FOOD PORN: A Look Back, 2014: Sweet Endings

Ahhh, dessert. There's no better way to cap off an enjoyable, delicious meal than with a little bit of sweet decadence. For me, if at all possible, it's in the form of chocolate. That's me, that's how I am and have always been. But occasionally, if it's done well, I love a good cheesecake or creme brulee', a carrot cake or an apple pie. Or, as in the case of the above photo -- taken in real time as I served this dessert to clients this summer in the Hamptons, no photoshopping necessary -- a good fruit tart, especially in the summer. 

Herewith, more samples from my photo gallery of sweets. They're mostly plated desserts, some single serving and some are whole pies or cakes or tarts. But they're all homemade, from scratch, and made with love. I'm not a pastry chef, specifically. But I love making delicious desserts (always have), and I think the way to make a client's meal memorable is to end it on a high note.

Some of my clients are kosher, some are vegetarian, some are lactose-intolerant or gluten-free eaters. I enjoy catering to specific tastes and relish the challenge of creating delicious food within guidelines. But my favorite type of food-specific eaters? Dessertarians, of course!

Flourless chocolate cake with fresh strawberry sauce

...and plated, with caramel sauce and raspberry truffle and pistachio ice creams

 

It's only right that I would start out the tantalizing photo stream with chocolate galore. Flourless chocolate cake is always a favorite, and it's so versatile. The chocolate fondant cake is also a classic, and this version with a molten center and a caramelized outside is particularly decadent. I paired it with homemade banana-caramel ice cream, a caramelized banana slice, blackberry sauce, and a meringue kiss.
The chocolate truffletorte is as rich as they come, with a thickened ganache consistency and shaved white chocolate on top. I paired it with a white and dark chocolate-dipped strawberry and edible flowers, and sprinkled strawberry rock crystal candy around the plate for whimsy. It's a serious chocolate-lover's dessert, with a wink.

Valentine's Day is always a time we think of sweet treats, and clients hosted some fun, romance-themed dinner parties in 2014. A simple, but moist, red velvet cake with classic cream cheese icing strikes a chord with many. My version definitely falls on the side of chocolatey, deep red -- not the electric red version that's simply vanilla cake with a ridiculous amount of red food coloring.

But that's my personal preference, of course. A departure from the classic is the rosewater panna cotta I served together with the red velvet cake. This was a creamy, light, subtle dessert with hints of the exotic. The panna cotta itself is tangy, the strawberry sauce bright and sweet, and the balsamic reduction a counterpoint to all of the above. Rosewater turkish delight and candied violets as garnish elevate the final dessert futher, adding texture and nuance. I loved how this all turned out!

Individual Apple Crumble

Apple-cinnamon tart

I love good old American apple desserts, in pretty much any form. One of my favorite ways to enjoy fruit desserts is by making them into crumbles. I make them all summer long with berries and stone fruits like peaches, nectarines, plums, and pluots. Come autumn, I go for apples and, upon occasion, pears. There's something about the combination of these fall fruits with cinnamon and warm spices that screams perfection in sweater weather. I also love cheesecake. It's a no-chocolate "exception" dessert for me. I love both the classic New York version as well as the Italian/Roman ricotta version. They bridge the continental divide that is my life in cooking. They also make for damned tasty endings to great meals, and they're light enough so they don't weigh on you. I love a classic with strawberries, but I also love throwing some chocolate chips in with the batter and making these mini ricotta cheesecakes. I like to whip some cream and add some crushed pistachios to it, and top it all off with some berries (here, raspberries) and mint. Light and delicious!

Pine nut tart with grapefruit-rosemary sorbetto

Pavlova with red fruits and passion fruit sorbet

Sometimes desserts are a challenge to pair within the context of a meal. Sometimes, the meal dictates the invention of a new dessert that just works. Often these are "compound desserts" made up of several elements that work better together as a whole. The desserts above and here all fall into that category. A chewy, caramelized pine nut tart laced with rosemary in its caramel base is accompanied by a bracing grapefruit-rosemary sorbetto. Gluten-free diners on Valentine's Day shouldn't miss out on all the pleasures of decadent desserts: to wit, a meringue pavlova filled with pillowy cream and red fruits pairs perfectly with a tart passion fruit sorbet. It was a multi-course Moroccan meal that spurred me to invent a dessert worthy of the previous courses. The solution was a light-as-air citrus cake on a meyer lemon yogurt cream, marinated figs and dates in spiced syrup, caramelized figs, and an orange-mint salad. Gorgeous, light, and a great complement to the spirit of the Moroccan food. 

 

And then there's the beauty of the berry, in its various forms. I love the classic strawberry shortcake, like the one above -- closer to a lightly sweet biscuit, stuffed with fresh organic whipped cream, and lashed with ripe, juicy berries. There's the more ascetic but incredibly flavorful dessert I created of a strawberry-balsamic sorbetto, packed with flavor, over minted sliced strawberries and paired with a pistachio tuile and a touch of whipped cream -- a bit of an Italian-modernist version of the strawberry shortcake.

In a class of its own? The simple, dignified elegance of a chocolate-dipped berry, here used to top a shadow cake. This magnificent dessert is a cake my mother used to pick up from a local bakery for family birthdays when I was a child, when she didn't have time to make a homemade cake. It's a layer of chocolate cake and a layer of vanilla, with chocolate buttercream in the middle, regular buttercream on the outside, and a chocolate ganache glaze on top. I doubled down for a client's birthday, here, and made the cake 4 layers, alternating between chocolate and vanilla. The ganache is extra rich, and the chocolate-covered strawberry trim is my over-the-top invention...for which I refuse to apologize. This cake was what the Italians would call "una bomba" -- a bomb. And it is. A delicious, decadent bomba. And that's what dessert, of course, is all about.