Daily Scoop: Steve's Ice Cream

Editor's Note: July is Ice Cream Month on Serious Eats: New York! To celebrate, we're spotlighting a scoop we love every day.

[Photographs: Dave Katz]

Steve's Ice Cream, originally a Massachusetts scoop shop, specializes in "craft" ice cream with complex flavors like Blackberry Honey and Bourbon Vanilla, built on dairy from Hudson Valley Fresh—a perfect solution for when Breyer's and Häagen Dazs simply aren't cutting it. After flavors such as Strawberry Ricotta, Brooklyn Blackout and Mexican Chili Chocolate caught our eye, we swung by the market and picked up three pints to try.

The Strawberry Ricotta was a solid attempt at recreating the fruit-cheese combination in a frozen confection. Generously fruity, slightly tart, and light, the strawberry base was a fine rendition, but the ricotta mix-in did not fare as well. While by no means ruining the pint, some of the chunks of frozen whole milk ricotta (from Salvatore BKLYN) formed clusters that were a bit large and overwhelming. Still, those in search of a rich, fruit-based ice cream that doesn't bring to mind milky melted popsicles will be perfectly satisfied.

In the Mexican Chili Chocolate (which we actually saw being prepared in this piece from last summer), a top-notch chocolate base gets a healthy dose of cinnamon and rather subdued pepper/smoke notes from hints of cayenne and guajillo chilies, as well as guajillo chili chocolate from Taza.

Brooklyn Blackout is more the chocolate-on-chocolate fantasy of our childhood dreams. With dark chocolate pudding swirls and large pieces of Ovenly's chocolate stout cake, the ice cream comes off as a sophisticated Ben & Jerry's pint (or maybe just a slightly better one) as it combines flavorful ice cream with equally bold mix-ins.

Steve's Ice Cream

Available in pints for now, with a store coming soon (locate pints here)

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