You’ve probably seen it all over your Instagram feed – glistening streams of something golden poured over frosted scoops of ice cream. Is it a lemon sauce? Some sort of syrup? Nope – it’s olive oil, and it’s the only topping we’ll be putting on our ice cream from here on out.

Olive oil in dessert is definitely not a new phenomenon. From olive oil cake (we love this rosemary, olive oil and orange cake from Ottolenghi) to olive oil churros and chocolate mousse with olive oil drizzled on top, the combo of something sweet with your favourite extra virgin drop is tried and tested.

So why does it work so well with ice cream?

The chill transforms the olive oil – and it really must be extra virgin – into something luscious and syrupy, that adds to the creamy mouthfeel with every spoonful. The earthy, fruitiness of the olives are really allowed to shine through, while everyone’s favourite flavour, umami, balances the sweetness of the ice cream. In short, it’s delicious.

And there’s no right or wrong way to enjoy this dessert creation. Perhaps a plain vanilla bean ice cream is your favourite frozen flavour, or a pistachio gelato or even something more complex, like stracciatella or dark chocolate – whatever you choose, olive oil works. 

Or maybe your feed has been flooded with images of pillowy soft serves (we know ours has). Softside, a soon-to-be-cult ice cream shop in New York, have shown us how good the soft serve-olive oil combo can be with their EVOO, honey and sea salt offering.

 

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A post shared by Rachana | Food Photography (@nyc.exploring)

Thankfully, we’re seeing Australian restaurants picking up on this trend, and if we had it our way, every parlour would have some EVOO sitting alongside their choc fudge sauce. But until then, don’t be alarmed if you see us smuggling a bottle of Cobram (the first release stuff, of course) into our local ice cream shop.

Related story: 10 easy cakes made using olive oil