out.
• Cinnamon is originally from Sri Lanka, so the Aztecs and Mayans couldn't have used it in their chocolate drink.
• Tempering actually changes the melting point, which sounds like black magic, but heating up other foods also has an effect, like how the texture of onions changed when carmelized.
• My guide's favorite chocolate other than Taza is El Rey. Gotta check that out!

Learning's fun and all, but what about the chocolate? Was it good?
Yes! There's no denying that the rough texture of stone ground chocolate is a paradigm shift from the chocolate most people are used to, but it sure is tasty. In the shop after the tour, we were allowed to sample chocolate to our heart's content. After doing my duty for my readers and eating as much as needed for a full report, I can say that there were two Tazo standouts I would direct you to first: the Chocolate Mexicano 70% Dark Chipotle Chili disc and the Coco Besos chocolate-coconut bar. Enjoy!

Quick post: Four shops to try

Salt & Straw.

As time passes, there are four spots I wish I'd blogged about when it was fresh in my brain. Consider this humble post a small tribute to four places I hope to visit again so I can make good on a full-length post for each. Here they are, all different time zones!

Salt & Straw in Portland, OR - Ate there two or three times. Multiple varieties of chocolate and some weirdo flavors here, too, like Pear & Blue Cheese and Arbequina Olive Oil. They have locations in California now, too.

Churn.

Churn in Phoenix, AZ - When I went to Phoenix for work, a friend directed me here. Of the flavors offered, I only recall one of them being off the beaten path. Classics are the focus at Churn and they do them well, so well that Churn has earned a spot in the TOP 25 TO VISIT.

Betty Ringer Ice Cream in Dallas, TX - Betty Ringer hadn't been open long before the Dallas Observer named it the Best Ice Cream Shop in 2017. This one is actually fresh in my mind, but I feel I needed to visit multiple times to do it justice. Sadly, this was the last ice cream shop I stopped at after a week in Dallas!

Sister Pie.

Sister Pie in Detroit, MI - What I can tell you is I went for up for seconds...and I would have gone up for thirds if the store hadn't been closing for the day.

Freezer Faves: Graeter's Black Raspberry Chip & Buckeye Blitz

Packaging from days of yore.

While this blog is primarily a fan of local scoop shops, it acknowledges that sometimes a person just wants to stay in for the night. That being said, this is one of my Freezer Favorites.

• • •

Cincinnati has many ubiquitous local food chains around town. Some are worth all of the hype they've been given and are a must-try for tourists, like chili-topped spaghetti at Skyline Chili and the reuben at Izzy's; others are less deserving of their fame, like provolone pizza at LaRosa's or ribs at Montgomery Inn. But one chain in particular gained so much deserved acclaim that it is now available in grocery stores across the nation.

The flavors in their native habitat.

I've blogged about Graeter's ice cream before, but it deserves to be revisited, especially for how widespread it has become. To review a little bit: Graeter's ice cream is made using the French Pot process, which is a small-batch method: a mere two-and-a-half gallons per batch! The main benefit of this inefficient process is a denser, creamier ice cream; it has less air in it, but it doesn't freeze into a rock. There's no denying the texture of Graeter's ice cream is different, smoother and more stuck to itself. But even better than the texture of the ice cream is the chocolate chips. Instead of using solid chunks of chocolate, Graeter's pours in liquid chocolate. By doing this, the chocolate chips in flavors like Black Raspberry Chip and Buckeye Blitz are soft, yielding and far more flavorful than the chalky snap of most chocolate chunks. These two flavors are perfection on a spoon: sweet and tart black raspberry and rich chocolate peanut butter. Simply unbeatable.

It is this blogger's personal opinion that Graeter's ice cream is even better at the scoop shop, perhaps because the ice cream is kept at the optimal temperature for eating. Grocery store and home freezers are at the best temperature for preserving ice cream (and other foods if you use your freezer for something other than ice cream). If you do go to Cincinnati to enjoy Graeter's, be sure to check out the art deco Cincinnati Union Station, Fountain Square, the river trail, the view of the skyline from Devou Park in Covington, KY. Just don't forget the ice cream!

