When Ample Hills Creamery opened in Prospect Heights three years ago this month, the demand was so intense that they ran out of ice cream their first week in business. Fast forward a few years and Ample Hills likely has the most loyal and fervent followers of any ice cream purveyor in Brooklyn. With warm weather finally here and ice cream season starting to seep into our consciousness, Ample Hills has grand plans to extend their Brooklyn footprint far and wide across the borough in 2014.
Their flagship shop on Vanderbilt Avenue is still open of course, but Ample Hills also recently debuted two waterfront kiosks that will be serving up scoops for the rest of the spring and summer–one at Pier 5 in Brooklyn Bridge Park and another adjacent to Jane’s Carousel in Dumbo. Moving forward, they’re also anticipating a summer opening for their biggest endeavor yet, a 3,600-square-foot, two-story production facility in Gowanus that will allow them to quadruple their production capacity while retaining the same all-organic process they’ve utilized since day one. The Gowanus outpost of Ample Hills will include a small shop and a rooftop space, and will allow them to churn out enough ice cream to start selling packed pints around the borough later this summer.
Finally, the folks behind Ample Hills have one more trick up their sleeve: an ice cream cookbook that just hit the shelves. This drool-worthy tome is packed with photos of their favorite flavors, and includes instructions on how to handle the basics of ice cream making and whip up a classic vanilla bean and dark chocolate. But of course, it’s heavy on Ample Hills signatures: whacked-out, off-the-wall recipes, from Drunken Thanksgiving (where pumpkin pie meets bourbon) to Peanut Butter and Fluff. They were also kind enough to share the recipe for their trademark flavor, Salted Crack Caramel, with Brooklyn Based. So if you can’t wait for their new facility to open and have a box of Saltines and a sweet tooth on hand, you’ll want to keep reading.