WACKY INGREDIENT: SALTINES

(305 Nevins St., Gowanus, Brooklyn; 347-725-4061)

THE PLACE: When Brian Smith and Jackie Cuscuna opened Ample Hills in Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights three summers ago, their salted crack caramel quickly became the bestselling flavor they run out of fastest. “I wish it weren’t,” Smith confesses half-jokingly, explaining the labor-intensive process of caramelizing large amounts of sugar on the stove top until it’s nearly burnt, giving it a bitterness that distinguishes their version from other salted caramels out there.

THE CRAZY SCOOP: For their gigantic new Gowanus location, which has a roof deck overlooking the area’s namesake canal, Smith wanted to create a fitting flavor. Drawing from both his sci-fi writing background and the mythology surrounding the waterway, he came up with It Came Out of Gowanus. “It’s the deepest, darkest, murkiest chocolate ice cream,” he rhapsodizes — and appropriately chockfull of gluttonous surprises: white chocolate pearls, a nod to the waterway’s once-prolific bivalves; chocolaty “crack” — made with saltine-butter-sugar cookies and hazelnut paste; and chunks of Grand Marnier-laced brownies. ($4.75, small; $6.25, large)

STEVE’S TASTE TEST

“Super-rich. Hazelnut-crack cookies actually crackle. White chocolate pearls register more on the eyes than on the palate; orange brownies are imperceptible to either. The chocolate’s so tar-thick, it barely ran after 10 minutes in the hot sun.”

GEORGE’S TASTE TEST

“Mmmm-mmm. This ice cream is rich and chocolatey.”