Chicago Cake: Molly's Cupcakes

On my dessert hierarchy, cakes are usually way, way down near the bottom, above desserts I dislike (Turkish Delight, banana anything) and below those I do like. But Chicago has taught me what cake and cupcakes are capable of being.

• • •

During the cupcake bubble, I thought I'd tried it all, cupcake after meh cupcake. Then Molly's Cupcakes opened my eyes. All of their cupcakes are worthwhile, so I'll have to limit myself to the Top 5:

1.) Pumpkin Spice - spice cake filled with pumpkin mascarpone, topped with cream cheese buttercream 

An annual favorite during pumpkin season, this cupcake stands tall amongst many would-be competitors for Chicago's pumpkin crown.

2.) Chocolate Raspberry - chocolate cake filled with fresh raspberry puree, topped with chocolate ganache and a fresh raspberry

Raspberry puree is borderline erotic in this dessert. And the chocolate is rich enough to warrant adding the tart raspberry to cut through.

3.) Ron Bennington - chocolate cake with peanut butter filling, chocolate ganache and crushed butterscotch topping

Decadence, thy name is Ron Bennington. Well, maybe not THE Ron Bennington, but the cupcake for certain.

4.) Peach Cobbler - vanilla cake with a peach filling, whipped topping and peach on top

Buttery, sweet and fruity. Just like a cobbler, but lighter.

5.) Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Frosting
Pulling from Molly's selection of make-your-own non-filled cupcakes is a standard so good you're reminded of why it's a classic.

Though they've expanded to New York City and Iowa City, Molly's was founded in Chicago, where it has two locations.

Dole Whip at Disney's Adventureland

After a sweltering and unexpectedly life-threatening Jungle Cruise in Disneyland's Adventureland, nothing cools you down better than pineapple on pineapple. The place to sate yourself is none other than the Tiki Juice Bar (or at Aloha Isle at the Magic Kingdom) where they serve up the Dole Whip float, a dish of pineapple soft serve filled with pineapple juice. The line for this refreshing treat is never short as it has become a bit of a cult classic. Simple in concept but rarely seen elsewhere, it is worth the hype.

Don't be fooled by the lack of line -- it was closing time.

Top 5 Cookies-n-Cream Ice Creams

1.) Kopp’s Frozen Custard (Greater Milwaukee, WI) – Cookies-n-Cream

One day I will do a full post on the wonder that is Kopp’s Frozen Custard. In the meantime, the teaser is that theirs is the best Cookies-n-Cream I’ve had in my life. The bad news is, like most frozen custard places, they only do vanilla, chocolate and their flavors of the day. So Cookies-n-Cream is only available when it is one of their two special flavors of the day. I recall going to Kopp’s with my family and my aunt’s family in my youth , persuading my parents to let me order a triple scoop, finding chunks of whole Oreos within and my Dad and I being unable to finish it.

2.) Gelati Celesti (Richmond, VA) – Oreo

The bases of cookies and cream ice creams are either white (playing up the “cream” part of the name) or speckled with black cookie dust. Not this flavor, which is pure grey. The reason? The Oreos are blended completely into the base, not simply mixed in to a sweet cream base. Translation: the base tastes like Oreos, not cookies “in” cream. This explains why the flavor isn’t named Cookies-n-Cream…because it’s straight, undiluted Oreo. Gelati Celesti aren't the only ones to have this idea, but they perfected it.

3.) Golden Cow Creamery (Charlotte, NC) – Salted Oreo

I may be a foodie, but I generally find the trend of adding salt to desserts that never needed it before to be bougie nonsense. Sure, a little bit is science, but a lot bit is superfluous. But this flavor, Salted Oreo, made me eat my words and then lick the bowl. Adding salt to this Oreo ice cream created a completely new flavor, one I loved. When I ate at this spot in fall of last year, they had only been open a couple months and didn’t have enough flavors to fill their freezer yet. Once operating at full freezer capacity, I have no doubt, based on this and the others I tried, that their place on the Charlotte foodie map will be staked.

