Mulligan's Farms

It is finally time for Mulligan’s, the storied ice cream stand of my New Hampshire days, to get the blog mention it deserves. Well, I must clarify a few things first: while I might live in the Boston area currently, I still frequent Mulligan’s whenever I head back to Londonderry to visit my family. So, the NH days still exist, in a manner of speaking. Secondly, this purveyor of desserts is not even in NH – it’s in Tyngsboro, MA, a town bordering NH, which is about 25 minutes from where I grew up. Lastly, my family and I are the only ones who know this place as Mulligan’s. Any other person would call the stand Sullivan Farms Homemade Ice Cream. Why do we call it Mulligan’s, you ask? Well, that doesn’t have any impact on the quality of the ice cream made there…and believe me, it is delicious.

The actual ice cream used at Mulligan’s is thick and creamy, but not creamy to the point of tasting fatty. The flavors are enjoyable – chocolate is light and milky, almost like Swiss chocolate; French vanilla is creamy with the palest yellow color; strawberry strikes the perfect balance between fruit and milk tastes; mint is strong yet sweet, and of course a lovely light green. With these ice creams as bases, Mulligan’s uses the typical ice cream mix-ins to put the best possible spin on the usual flavor combinations. Any chip variety is packed full of chips of varying sizes and textures. Candy ice creams are filled with candy pieces. Cookie flavors contain ground-up cookie powder as well as huge cookie chunks. Swirl ice creams contain enough of the swirled item – fudge, caramel, etc – to be considered a frozen sundae. Two of my favorite inspired flavors are:

• Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup –Swiss chocolate ice cream swirled with peanut butter, and peanut butter cup chunks as well as full cups mixed in
• Mopman’s Grasshopper Pie – a Julie flavor if there ever was one, this ice cream has pretty much all I would want in a dessert, in one scoop: mint ice cream with chocolate chips, Oreo cookies (both crumbs and pieces / entire cookies), and thick, luxurious fudge swirls

Essentially, I can’t think of a better place to fulfill one’s need for traditional, homestyle ice cream. If you’re in the mood for something other than a scoop or two, their sundaes are also delicious, with plenty of rich homemade fudge drizzled over mounds of ice cream. The deal is made even sweeter when you consider the value for your money – a “kiddie” at Mulligan’s is the equivalent of a generous medium, or skimpy large, at any Boston-area creamery; and yes, that’s the smallest size they offer.

So, if you’re in southern New Hampshire for any reason, or taking Route 3 north to a vacation in the Lakes Region or White Mountains, or are simply in the mood for a dessert-themed escape from urban Massachusetts, you owe it to yourself to stop at Mulligan’s. Bring me back a tub of Mopman’s – yes, they will pack mass quantities to go!

Baking at the Brewery

This most recent summer weekend came to a delicious close in Portsmouth, NH. After spending the day sunning ourselves at local beaches, we decided that few things could be better than eating pub food and drinking local beer - so, I recommended the Portsmouth Brewery's restaurant, long a family favorite for its hearty sandwiches and relaxed, airy dining space. Even I was pleasantly surprised with the excellence of the establishment's appetizers and dinners - the menu has grown more varied, and the food's quality has increased, over the years - as well as the desserts! The following desserts found their way to our table.

• Chocolate Stout Cake - this monstrous two-layer cake was made with the brewery's own "Black Cat" stout, frosted with milk chocolate icing, and drizzled in chocolate sauce. A hearty dollop of freshly-whipped cream accompanied the dessert, and its purpose became apparent after the first bite. The cake was extremely dense thanks to the stout, and any cool attempt (in cream form) at lightening it was welcomed. Even glasses of beer and water couldn't help the entire cake down. The beer taste was noticeable, but not too distracting. Overall, I found the cake to be too dense, and slightly too dry and bitter - probably nothing that a little extra oil in the recipe couldn't fix!
• Fruit Cobbler - imagine a large ramekin filled with mixed fruit (strawberries, blueberries and raspberries), topped with an inch-thick layer of hearty crumble topping and a finishing dollop of vanilla cream. Such was the glory that I ordered and enjoyed. The berries were fresh, and the crumble topping was well-spiced, with plenty of oaty chunks to crunch. My only objection was to the walnuts strewn throughout the topping. Otherwise, consider this repeat-order-worthy and an inspiration to my own kitchen.
• Vanilla Saffron Pound Cake - this unusual offering was from the "Brewer's Table No. 22" menu, a rotating list of specials with custom beer pairings. The pound cake had a pleasant vanilla flavor with only a hint (fortunately) of saffron, and the clear vanilla glaze drizzled over the confection had the faintest hint of lemon. A cassis-moscado sorbet accompanied the cake, and I thoroughly enjoyed this unconventional medium for black currant flavor.

Impressive for a local pub, eh? We were all stuffed after dining so heartily, so we had no room for Annabelle's Ice Cream, another Portsmouth food favorite. Maybe next time?