Dipping an ice cream cone in melted butter is becoming an increasingly popular trend
In some Italian regions, the idea of adding double cream, both on top of the cone and inside the wafer, is an established practice.
Star pastry chef Dominique Ansel launches a new trend
And from that context comes another trend that's increasingly taking shape and shouldn't be trivialized: behind its popularity is a pastry chef who, over the course of his career, has launched more than one culinary trend that, even years later, is still making an impact. We're talking about Dominique Ansel, who just opened his new project in New York in 2025, Papa d'Amour, a pastry shop that sells and blends recipes from Asia, particularly Taiwan, with the science of French pastry making (we wrote about it here).
An ice cream cone dipped in melted butter
In the last year alone, Ansel's offerings included croissants made with bao bread, as well as shokupan, a traditional Japanese bread also used for sandwiches, but shaped like a croissant. Among his more eccentric offerings, however, the one that really made a splash was a soft ice cream sold dipped in melted butter (butter dipped ice cream). Ansel will be offering it as a limited-edition special starting in the summer of 2025. It consisted of a cone filled with vanilla ice cream and A2 organic milk, then dipped in melted French butter from Isigny-Sainte-Mère in Normandy, a butter Ansel has called "the best French butter" and uses for all his creations, including his croissants. The whole thing is topped with a pinch of fleur de sel, sourced from hand-harvested salt in France, and inside the cone there's even a surprise: a small vanilla mochi.
From an ice cream cone to a global trend
The content quickly racked up thousands of views, and some reels on the topic reached over a million viewers. So much so that Ansel decided to keep the ice cream on his menu year-round, perhaps even changing it up with more imaginative combinations. For example, there's a version made with corn ice cream—an ingredient that's conquering restaurants and pastry shops around the world—with a touch of honey, garnished with Cotija cheese and Tajin, and finished with a squeeze of lime. The resulting flavor is simultaneously sour, salty, sweet, and slightly spicy. In short, a single cone contains every possible flavor. The ice cream can only be enjoyed on the spot; it's not available for home delivery or pre-order, as explained on the website.
The success of butter also reaches the world of ice cream
This trend certainly doesn't come out of nowhere. While we've already said that dipping gelato in special toppings is nothing new, it's also no surprise that butter is enjoying a resurgence not only in the culinary world but also in fashion and beauty. Many of the latest trends have featured butter: from whipped butter in restaurants, now a new classic, to platters made with butter and other ingredients. Now we're simply at a new stage: mixing butter and gelato, an ingredient that hadn't yet made a strong presence in gelato shops.
Ice cream dipped in butter goes viral
As often happens, an idea (for which we can't be 100% certain Ansel didn't find inspiration elsewhere, but which he claims is his own and the fruit of a visit to Normandy in the summer of 2025 with his children) has led to cascading success. Even in Connecticut, a Stew Leonard's store began serving "cone butter," as it's called here, dipped in melted butter and then sprinkled with a pinch of salt. It gained enough attention that a sign was put up outside the store with a photo of the cone, the words "millions of views on social media," and the TikTok symbol. Further interpretations have sprung from there, such as one with butter and popcorn.
Will we see it in Italy too?
The trend of dipping gelato in butter, though it has left many skeptical about the combination, has actually gained traction in many gelato parlors around the world. While many users have given up on trying the recipe at home (because few people have the specific gelato machine), many have wanted to try the product, which in some cases can fetch up to $10 a cone. In Italy, butter is sometimes used in gelato shops as a component of the gelato itself, not as a topping. Furthermore, as we know, it's now common to mix gelato with olive oil, another fat often used in cooking as an alternative to animal fat (we've discussed it here). Will the butter-dipped cone arrive in Italy too? We don't know, but we've already mentioned it.