For The Best Boozy Sundaes, Mixologist Cody Goldstein Says To Add Alcohol To A Sugary Sauce
Who doesn't love a good scoop of ice cream? Better yet, who doesn't love dressing up their ice cream and turning it into a sundae? You're likely familiar with pouring interesting things on top of your ice cream to change the experience, whether that's plain old chocolate syrup, a strong shot of espresso, or even a spicy chili crisp. But if you want to give your dessert a boozy kick, adding alcohol to your sauce is the perfect way to do it.
Cody Goldstein, founder of the cocktail experience company Muddling Memories, has a deft hand when it comes to giving desserts a liquored-up flair. For National Gelato Day, March 24, he collaborated with the Talenti gelato company to produce the Talentini — a dirty martini sundae featuring an intriguing, gin-infused dirty brine honey sauce. On top of giving Chowhound tips for topping ice cream with a shot of booze, Goldstein also told us how to level up our ice cream sauces with spirits. He told Chowhound, "I have always loved creating sauces, and I think adding alcohol can help stabilize the sauce and add punchiness to the flavor." So, what kinds of sauce-and-liquor pairings work best?
The right pairing should create harmonious flavor
Cody Goldstein has already applied his mixology expertise to create the perfect alcohol pairings for different kinds of ice cream, and this same knowledge informs his choice of sundae sauces, too. While you could, in theory, add your choice of liquor to whatever sauce you see fit, the goal here is to create a delicious assemblage of flavors that don't butt heads with one another. Luckily, Goldstein has some tips for pairing booze and sauce.
He told Chowhound, "Honey and any spirit go perfectly together, and so that would always be my first choice when thinking about what is in your pantry to play around with." Goldstein highlighted honey's viscosity and low glycemic index as reasons for this choice. As for caramel, he said the sauce "can be tricky to [pair with] alcohol because you must keep an eye on it and make sure it does not burn." There are two ingredients, however, that he said are perfect for sauce-making: brown sugar and molasses. As he described, "[They] both create this warming flavor and help get boosted from a great dark spirit."
An herbal spirit like gin — or even a warm spirit like bourbon — would match beautifully with honey. Alternatively, a darker rum like demerara (which already contains molasses and brown sugar notes) would exceptionally complement a brown sugar-based sauce. On top of offering stabilization, these spirits will also give you an incredible boost of flavor.
Sweet, sugary sauces work best
If you want the ideal boozy sauce for your ice cream, it'll likely have to be sweet. Put simply, a sugary sauce will help offset the imbalance caused by adding alcohol. Alcohol will lower your sauce's freezing point, which is why achieving perfectly spiked frozen desserts is such a tricky balance. Too much alcohol in your sundae sauce may disrupt your ice cream and leave you with a disappointing puddle. Fortunately, sugar not only helps increase sauces' viscosity, but it also counteracts alcohol's side effects. Sugar will help your sauce congeal and freeze, effectively canceling out the liquor's effect if you achieve the right balance.
Lucky for you, alcohol rarely exists on its own (at least in a culinary sense). Some spirits like rum typically have a high sugar content already, and liqueurs and crèmes, by definition, have even more (these also contain less alcohol, making them doubly effective in your ice cream topping). That said, starting with an already-sugary sauce seems to be the best way to start your boozy experimentation, according to mixologist Cody Goldstein. With such impressive creations on his resume as the Talentini, you'd be wise to follow in his footsteps.