Next Gen Desserts
Save room for sweets in this golden moment for New York pastry.
New York City is in a golden pastry moment right now, dripping with talent and tahini. Michael Laiskonis is back behind the pass. There’s kakigori off Canal Street and artisan bakers running hotel F&B programs. Pastry chefs are making inventive, delicious, and resonant desserts by tapping into their own heritage, unabashed American nostalgia (hey there, sundae), and techniques refined in some of the city’s best kitchens.
Cray for Crullers
On May 10, 2013, Daniel Alvarez fried the first batch of Cronuts at Dominique Ansel. Now as pastry chef of Daily Provisions and Union Square Cafe, Alvarez has a category killer all his own: the cruller, with a yielding, custardy center and deeply burnished exterior. Starting with a basic choux dough, it took him three months to get the butter-packed ratios down and onto a four-page recipe. Cruller prep takes four hours each day, starting at 5am, and he makes three flavors (maple is the staple). They sell for three-and-a-half bucks, and customers line up to buy more than 200 a day by 11am.
Raisin d’Extra
At Bien Cuit, Scott Cioe’s éclair is so packed with flavor that the delicate walls of its choux pastry can barely contain it. “It’s the éclair of the moment. It reminds you of home and childhood, like an oatmeal cookie. It’s nostalgic, but we replace the cinnamon with underutilized fenugreek,” says Cioe. The pastry cream is infused with toasted oats. The glaze is white chocolate-fenugreek. The golden raisin pâte de fruits tastes more like raisins than the actual dried fruit—as if they’ve gone through therapy and are now living their best lives. Citric acid-spiked golden raisin-white verjus purée is an exclamation point. Cioe uses every square inch for flavor, fashioning an unforgettable take on a classic.
NY ♡S SESAME
Sesame, tahini, halvah. New York pastry chefs have a full-on obsession with Sesamum indicum and its bitter, nutty, fatty character. It works across cuisines and formats, and thanks to the ladies of Seed & Mill, New York has its own high-quality, freshly ground tahini.
Lindsay Bittner’s chocolate babka, chocolate-tahini crémeux, pistachio halvah, coffee-cardamom gelato at Benno
Shaun Velez’s white sesame ice cream vacherin, Concord grape sorbet, black sesame praline at Cafe Boulud
Zoe Kanan’s halvah-salted caramel kouign-amann at The Freehand Hotel
Matt Conroy’s black sesame curd, Concord grape raspado, sesame crumble, frozen grapes at Oxomoco
Manuela Sanin’s lemon frozen yogurt with black sesame ice cream at Eleven Madison Park
Theo Friedman’s strawberry and cream kakigori with strawberry sauce, black sesame brittle, whipped cream, black sesame at Bonsai Kakigori
