“Nothing goes better with pie than ice cream.” At least, that was the credo that Pop Pie Co. executive chef and co-owner Gan Suebsarakham put his money behind in adjoining the ice creamery Stella Jean’s to his University Heights pie shop. Their star scoop, the Earl Grey Citrus Tea Cake, is a floral-forward love letter to Suebsarakham’s Thai heritage and his favorite tea. “For this ice cream, I thought, ‘Who doesn’t love a piece of cake with a cup of Earl Grey?’” One batch takes two days to make, and it all starts with steeping the tea directly into milk for that Earl Grey taste. From there, Suebsarakham blends Thai butterfly pea flowers into the citrus tea cake batter for a pop of blue color. While the confection bakes, he creates his blueberry compote from scratch (lending purple swirls to the final creation) and includes a zest of lemon for extra zing. Finally he folds the cool, cubed cake and compote into the just-churned ice cream, pops the sweet treat into the freezer, and takes it out 24 hours later for a result that’s “Stellar.”
4404 Park Boulevard, University Heights stellajeansicecream
Earl Grey Citrus Tea Cake Ice Cream at Stella Jean’s
Photo: Lucianna McIntosh
