Desserts
Unexpected
No mere afterthought, dessert is cloaked in expectations – from a craving for a familiar favorite to a yen for the exotic. Chefs are rising to the challenge by reinventing classic desserts with seasonal, regional, ethnic and even savory flavor twists, then matching them with a mixture of textures. The result is an unexpected sensory delight.
Natural, multifunctional eggs are go-to dessert ingredients.
WATCH CHEF FANY’S DESSERT VIDEO
#1. SMYTH – SALTED LICORICE EGG YOLK
Chefs John and Karen Urie Shields opened Smyth, a fine dining restaurant in the city’s trendy West Loop neighborhood, to showcase seasonal ingredients from a nearby farm that they have a relationship with (aptly named “The Farm”). While the prix fixe menu is always changing, there has been one standby on the dessert menu that has become not only the restaurant’s signature dish, but one of the most sought-after desserts in Chicago – the egg yolk soaked in salted licorice, which is nestled in a frozen yogurt meringue, all served over a rotating selection of seasonal fruits. It’s slightly sweet and a little savory – a transitional course between the savory menu items and the final sweet desserts.
#2. WIN SON BAKERY – BLACK SUGAR EGG TARTS
Josh Ku and Trigg Brown opened Win Son, a Taiwanese-American restaurant, in Williamsburg in 2016, and they were soon earning plenty of attention and attracting lines out the door. Three years later they’ve expanded to now include Win Son Bakery, just across the street from the original restaurant, which features baked goods and sandwiches that showcase the brand’s signature riffs on Taiwanese favorites. That includes iconic pastries and desserts like their Black Sugar Egg Tarts, which uses the black, unrefined sugar that can be easily found in Japan and Taiwan but is lesser-known in the U.S. Egg tarts, however, whether inspired by Asia, Spain, or beyond, are having a bit of a moment in the U.S., appearing on numerous menus across the country.
#3. KALI – MERINGUE GELATO
Friends Kevin Meehan and Drew Langley dreamed of opening a fine dining restaurant without any of the pretentiousness one might typically associate with high-end cuisine. That dream became a reality when their restaurant Kali opened in early 2016, an offshoot of a popular pop-up restaurant they had already been running. The menu at the Michelin-starred restaurant is always changing, but the dessert menu always features what has become an iconic creation – the meringue gelato with sugar-cured egg yolk shavings. To make the deceptively simple-seeming dessert, the egg yolks and whites are separated, with the yolks being cured in salt and sugar for two weeks, while the whites are made into a gelato. A perfect quenelle of the gelato is scooped onto the bowl and a shower of shaved, cured yolk is dusted over the top.
#4. SIDECAR DOUGHNUTS – EGGNOG BRULEE DOUGHNUT
Eggs are quintessential ingredients in so many desserts, but there are a few desserts that truly showcase eggs and make them the main ingredient and star of the show, like crème brulee or eggnog. At Sidecar Doughnuts, a doughnut shop that first opened in 2012 and now has four locations in California serving inventive, seasonal flavors, they combine those two egg-centric desserts in their Eggnog Brulee Doughnut. The signature flavor last December, it features a raised bullseye doughnut topped with housemade eggnog glaze, eggnog cream filling, a bruleed top, and a final sprinkle of powdered sugar. “Have an egg-cellent holiday season,” the brand proclaimed in promoting the limited-time offering.
#5. OSTRA – SNOW EGG
Snow eggs, or “oeufs a la neige,” are a classic French dessert featuring light, airy, poached meringues floating in a rich custard sauce. Numerous chefs around the world have offered up their own version of the dessert, swapping in new flavors or playing with the format. At Boston’s upscale Mediterranean seafood restaurant Ostra, the Snow Egg dessert is considered a must-get item on the menu, featuring a combination of savory and sweet flavors – the snow egg meringue itself encases lemon custard mousse, which is served over a plate of raspberries and basil syrup, all topped with a halo of spun sugar.
#6. BRENNAN’S – BAKED ALASKA
With a history that dates back to 1946, New Orleans’ iconic pink restaurant Brennan’s serves up a menu that is steeped in tradition. That includes a number of dishes that are served tableside, a flourish that is being revived at many restaurants at a time when many consumers crave an experience and can’t wait to get out their phone to upload a video to social media. At Brennan’s, tableside options include soft scrambled truffled eggs, seasonal crepes, bananas foster, and Baked Alaska, which the restaurant recently updated to feature a more modern presentation. The new take on the classic dessert featuring roasted pineapple ice cream, coconut cake, and macadamia nuts, which is all flambeed tableside (indeed, flambeeing the showstopping dessert is only possible because of the airy meringue – the egg whites protect the ice cream from melting).
TIPS & TRICKS
“One of the tips I have for chefs using eggs in desserts is pairing the whisk to the application. Using different kinds [of whisks] for different applications makes a big difference. You have a lot of whisks that have a sort of balloon shape. This is going to add a lot of air. If you want a lot of air in whatever application you’re doing, then use that. You really have to play around with different ones. I find if you’re going to get one whisk for most applications – a medium whisk is a very good all-around option.”
— Chef Fany Gerson
DID YOU KNOW?
- Eggs possess more than 20 incredible functional properties – from aeration to binding to emulsification and browning – which are essential in creating many delicious desserts.
- Eggs contain more than 100 volatile flavor components, although the final taste may be described as mild or bland. However, egg yolks contain fats that can carry and assist with the release of other ingredient flavors within a formulation. 1,2
- Egg whites, unlike any other natural food ingredient, create foam six to eight times greater than their original liquid volume.
- There are more than 40 different proteins in a whole egg, some located only in the white and others predominantly in the yolk.
- Coagulation indicates a change from liquid to a solid or semisolid state. Egg proteins have excellent coagulative properties that give custards, puddings and flans their smooth, creamy textures.
1. Stadelmen WJ and Cotterill OJ. (1995). Egg Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, Haworth Press, Inc., New York, USA
2. Vaclavik V, Christian E. (2007). Essentials of Food Science, Springer Science & Business Media
