Things just got even sweeter at Emporium Pies, the cottage pie shop whose original location in Bishop Arts still attracts folk who linger over old-fashioned desserts until 10 p.m.
Emporium has always offered slices a la mode, but now they’re mixing pieces of their pies into home-made ice cream and selling them by the pint.
Is this something you want to get your hands on? Yes.
Cinnamon and Lord is apple pie in ice cream form, with a soft cinnamon ice cream, a caramel ribbon, and bits of whole apple from the top-selling deep-dish Lord of the Pies. Cherry Bomb feels like eating chocolate mousse, a rich chocolate ice cream with a decadent mouthfeel. If there are cherries in there (from cherry pie), they’re submerged to the point of near obliteration. Vanilla and Drunken Nut is luscious vanilla, almost like a rich eggnog, with a boozy drawl. The bits of pie crust here are buttery, caramelized shortbread, while they’re flaky in the Cinnamon and Lord. In all three, the texture and mouthfeel are impressive.
“We’ve always had vanilla ice cream in our store,” says Megan Wilkes, co-owner. “But we’ve always wanted to make our own,” knowing that small-batch combinations would also allow them to be more adventurous.
What they came up with was a low-temperature pasteurized, custard-based ice cream, smooth with egg yolk and cream. It has “some secret ingredients,” that Wilkes preferred not to share, one of which adds a hint of a savory bent.
Wilkes’ business partner Mary Ganutt, Emporium’s baker, developed the ice cream recipes. Flavors will change more frequently than the pies do, but each will be a pie-scream love-child, and flavor combination ideas are a collaboration of everyone in the shop, including front of house.
“We started mixing the pie into the ice cream at end of July,” says Wilkes.
The three initial flavors in pints will only be available in the stores through the end of September, Emporium’s birthday month. (The Bishop Arts shop has been open six years.)
Looking ahead: After September, they’ll be taking their ice cream on the road with a 1962 Chevy C10 “shorty” pick-up truck (Bessie) that they’ve been lovingly renovating into an ice cream truck. From the mobile pie and ice cream food truck, you can expect scoops dolled up like small sundaes and served in miniature pie tins.
