Duluth’s Best Bread and Crank & Dasher debut two bakery-inspired ice creams

Duluth’s Best Bread and Crank & Dasher have turned two beloved bakery items into small-batch ice cream, offering almond croissant and pecan caramel roll flavors now available at several local outlets. The collaboration mixes chopped bakery items with almond paste and homemade caramel to create dessert flavors that reflect the city’s independent food scene.

Annie Carmichael, founder of Crank & Dasher, said the partnership grew from repeated meetings at local events. "We just kept running into each other at events, and he was like 'hey, we should do this collaboration; it would be super fun,'" Carmichael said. The result is two exclusive flavors crafted by incorporating chopped almond croissants and pecan caramel rolls into Crank & Dasher’s small-batch base, with added almond paste and homemade caramel to deepen the profiles.

Robert and Michael Lillegard, who own Duluth’s Best Bread, helped shape the flavors and will carry them at their shops. "I think we're the first place to get Crank and Dasher in Superior," Robert Lillegard said, noting the collaboration brings a Duluth maker into the Superior retail scene. Lillegard added a taste endorsement: "I really like it," Lillegard said. "I think it's delicious, but of course, it's ice cream, right."

The flavors debuted around Feb. 4 and are being sold at Crank & Dasher’s Lakeside location, through a wholesale partnership at Mount Royal Market, and at Duluth’s Best Bread’s downtown Duluth and Superior shops. That distribution mix - shopfront retail plus wholesale placement at a local market - illustrates how small food businesses in the region leverage partnerships to extend reach without large-scale manufacturing.

For St. Louis County residents, the collaboration signals both new treats and modest economic ripple effects. Cross-promotion between a bakery and a neighborhood ice cream maker can increase foot traffic at downtown and Lakeside storefronts, direct more shoppers toward Mount Royal Market, and create opportunities for future product tie-ins among local suppliers. Crank & Dasher’s small-batch positioning suggests limited runs rather than mass production, which can drive urgency among consumers but also creates uncertainty about how long the flavors will remain on shelves.

Neither business has published pricing, package sizes, or a stated run length for the flavors, and allergy details have not been released beyond the obvious inclusion of almonds and pecans. Readers interested in trying the new flavors should check the Lakeside shop, Mount Royal Market, or Duluth’s Best Bread locations in downtown Duluth and Superior for current availability. The collaboration is a tidy example of local makers kneading together products and audiences - and it may presage more cross-vendor partnerships in the Northland food scene.