Ample Hills - Salted Crack Caramel

Salted Crack Caramel - Salted butter caramel base with Deb's Famous Crack Cookies: salted crackers coated with butter, sugar and chocolate

I am back in New York for the Thanksgiving holiday.  That means, more New York ice cream!  One of my favorites from my previous trip was the Brooklyn-based Ample Hills so I decided to start with them for my first pint.  The Salted Crack Caramel flavor is one of their signature flavors so I figured I would give it a while.  I am curious to see what the "crack cookie" mix-in is like.  There is actually a recipe for it online.  It's saltine crackers cookied in butter with a chocolate coating.  Sounds interesting, but might be too salty?  We'll see.

Opening the pint shows the tan color of the salted caramel base.  It's fairly soft and almost melted.  That could have been the way it was stored?  Anyhow, that didn't end up affecting the flavor so I'll just note that and move on.  Eating my way into the pint, the salted caramel tasted a bit like a Sugar Daddy or a Slo Poke which makes sense as those are caramel candies.  You notice the salt in the mix, but not enough so as to make you thirsty.  Then there are those crack cookies that I was curious about and are visible in a picture below.  These are small square wafers with chocolate on one side the saltines and butter formed a soft and mushy layer on the other.  The soft side was able to blend well with the caramel base and the chocolate side provided a lot of chocolate flavor.  These mix-ins were fun to eat.  They had a snacky feel similar to that of Chubby Hubby but somehow did not add too much additional salt into the mix.  Indeed, like an addictive snack food, I found myself accelerating my eating as I worked my way to the bottom of the pint and was quite disappointed when I got to the end.  No more.  Sad!

This was a much more successful pint than I expected.  I'm not generally a junkie for salted caramel or snack-food mix-ins but this was a well-done combination which was flavorful, crunchy yet was not too dry and did not overdo it on the salt.  I'm not sure who the Deb of Deb's Famous Crack Cookies is, but she deserves to be more famous.  Anyhow, if you're in New York and like salty snacks, give this flavor a try.