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French Sundaes

September 03, 2008
By Faye Levy

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Summer vacation might be over, but we can hang onto the season a bit longer. The sundae, America’s favorite summertime dessert, is named for the first day of the week. Typically many of us make quick versions with syrups, sprinkles and cream topping sprayed from a can. We might say they’re “for the kids” but most grownups don’t need much encouragement to indulge in them.

Although children in Europe are wild about ice cream too, many cafes and restaurants there are proud of their sundaes for adults. In France these might be spirited sundaes with orange brandy or kirsch (clear cherry brandy), which the waiter brings in a tiny bottle for you to pour over your ice cream. Coffee, nuts and exotic fruit are other popular “adult” flavors. At good eateries the sundaes are crowned with house-made creme Chantilly--heavy cream whipped with pure vanilla and sugar.

Called simply a “coupe”, the French term for a wide-mouthed stemmed glass, a French sundae can be as basic as ice cream with sliced fruit or as elaborate as the "dessert symphonies" at some restaurants. The most memorable sundae I ever had was served at a French restaurant famous for its splendid "grand dessert”–spoonfuls of just-churned vanilla bean ice cream and intensely fruity sorbets, red berry sauce, perfect fruit, and fresh-baked almond tile cookies and nut macaroons for garnish.

Of course, for quick treats nobody would do all that. But it’s easy to prepare a sundae that’s better than the usual syrup-drenched sort. Indeed, sundaes give us a great opportunity to turn this season’s bounty of fruit into festive finales that can be nutritious as well.

During the years I studied cooking in Paris, I also got practical ideas for homemade sundaes from late-night snacks at Parisian cafes. Often we opted for “Café Liegeois,” made of coffee ice cream cloaked with dark coffee sauce--basically sweetened strong coffee--and Chantilly cream adorned with chocolate coffee beans. Arriving in a “coupe,” this treat was beautiful and enticing. We loved the pure coffee flavor with just the right balance of sweetness and creaminess. For a quick home version, you could use light ice cream and, instead of whipped cream, top the coffee ice cream with a spoonful of softened light vanilla ice cream, and then with the chocolate coffee beans.


Escoffier, the most renowned French chef of the twentieth century, is best known for a sundae--Peach Melba, made of poached peaches, raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. It’s easy to find his creation on menus in France and it has been imitated throughout the world. If you use light ice cream or frozen yogurt and make your sauce from fresh raspberry puree (as he did), the dessert is wholesome too, as desserts go, thanks to the nutrient-dense fruit. For a pareve option, substitute raspberry or peach sorbet or soy ice cream for the dairy ice cream.

Chefs frequently name their ice cream creations for a place noted for a key component. We found variations of the coffee classic, such as Le Brésilien, or “The Brazilian”, made with coffee liqueur instead of coffee sauce, and a hot-and-cold Irish Coupe--whiskey-spiked hot coffee with vanilla ice cream.

Island Coupe was another appellation we liked on Parisian café menus, and it featured coconut ice cream, passion fruit sorbet, pineapple and rum. Black Forest Coupe, like the famous cake, combined vanilla ice cream with cherry and chocolate sauces and was dressed up with candied cherries and shaved chocolate. Chestnuts from Correze in central France inspired Correze Coupe--chestnut and vanilla ice creams, cognac-macerated chestnuts and a topping of candied chestnuts. Grenoble Coupe paired nut ice cream with walnuts, the pride of that French city.

Some coupes contained airy-textured cake that absorbed liqueur readily. When we were in the mood for an ice cream feast, we ordered a lavish concoction of rum-soaked savarin (yeast sponge cake), rum-raisin, coffee and chocolate ice creams and chocolate sauce. If I had over-indulged in a rich lunch, I chose a light strawberry sorbet coupe with kirsch-laced ladyfingers, melon balls and toasted almonds

Whether you present these treats in fancy crystal coupes or simple dishes, they are a wonderful way to sweetly end a summer dinner or to pamper your family at midday or midnight. For a personal touch, make your own sauce and use a top-quality garnish. Prepare speedy fruit sauces by pureeing fresh or frozen fruit in a food processor with sugar to taste and a splash of spirits or fruit juice. Cook up chocolate sauce in a flash by melting semisweet chocolate in milk as in the Sabra Sundae recipe below. Decorate your dessert with toasted pecans, grated fine chocolate, chopped candied ginger, fresh berries or chocolate-dipped almonds.

Put together your own scrumptious sundaes from the flavors that strike your fancy, taking advantage of the wealth of ice creams and sorbets available at the market. For a mango coupe, scoop mango sorbet and vanilla ice cream into a pretty dish and surround them with sweetened kiwi puree and mango slices. Make a raspberry-chocolate coupe with raspberry sorbet, fresh berries and chocolate sauce. Pour strawberry sauce around mint ice cream and add nectarine slices and mint leaves for a refreshing mint coupe. Or compose a light “coupe exotique” by matching acai, passion fruit or any other tropical fruit sorbet with papaya, Asian pear, guava, mango sauce and a garnish of starfruit or pineapple. Savor your coupe slowly and imagine you’re relaxing on the terrace of a Parisian café.


