As the sweltering heats of May roll in, the craving for ice-cream becomes more intense, and one wants to have as many different kinds of ice-cream one can have. What makes ice-creams even better are the delightful toppings that can be used to make them colourful, fun and yummy. There are so many different kinds of toppings that can enhance the texture and the flavour of the ice-cream; some make it crunchy and chewy, while some make it savoury or sweeter. The versatile range of toppings is enough for one to have a new kind of ice-cream every day of the summer.
1. Chocolate Sauce
An ice-cream becomes exponentially tastier with chocolate sauce, be it hot chocolate sauce or just the store bought kind poured over. And when the hot sauce makes the ice-cream a gooey and yummy mess, it becomes the dish any person would not mind turning into a little child and just lapping it up. Though chocolate sauce makes all flavors of ice-cream exquisite, the combination of vanilla ice-cream and hot chocolate sauce is a heavenly delight.
2. Strawberry Sauce
Strawberry sauce with small pieces of strawberries is a sweet and juicy experience. The thick and sugary sauce makes all ice-creams amazing but the best combination has to be that of the strawberry sauce and tutti-fruity ice cream. Tutti-fruity ice-cream with its fruity chunks plays with the texture of the sauce and makes it a superb dish to dig into on hot days.
3. Whipped Cream
The creamy flavour of whipped cream makes ice-creams even better than they already are. Chocolate ice-cream topped with whipped cream is an excellent combo. Adding chocolate sauce to this blend is also an interesting fusion. The slight bitterness of the chocolate ice-cream and the sauce is balanced with the sweetness of the whipped cream to make an enticing dessert. Whipped cream is now easily available in stores too as Indian companies like Amul have also started manufacturing it.
4. Sprinkles
Mostly used for cakes and cupcakes, sprinklers might seem a weird choice as ice-cream toppings, but these little sugary confections as toppings have become a huge trend. Crunchy and sweet, they make your ice-cream a heavenly delight. You can use single flavoured sprinklers or even go for the newer trend of sparkly sprinklers. Children are particularly excited by colourful sprinklers.
5. Jellies
Be it, kids or adults, jellies have an ability to make everyone joyous. Adding them to ice-cream is a sure shot way to make the hot days of the summer cooler. Colourful and cute, the delightful wibble wobble of the jellies make it extremely fun to have them with ice-cream.
6. Dry fruits
Dry fruits like cashew nuts and almonds give a crackly bite to ice-cream. Topping up any plain ice cream with dry fruits makes it positively delicious. Elaichi and kesar can be used as garnishing. Along with flavour they also add a wonderful fragrance to the ice-cream.
7. Cherries
Chopped or whole, cherries on ice-cream are literally the cherry on the cake of the ice-cream desserts. Cherries give a unique taste to the dish and make it more fun to eat. The pits of the cherries might seem a little annoying, so it would be better if you opt for the seedless kind available in the stores.
8. Nutella
Nutella is one sauce that tastes good on everything. And as a topping for ice-cream, Nutella is nothing but pure heaven. You can thin it, heat it and use it as a hot sauce or just add it and it is just as yummy. Though it tastes good on all types of ice-cream, the combination of vanilla and Nutella makes the best one.
9. Caramelized Sugar
Caramelised sugar as sauce brings with it a beautiful amalgamation of crackly and sweet goodness. This sauce is very simple to make and can be made even at home. The sugary sauce complements well with ice-cream flavours like black currant and chocolate.
10. Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips are an obvious choice of one of the best toppings for ice-cream. They have a way of making all kinds of ice-cream tastier. The chips are especially delightful with flavours like vanilla, strawberry and mint chocolate. When added to ice-cream sundaes, the chips take it to a whole new scrumptious level.
11. Fruits
An assortment of freshly cut fruits as toppings surely does give an ice-cream a healthy touch, definitely giving you a perfect excuse to eat more and more ice-cream. Fruits like mangoes, apples, bananas, strawberries, peaches, etc make a good combination with ice-cream. However, one should stay away from oranges or melons as ice-cream toppings.
12. Marshmallows
The soft and sweet marshmallows are a good topping for any ice-cream. The best fusion for an ice-cream would be roasted marshmallows and chocolate sauce poured over it. Sprinkles over the marshmallows also make a great fusion as a topping for an ice-cream.
13. Peanuts
Crunchy and salty, peanuts give a zingy bite to the ice-cream. For a better flavour, you can also roast the peanuts before adding them as toppings.
14.
Candy
Bits of candy sprinkled over ice-cream make it a treat for kids and adults, all alike. There are a lot of options for what kind of candies you can use as toppings. There are rock candies, sugary candies, etc that can become toppings.
15. Hot Fudge
Hot fudge with vanilla ice-cream is another classic combo that has to be definitely tried. It makes eating ice-cream an absolute pleasure that cannot be forgotten. With its chocolate gooeyness, fudge with ice cream is a rich dessert to dig into after heavy meals.
16. Apple Scotch
Apple’s combined with brown sugar, flour, vanilla extract, lemon juice and salt stirred in a saucepan for a while, make a wonderful topping for vanilla ice-cream. Sure, this topping takes a little bit of work to make, but, it is so yummy that the effort that goes into making it is totally worth it.
17. Cookie Crumble
Crushed cookie crumble sprinkled over ice-cream makes a yummy fusion. The cookie crumbles and the cream give the ice-cream an extra creamy taste and texture. It can make even plain vanilla ice-cream taste like cookies and cream flavour.
18. Honey
Honey has medicinal properties and along with being a great topping, gives one a great excuse to have more ice-cream. The rich taste of honey makes traditional flavours like saffron ice-cream taste amazing.
19. Brownie Bits
Brownie bits with ice-cream is a scrumptious fusion. It is even more delectable when the brownie bits are sizzling hot. And when you pour hot chocolate sauce it becomes even more delicious. For a creamier feel, one can also add whipped cream to the dish.
20.Popcorn
Popcorn is the most fun topping to add to any flavour of ice-cream. Popcorn flavours like caramel or chocolate make the ice-cream even better. The popcorn gives the ice-cream a crunchy bite and savoury taste.
