The Cheese & Crack Sundae, Broken Down

In the beginning, the delightfully niche food cart–turned–dairy nook Cheese & Crack served only its namesakes: artisan cheese and housemade crackers. Almost on a whim, owner William Steuernagel added a small soft serve machine. “We didn’t think it was going to be a huge part of the business,” he says. “We thought it was just going to be another little fun thing. But how we got that wrong.” More than a decade later, its sundaes have attracted serious lines and countless Instagram posts, and the little Kerns snack shop can churn out 200 to 300 a day in the summer. The Cheese & Crack Sundae is the kingpin, stacking chocolate, vanilla, and buttery cracker crumbles under charred marshmallow fluff. Here’s the scoop on what makes it special. 

Toasted Marshmallow Fluff: Other Cheese & Crack sundaes come with layers of pudding, which demand a financially devastating number of egg yolks. The remaining bounty of egg whites whip into a meringue with corn syrup and sugar to become in-house marshmallow fluff. A scoop lands in each cup, finished with the blast of a blowtorch to get that stuck-directly-in-the-campfire char. 

Cinnamon Cracker Crumble: For the Ritz riffs on its cheese boards, Cheese & Crack rolls out dough in sheets, cuts them into rounds, and then bakes the whole sheet, leaving plenty of crunchy bits behind. Rather than letting them go to waste, the team blends the scraps with sea salt, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and bakes the mix until an ambrosial aroma fills the shop. The crumble, which appears in three layers, has inspired a seasonal scented candle Steuernagel sells during the holidays.

Soft Serve: Nothing fancy here, at least on paper: Steuernagel uses Southern Oregon–made Umpqua vanilla ice cream base for its sundaes. But the shop’s specialty pressurized soft serve machine keeps its ice cream velvety smooth, never mealy or icy. Each sundae gets two heaping layers.

Chocolate Ganache: Evoking an old-school sundae cone, a pool of chocolate
ganache awaits patient eaters at the bottom of their cups. The Cheese & Crack team heats heavy cream with vanilla and Guittard chocolate in a double boiler before drizzling it into the cup.