4.) Turkey Hill (grocery store) – Double Dunker

This paragraph previously appeared in “Top 5 Cookie Dough Ice Cream”

Years back, Ben & Jerry’s created Milk & Cookies, a mash-up of Cookies-n-Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was simple and brilliant, but a combination not represented in grocery stores before then. Turkey Hill came up with their own twist on the idea (“Mocha ice cream swirled with chewy cookie dough and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl”) and created a superior product, which was no small effort given that Milk & Cookies ranks among one of the last of Ben & Jerry’s best flavors of recent years. Suffice to say, when a half gallon of Double Dunker is in the house it isn’t there for long. I consider it one of my Freezer Favorites.

5.) Josh & John’s (Colorado Springs, CO) - Colorado Cookies-n-Cream

A scoop shop of personal legend, I recall eating a Josh & John’s on a snowy winter day in the early 2000’s, marveling at how ice cream is good no matter the temperature and drawing in the snow on the outdoor picnic tables after. But mostly I recall their twist on Cookies-n-Cream. It was the first time I saw the base for a Cookies-n-Cream ice cream be chocolate. And, really, since the base is always ice cream, the “cream” part of cookies-n-cream is up for wider interpretation. The answer was there all along, waiting to be found. I doubt anywhere else refers to Cookies-n-Cream with a chocolate base “Colorado Cookies-n-Cream,” but I did for years because Josh & John’s was so tasty.

Top 5 Cookie Dough Ice Creams

1.) Thomas Sweet (Washington, D.C. and New Jersey) - Chocolate Chip Cookie
The best twist on Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough I’ve encountered, so good it overtakes the original. A wholly unique flavor that I have yet to see anywhere else, this ice cream base tastes like cookie dough. That’s right: unlike other cookie dough flavors, this one contains no hunks of cookie dough because the flavor is in the ice cream itself. It’s so good that I’ve blogged about it twice before. It’s like eating the dough right out of the mixing bowl, complete with a mouthful of mini-chocolate chips in each bite.

2.) Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream (Madison, WI) – Snap O’ Lantern

Much of this paragraph previously appeared in in the autumnal entry “Snap-O-Lantern & Other Pumpkin Ice Creams.”

A perennial favorite in my annual autumnal challenge to consume as many varieties of pumpkin foods as possible. The addition of gingerbread cookie dough isn’t the only reason Snap-o-Lantern tops the list. The ice cream reminds me of my first memories of pumpkin ice cream at the Hilton Village Parlor Restaurant back home: sweet in front, pumpkin in the back, creamy all the way around. I attribute this to the gingerbread cookie dough, which excuses the ice cream from having to be all spices at once and instead to focus on being pumpkin.

3.) Oberweis (Midwest grocers/parlors)–Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

This paragraph appeared in the ongoing Freezer Favorites series.

It may seem strange that I lean on Oberweiss for my grocery-store Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cravings since Ben & Jerry's are the ones who put the flavor on the map. But I'm going to commit foodie-sacrilege here: Such a heavy mix-in as cookie dough bites demands a lighter ice cream. Oberweiss is a super-premium brand that makes a product that manages to be flavorful without being heavy. Creamy and light, their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough isn't overloaded with mix-ins, but doesn't skimp either. Most bites have some cookie dough with only a few containing chocolate chips, that perfect touch of chocolate to leave semisweet lingering on the tongue after the ice cream melts away.

4.) Turkey Hill (grocery store) – Double Dunker

Years back, Ben & Jerry’s created Milk & Cookies, a mash-up of Cookies-n-Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. It was simple and brilliant, but a combination not represented in grocery stores before then. Turkey Hill came up with their own twist on the idea (“Mocha ice cream swirled with chewy cookie dough and crunchy chocolate cookie swirl”) and created a superior product, which was no small effort given that Milk & Cookies ranks among one of the last of Ben & Jerry’s best flavors of recent years. Suffice to say, when a half gallon of Double Dunker is in the house it isn’t there for long. I consider it one of my Freezer Favorites.

