September 16, 2010
By PAOLA SINGER
IN Palermo, a residential neighborhood of Buenos Aires, an elegant specialty store called Persicco doles out a confection called chocuquinna. Inspired by a popular Argentine birthday cake, it has a sweet dulce de leche base balanced with hints of cream cheese and laced with chocolate chunks of what could be described as a cross between a crunchy cookie and a spongy cake. This version comes in a particular sort of serving dish — an ice cream cone.
The flavor is one of many new ice creams that incorporate the traditional South American ingredient dulce de leche, a creamy jam made by slowly simmering milk and sugar. While this jam turns up in almost every kind of dessert — filling crepes and tarts, topping flans and cakes — it’s especially versatile as a frozen treat.
In the last few years, Buenos Aires’s heladerías, or ice cream parlors, have introduced a heap of varieties that include some form of dulce de leche, transforming one of the most traditional local flavors into an exotic scoop. Many of the city’s more than 2,000 creameries now carry up to 10 options in this category, in what seems like a race to out-sweet one another with elaborate inventions. It is as if peanut butter suddenly became an epicurean ingredient, served with raspberry coulis and crème fraîche on a sugar cone.
“The gourmet ice cream trend has reached a peak,” said Horacio Spinetto, whose book “Heladerías de Buenos Aires” was released in March. “The flavor that sells the most, by far, is dulce de leche. It represents the ice cream of Argentina.”
Dulce de leche scoops are nothing new. But lately, this flavor has been the object of much experimentation.
“My family broke with the custom of keeping traditional flavors plain,” said Juan Martín Guarracino, one of Persicco’s founders. His parents and uncles started one of the nation’s largest ice cream chains, Freddo, in 1969 and sold it to an investment group 30 years later. During Freddo’s heyday in the ’80s and ’90s, the company began offering crema tramontana — which contains dulce de leche jam and specks of malted chocolate balls — and banana split, two innovative dulce de leche flavors that had patrons lined up at the counter.
“Dulce de leche has always been a top seller,” Mr. Guarracino said. Since Persicco opened in 2001, he said, the store has used it in several new recipes, including one with brownie bites, and another, called dolcatta, with poached strawberries and baked meringue. “We are leaders in development; the others come and look at us.”
Fellow ice cream makers disagree. “Different creameries create different ice creams,” said Ariel Davalli, a co-owner of a chain called Chungo. “Our clients want novelty, and we have to be ingenious. Every season we come up with new flavors.”
Chungo has a dulce de leche and cream cheese helado, or ice cream, marbled with pure dulce de leche and cookie crumbs, named cucuruccino. Sitting at its new Palermo Hollywood branch, a modern spot with funky wallpaper and white leather chairs, I pondered the similarities between this cone and one sampled recently at a competitor’s. It was milder in taste and creamier in texture — and gobbled before any further conclusions could be reached.
This year, Chungo added rice pudding, cheese with sweet potato jam, and flan with dulce de leche ice creams, honoring three desserts considered emblematic of the national cuisine for Argentina’s bicentennial. Although the precise origins of dulce de leche are unknown, Argentina likes to think of it as homegrown. In fact, the government recently declared it part of the nation’s cultural patrimony, to the irritation of some neighbors. What’s indisputable is the Argentines’ adoration of this treat. “We were raised on dulce de leche,” said Francis Mallmann, a prominent chef. “It’s deeply rooted in our way of life.”
To unaccustomed palates, dulce de leche on its own can taste overly sweet. But as an ice cream, it has a global appeal. Häagen-Dazs introduced it in the United States in the late ’90s with great success, followed by Ciao Bella, Ben & Jerry’s and others.
To hear the heladeros, or ice cream makers, in Buenos Aires tell it, their versions may be hard to beat. “Argentine ice cream is known throughout the world because it’s still done the old-fashioned way,” said Mr. Davalli of Chungo, noting that natural ingredients like fresh eggs and fruits are often used.
Buenos Aires’s first ice cream stores were opened in the early 1900s by Italian immigrants, and their popularity surged in the ’40s. Today, many of the city’s creameries advertise their products as artisanal and natural. The top shops include Freddo, which is ubiquitous — along with smaller chains like Persicco, Chungo and Un’Altra Volta.
The market is big and keeps growing. Jauja, a Patagonian brand, opened its first Buenos Aires branch nine months ago on Avenida Cerviño, home to a handful of casual spots. Jauja’s latest flavor is called mousse del piltri, inspired by a mountain at the foot of the Andes called Piltriquitrón: it’s a dulce de leche mousse ice cream with slivers of caramelized almonds. The base is fluffy and sweet but not overbearing, the almonds perfectly toasted, with just enough crunch.
Purists tend to brush off these newfangled varieties. “I prefer the plain dulce de leche,” said Mr. Spinetto, who has also written a book on pizzerias and said he prefers simple pies, with just cheese. “That way you can really tell if it’s good.”
A new quality seal might assuage skeptics like Mr. Spinetto. This year, the Argentine milk industry created a contest for best dulce de leche ice cream, and awarded the top prize to Chungo.
“We’re very proud,” said Jorge Davalli, a co-owner, who founded the company in 1973. “We always choose the best natural ingredients.”
For their dulce de leche ice cream, the Davallis buy a confectioners’ version of the jam that’s custom-made by a respected local producer. Well aware of Argentines’ tastes, Chungo’s new advertising campaign is all about their award-winning dulce de leche.
“When Argentines move to another country, one of the things they miss, aside from their family, is dulce de leche,” Mr. Davalli said.
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