Here at culture, we love a good grilled cheese — and we bet you do, too. Melty, toasty, and oh-so-comforting, it’s the perfect food to rip the chill out of any winter evening. But what to do when a grilled cheese craving strikes on a blistering summer day? No, you don’t have to suffer through the heat to soothe your craving, and well, yes, you could blast the AC — but we have a solution that’s way more fun — not to mention delicious.
Put some ice cream in it!
Really. Chef Keith Schroeder of High Road Craft Ice Cream & Sorbet shares the recipe for his High Road Vanilla Melt (which features slabs of grilled cheese made with sharp cheddar and vanilla flour de sel ice cream) in our summer issue. And we’re not the only ones with this idea.
Chef Heidi Gibson of The AMERICAN Grilled Cheese Kitchen makes an Ice Cream Grilled Cheese PB&J, which sounds like a holy resurrection of all our favorite school lunches we ate as kids. Sweet cherry jam and smooth peanut butter bring out the rich, nutty notes of cheddar and, along with warm, fluffy slices of brioche, offset the texture and temperature of the ice cream.
Want to make your own riff on these grilled cheese ice cream sandwiches? Try a cheesy flavored ice cream — as it happens, dairy pairs excellently with more dairy. Try our recipes for Roquefort Honey Ice Cream, Milk Chocolate Goat Cheese Ice Cream, or Brown Butter Almond Crunch Mascarpone Ice Cream.
Amanda Minoff
Amanda graduated from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine with a degree in English Literature and Art History. She is a reader and writer of fiction and loves cheese that tells a good story.
