Sichuan Chile Crisp Sundae With Peanut Streusel

You, dear reader, may know that I love to seek out new tastes, and boldly try the unfamiliar. So when I saw J. Kenji López-Alt describing how ice cream and chile crisp taste good together, my heart beat a little faster.

The recipe was published in the New York Times. The peanut streusel starts with what you might put on a coffee cake, but adds a mouth-watering mix of Sichuan peppercorns, chili flakes, star anise, cumin, fennel, and peanuts. Earlier this spring, I made a big batch of chili crisp from this recipe, and I bought a tub of Kawartha Dairy vanilla ice cream from Costco, so I was all set.

A spoonful of chili oil over ice cream is definitely out there, but I enjoyed the unexpected combination of “hot” and cold, sweet and salty. What really makes this sundae special, is the crumble. It has so many flavours going on, that every spoonful is different, and very addictive. I kept adding more spoonfuls of streusel as I ate. Go and make this right now!