Faye Levy is the author of the award-winning book, Chocolate Sensations, and of Fresh from France: Dinner Inspirations. Her latest book is Healthy Cooking for the Jewish Home.



Sabra Sundae

I was introduced to Sabra, the chocolate-orange liqueur, when I lived in Israel and I used it to create this sundae for my book, “Chocolate Sensations.” For this dessert, the warm Sabra chocolate sauce is poured over vanilla ice cream, which is garnished with fresh orange segments. For chocolate lovers, make it with chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla, or a little of both. To make the dessert pareve, make the sauce with soy milk or rice milk, and use pareve ice cream.

2 oranges, sectioned
2 tablespoons Sabra liqueur

Chocolate-Sabra Sauce:
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup milk, light cream or whipping cream
1/4 cup Sabra liqueur

1 pint vanilla ice cream

Combine oranges and liqueur in a bowl; toss lightly. Cover and refrigerate 10 to 30 minutes.

Sauce: Melt chocolate in cream in a medium bowl set above a pan of nearly simmering water. Stir until sauce is smooth. (Sauce can be kept, covered, 1 week in refrigerator.) Reheat sauce over a pan of hot water before serving; stir in liqueur.

To serve, scoop ice cream into 4 dessert dishes; arrange orange sections around it. Pour warm sauce over ice cream. Serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Spirited Melon Medley

This easy dessert is most delicious when made with homemade cantaloupe or honeydew sorbet but it’s also good with lemon or orange sorbet, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. For a colorful variation, add balls of seedless red and yellow watermelon.

4 scoops Melon Sorbet (recipe below) or purchased sorbet
1 cup Fresh Melon Sauce (recipe below)
1 tablespoon melon liqueur, or kirsch or orange juice, or more to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice
16 to 20 cantaloupe balls
16 to 20 honeydew balls


Prepare Melon Sorbet and Fresh Melon Sauce. Mix melon liqueur, sugar and lemon juice in a medium bowl. Add melon balls and toss. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Before serving, chill 4 to 6 dessert dishes or glasses so that sorbet won’t melt too quickly. To serve, add a scoop or a heaping spoonful of sorbet to each dish. Spoon sauce around base of sorbet, letting sorbet show. Garnish with melon balls and serve immediately.

Makes 4 servings.

Melon Sorbet

Use cantaloupe, honeydew or any other sweet juicy melon you find at the market.

1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
3 to 3 1/2 pounds ripe cantaloupe or honeydew melon
2 tablespoons fresh strained lemon or lime juice, or to taste


Combine sugar and water in a heavy medium saucepan. Heat over low heat, stirring gently, until sugar dissolves completely. Stop stirring. Bring to a full boil over medium-high heat. Pour into a bowl and cool completely. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Halve melon and remove seeds. Cut off rind and discard. Cut flesh in cubes. Puree melon in food processor until very smooth. Pour puree into a large bowl. Add 1 cup (of the sugar and water) syrup (for honeydew) or 1 1/4 cups syrup (for cantaloupe) and mix thoroughly. Stir in lemon juice. Taste, and add more syrup or lemon juice if needed. Mixture should taste slightly too sweet.

Chill a medium-sized metal bowl and an airtight container in freezer. Transfer sorbet mixture to ice cream machine and process until mixture has consistency of soft ice cream; it should not be runny but will not become very firm. Transfer sorbet as quickly as possible to chilled bowl; it melts very quickly. Cover tightly and freeze until ready to serve. If keeping sorbet longer than 3 hours, transfer it when firm to an airtight container, pack it down well, and cover tightly.

Makes 6 to 8 servings (about 3 to 4 cups)

Note: The sorbet tastes best on the day it was made but can be kept for 4 or 5 days in a tightly covered container in the freezer. If you have kept it for a few days and it is frozen solid, soften it in food processor before serving: First chill food processor bowl and blade in refrigerator. Puree sorbet, about 2 cups at a time, in food processor for just a few seconds. You can then return softened sorbet to a chilled container in the freezer and it will remain soft for 1 or 2 hours.

Fresh Melon Sauce

This delicate sauce is delicious with fruit salad, vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt. Make it green or orange, depending on which melon you choose.

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 pounds cantaloupe or honeydew melon
4 to 6 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons fresh strained lemon or lime juice or 1 tablespoon orange juice
3 to 5 teaspoons melon liqueur or kirsch (optional)


Peel melon, remove any seeds or pits, and cut flesh in chunks. Puree fruit in food processor or blender. Add 4 tablespoons powdered sugar. Process until very smooth. Strain puree into a bowl, pressing on pulp in strainer. Use rubber spatula to scrape mixture from underside of strainer.

Taste sauce, and whisk in more powdered sugar if needed. Whisk sauce thoroughly to blend in sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 2 days in a covered container. Stir before serving. Add lemon juice and liqueur. Serve cold.

Makes 1 to 1 1/3 cups sauce, 4 to 5 servings.

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