5.) Ben & Jerry’s (RIP) – Oatmeal Cookie Chunk
Once Ben & Jerry’s discontinues a flavor, it is rare for them to bring it back. Oatmeal Cookie Chunk was actually the first occasion where I heard of such a thing happening. Like a cult TV show, when this flavor was discontinued, there was fan outcry, letter writing and pleading via Ben & Jerry’s online form to resurrect the dearly departed laid to rest in their Flavor Graveyard. (My girlfriend at the time was among the grieving, it having been her favorite flavor.) It had a rough-textured (oat-y?) base with chunky cookie dough and the perfect amount of fudge chunks to suggest chocolate without overwhelming the flavor. The flavor may not have lasted the second time around, but Ben & Jerry’s did drop a similar flavor is 2017: Oat of This Swirled. It's the next best thing.

Rise Biscuits and Donuts in North Carolina

Rise Biscuits and Donuts was born in Durham in 2012, eventually opening other locations around North Carolina and even one in Texas. All told, they make a good product on both the savory side of their menu and the sweet. But this is a sugar blog not a biscuit blog, so...onto the last word of the business' name.

Their doughnuts are divided into Old School (traditional doughnuts), New School (fancy doughnuts) and Our School (differs per location, may change). It's not every purveyor of fried dough that offers a simple Cinnamon Twist alongside fad doughnuts (Maple Bacon, Crème Brûlée), regionally specific treats (Cheerwine Icing) and originality (Banana Cake with Nutella). One would expect them to have an endlessly long menu, but they manage such a impressive range with a mere 15 doughnuts to choose from! It's a good problem to have, but deciding can be difficult at Rise. Allow me to introduce the crown jewel of their menu, the Pineapple Basil doughnut.

Incredibly tasty, this doughnut is unlike any I've ever encountered. The pineapple is sharp and tangy, the flavor lasting longer than most glazes. The cream filling offers a counterweight of sweetness, one that doesn't mellow the overall tartness but rather produces another note in the chord. It's all delivered in a delicious doughnut that's topped with pistachios for texture and, along with the basil, adds a light touch of savory. One bite of this doughnut and I knew it was one I would remember. An instant classic.

Vacarro's Italian Pastry in Baltimore

Downtown Baltimore has many notable features: one of the nation's prettiest waterfronts, Edgar Allan Poe's grave, the Baltimore Orioles' home at Camden Yards, an iconic view of the Domino Sugar factory, close proximity to one of my favorite museums ever (the always original, often bizarre American Visionary Art Museum), and Little Italy. Ranging from authentic to kitsch, Baltimore's Little Italy may be smaller than some, but the quality of one particular business puts other city's would-be competitors to shame: Vaccaro's Italian Pastry. Offering a wide range of pastries to choose from, you really can't go wrong--Want a Coconut Cream Napoleon? Dive right in!--but the main event are Vaccaro's cannoli.

There's nothing surprising about the cannoli other than how great they are. Like any respectable purveyor of Italian pastry, the cannoli are not filled with the ricotta cream until after the customer orders, keeping the shell crisp. They offer plain and chocolate-dipped shells filled with regular or chocolate cream. Once again, you can't lose, but the regular ricotta in a plain shell is work of art. The cream is thick and heavy, emphasizing the ricotta, unlike lesser businesses whose sickly sweet product uses far too much powdered sugar. Vaccaro's pastry is sweet, but in a more subtle Italian way. Their ricotta is dotted with chocolate chips and has aromatic spices that awakens the senses and gets the sweet tooth twitching. To look at it, the cannoli from Vaccaro's look similar to just about any other cannoli you'll come across, only they get every part of it right. No frills, no surprises. Just great pastry.

It's no wonder that, when I was eating at a nearby Italian restaurant and some nearby customers asked about the dessert options, the waiter started to tell them only to stop himself midway through to say, "You know what? Vaccaro's is right around the corner. That's the place to go." And I agree. If you're in Baltimore: Vaccaro's.