the butterscotch sauce

I never knew what butterscotch could taste like until tonight. Rancatore’s homemade sauce shifted my butterscotch paradigm in a huge way. I’d been hearing great things about Rancatore’s for awhile, so we gave the Belmont location a try tonight since we were already in the neighborhood (there’s also a shop in Lexington). The menu was similar to other local ice cream shops — all the basic ice cream flavors, plus a few unique ones, then a nice variety of sorbets and yogurts.

I don’t normally need add-ons if the ice cream is amazing on its own, but the homemade melted toppings came highly recommended — and they cost about a $1 apiece — so we opted for the butterscotch sauce to complement our combined scoops of bittersweet chocolate and Hydrox. That first taste was life changing. I can’t imagine a better combination of butter, brown sugar, and cream than that sauce. In fact, I got so overwhelmed with the whole situation that I failed to take a photo of the goods until we were almost finished eating.

Fun fact 1: I kind of wish I had been born into the Rancatore family. The owner of the ice cream shop is the brother of the owner of Toscanini’s in Cambridge.

Fun fact 2: Though many people view Hydrox cookies as an Oreo knockoff, Hydrox actually came first — and is viewed as a superior cookie by many. Its filling is a little more tangy than the sometimes-too-sweet Oreo filling, and the cookies are crunchier. But here’s the mystery… Hydrox cookies disappeared from the market a few years ago. So how is Rancatore’s still using them in its ice cream? (P.S. Though I knew what Hydroxes were before tonight, I didn’t know the full history on the cookie. A 2008 WSJ article enlightened me.)

Tagged: Belmont, bittersweet chocolate, butterscotch, Hydrox, ice cream, Rancatore's