Duff Goldman Likes His Favorite Dessert Loaded With All The Fixings

Duff Goldman, the pastry chef, cookbook author, and co-host of "Food Network's Kids Baking Championship," has some surprisingly unpretentious takes when it comes to dessert. He loves boxed Betty Crocker yellow cake mix, oatmeal raisin cookies, and even cherry Jell-O. So, it's no surprise that his favorite dessert is so simple you can almost certainly find it at a grocery store near you. To help promote his partnership with the non-profit No Kid Hungry, Goldman revealed to Eating Well that his all-time favorite dessert is ice cream. "Cold, smooth, creamy, and sweet — it just doesn't get better than ice cream," he says.

As Goldman notes, there's a practically endless assortment of ice cream flavors available to the dairy-consuming public, not to mention the number of fixings and mix-ins you could choose to include. So, which flavor does he prefer over all others? First, he opts for ice creams with a chocolate base, a flavor with plenty of excellent store-bought options to savor. Second, he needs a little something else going on in his ice cream, texturally speaking. "I love rocky road," he tells Eating Well. "I like stuff in my ice cream, so rocky road or Ben and Jerry's." 

Rocky road ice cream typically includes chopped, roasted almonds and mini marshmallows, but Goldman doesn't stop there. "I also like crunch, and I like cones with my ice cream even if it's not in a cone," he says. "If I get it in a bowl, I put a cone on top so I can smash it up." Goldman's loaded-up approach sounds good enough to try.

It's no surprise that the pastry chef and Food Network host Duff Goldman loves Ben & Jerry's. The brand is famous for not only their range of ice cream flavors, but for their refusal to sell a plain old pint without any extra ingredients mixed in. Toppings and texture are the brand's middle names. In this vein, Ben & Jerry's doesn't produce a traditional rocky road flavor, either. The brand's Phish Food comes closest, with chocolate ice cream, marshmallow swirls, and chewy chunks of fudge fish. But there's another flavor we'd bet Goldman can get behind: Americone Dream. Although it's not chocolate-based, it is riddled with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces. Plus, the brand now offers this flavor with a dairy-free base!

For a homemade version of the Ace of Cake's favorite type of ice cream, try smashing or sprinkling pieces of waffle cone over your next scoop of ice cream. Or, for a radical, savory, crunchy sensation, top your ice cream with crushed potato chips. No matter how you choose to add texture, your next bite of ice cream will be far from boring.