My Grandmother’s Favorite Dessert: The Hot Butterscotch Sundae at Schrafft’s

And a call to “gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world” from Jack Gilbert

Photo: Jolene

Hi, Everyone — it’s good to be back.

I’m sharing a post from a few years ago with a poem by Jack Gilbert that I turn to in times of uncertainty, loss and sorrow — like now.

Here’s a favorite line from A Brief for the Defense :

We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world.

— Jack Gilbert

The full poem is in the post, and I hope you find stubbornness, gladness and comfort in it. I also find making something delicious and beautiful in the kitchen always pulls me out of a funk. Here is the link:

Why I’m thinking about Schrafft’s

Over the past month I’ve completed a first-draft, fifteen chapter outline for a proposal, part of which is about being a mid-century kid in New York City.

In those earliest days in the late 1950s, my grandmother would take me to lunch in the city — we’d ride the subway in from Queens—and my first “dining out”experience was sitting at the counter at Schrafft’s.

1959 Cover of a Schrafft’s Menu — there were many different NYC landmarks pictured on various menus. Source: NYPL

There were tiny chicken salad and egg salad sandwiches with no crusts, but it was the Hot Butterscotch Sundae with chopped nuts on top I remember most.

And it wasn’t because I had one — I had a bowl of the chocolate ice cream. It was because it was my grandmother’s favorite dessert in the world, tied with Ebinger’s Mocha Layer Cake.

She was so over-the-moon happy when it arrived, and so thoroughly enjoyed it that it instilled in me the joy of going out to eat.

Here is the original recipe from Schrafft’s, and it couldn’t be easier.

HOT BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE, SCHRAFFT'S STYLE

1 stick butter

½ cup heavy cream

1 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

½ cup light corn syrup

Combine butter, brown sugar and corn syrup in a small-medium saucepan or pot, place over medium heat and stir until the ingredients create a smooth and thick mixture.

Take off heat and add heavy cream and vanilla, stir to combine.

Pour over vanilla ice cream (or whatever you like) and top with chopped nuts (I used salted almonds)

Enjoy!

The recipe is adapted from a really fun book by Joan Kanel Slomanson.

Some trivia: The Schrafft’s pictured on the cover is the site of what later became a legendary country music club on Fifth Avenue and 13th Street in the 1970s — the late, great, Lone Star Cafe. ⭐️

Hang in there, everybody, and see you soon!

Jolene