Opening in Dallas this summer on Greenville Avenue, sweetshop Milk & Cream offers a trendy new dessert to the area: the ice cream stuffed doughnut.
The “milky bun,” the term used by employees to refer to the dessert, first originated in Southern California in 2014. Originally from Houston, founder of the Dallas franchise Man Ho decided to introduce the exotic treat to Texas after trying it in Orange County, California where he watched the growing success of the bun. He was right to assume that it would thrive in the environment of the hot Dallas summers.
The interior of the store has a visually appealing industrial-style look to it. When first walking in, one is overwhelmed with the tempting scent of warm doughnuts baking in the oven. A colorful display of enticing ice cream lines one side of the store. In the corner, a black wall with the store’s logo in white print is designated as the “picture wall,” a place in which satisfied customers can snap shots of their desserts.
Despite the store’s entrancing aesthetic, the surrounding Lakewood neighborhood is somewhat of a drawback, as it’s not very convenient to reach. Depending on from where you are traveling, it can take some amount of time to reach; for example, it is a 25-minute drive from Hockaday. Additionally, the store is not in plain sight. It takes some searching to find the cramped shopping strip where it’s tucked away.
The ice cream display boasts an impressive array of colors, each its own unique flavor. Of course, standard flavors such as chocolate and vanilla are offered. However, for those who tend to stray from the usual, a light-green matcha tea or pastel-purple lavender bean might catch the eye.
After choosing an ice cream flavor, the next decision involves the doughnut itself: regular or glazed. This call can be a hard one to make, as both look equally appealing. It is important to note that the ice cream alone is already extremely sweet, so if you are not craving an additional burst of decadence, a regular bun instead of a glazed might be best.
The last step to perfecting the milky bun is adding toppings. If you are a cereal enthusiast, you are in luck, as two of the offered toppings happen to be breakfast foods: Fruity Pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. On the more traditional side of topping selections, chocolate chips and whipped cream are available as well.
After taking some amount of time to construct a milky bun that would satiate my needs, my finished product looked something like this: a regular, un-glazed bun stuffed with a vibrant, electric blue ice cream containing bits of crushed up cookie. Although it may seem exotic from its description, this blue ice cream, dubbed “Cookie Monster,” is simply a cookies-and- cream avor disguised in a different color.
What happened next still amazes me. I watched in awe as my ice cream sandwich was placed in an oven, warmed for 30 seconds, and then delivered to my waiting hands, and no less-intact than it was before it entered the furnace.
After extensive questioning of the employees, I learned that by some miracle, the density of the bun absorbs the heat so that the ice cream itself does not melt, staying perfectly frozen in its original form.
Now more excited than ever to eat this dessert that seemingly de ed the laws of physics, I eagerly chomped away at the milky bun. The sensation of biting into something that is rst hot on the outside, then freezing cold on the inside is something I had never before experienced. The two complemented each other perfectly. The hot and cold blended together, creating a heavenly mess of rich cream and sweet pastry. My mouth continued watering for the dessert even after I’d finished it, longing for another taste of the flavorful combination of hot and cold.
Alone, the doughnut and ice cream wouldn’t particularly strike me as amazing; they are both fairly average. However, it is the combination of the two that makes the dessert so unique and appetizing. Together, the warm bun and cold ice cream make for a truly delicious dessert.
Charlotte Dross – Staff Writer –
