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Hit the road, cupcakes! It’s not that you aren’t delicious, but when it comes to must-have desserts… we’re afraid you’ve taken a back seat. We’re ready for the next big thing in sweet treats!
So what will become the new object of affection for dessert lovers everywhere? We did a little digging and found that, from New York to Austin, pastry chefs all over the country are putting on their confectionary thinking caps to find the next contenders for the title of “top dessert.”
Here are five choices that might just become the next cupcake craze:
Cake Pops
Gone are the days where overgrown desserts took their places on restaurant tables all over the country. Desserts that once consisted of gigantic plates stacked with layers of ice cream and other combinations of ooey, gooey goodness have been scaled down to bite-sized portions. And when it comes to desserts of tiny proportion, the cake pop takes the cake… literally.
Made to resemble adorable little lollipops, cake pops are the perfect portion-controlled treat. Especially popular at weddings, baby showers and birthday parties, cake pops can be found in a wide assortment of flavor combinations, including traditional chocolate and vanilla with chocolate frosting, as well as red velvet with vanilla frosting, cheesecake and strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting, as well as peppermint, coconut, lemon and butter pecan.
The Little Cakes, located in New York City, has a wide range of both traditional and unique flavored cake pops, such as white chocolate macadamia nut, black forest, almond, chai tea and green tea. These yummy selections go for about $3.50 a pop – making them both delicious and affordable.
Not-Your-Average Ice Cream
Ice cream has long been a staple in the dessert world – from the basic scoop of chocolate to dishes served in combination with cake, brownies, fruit and other sugary treats. However, today’s trendy ice cream needs no partner. It’s delicious and unique enough to stand on its own. Today, ice cream can be found in fun flavors like green tea, lavender, spiced caramel, sweet corn, balsamic strawberry and even avocado.
Big Gay Ice Cream, with two locations in New York City, is standing out from the ice cream crowd with creative topping selections like olive oil and sea salt, cayenne pepper, ginger syrup and key lime curd. It’s no wonder these guys made it on to Zagat’s 2012/2013 Food Lover’s Guide.
Figs
Figs are a fall favorite that are taking center stage in a variety of desserts these days, particularly gourmet cookies. According to Food & Wine Magazine, “Nabisco’s Fig Newtons are the latest packaged sweet to get a makeover.” Some chefs are even making grown-up versions of these childhood favorites, adding ingredients like red wine and anise to the filling.
Other delicious fig-inspired desserts we’ve seen out in the culinary scene include Rosemary, Honey and Fig Cake, Poached Figs, and Fig Tart.
FIG – which, in this case, stands for Food Is Good – is a popular restaurant in Charleston, SC, that takes inspiration from an array of seasonal ingredients to create delicious and sustainable dishes. As you might expect from the name, the restaurant’s delicious dessert menu even features a Celeste Figs & Lemon Pudding.
Meanwhile, Dee-Dee Sanchez, pastry chef at Jack Allen’s Kitchen in Austin, also believes in a focus on “local” ingredients like figs. According to a recent article published on Culture Map Austin, Dee-Dee said, “I recently made a goat cheese fig tart where I used Swede Farm’s fresh chèvre, Lightsey Farms’ fresh black mission figs and Comanche Pecans for the crust. The tart was topped with caramel sauce and candied pecans as well.”
Cronuts
Ever since pastry chef Dominique Ansel appeared on the Today Show to debut his pastry innovation, the cronut – a croissant-meets-donut hybrid – locals and tourists alike have been lining up at his namesake bakery in SoHo to get a taste of this sweet flaky treat.
So how exactly is this latest sugary invention made? According to an article on NewYork.com, they’re “made with layers of a proprietary croissant dough, which is then deep-fried in grape-seed oil. The treats are flavored three ways—rolled in sugar, filled with cream and glazed.”
If you happen to be in the NYC area and want to get a taste of the popular cronut, make sure you get there early, as these pastry hybrids have been selling out just hours after the bakery opens its doors at 8:00 am. In fact, these cronuts are in such high-demand that the bakery has had to enforce a limit of two per customer!
The cronut craze seemed to have struck other cities as well. According to Culture Map Austin, Kyle McKinney, executive pastry chef of Barley Swine in Austin, TX, believes the trendy cronut is the next big Austin pastry. He makes his own version, which he calls the “croiss-o-nut.”
“It’s made with fried croissant nuggets, caramel-coffee mousse, coffee pearls, spearmint fluid gel, aerated milk, chocolate peanut brittle powder, goat milk sorbet and crunchy milk. I wanted to do my own spin on a fried croissant,” said McKinney.
If you’re interested in trying out your own version of a cronut, you’re in luck as a host of cronut recipes are quickly surfacing all over the Internet.
Going Retro
From s’mores and whoopie pies, to puddings, popsicles and other childhood favorites, today’s pastry chefs are drawing from retro inspirations to create brand-new dessert creations. Umani Burger in Miami, for example, features Cake Monkey Bakery’s Brown Sugar Cinnamon Toaster Pastry, made using fresh jam. And at Newton’s Nightingale 9, a Vietnamese street-food restaurant in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, patrons can enjoy a slew of artisan popsicles made with seasonal ingredients from local farmer’s markets. Flavors include Thai Basil, Tamarind Lime with Coconut, Caramel Palm Sugar and Vietnamese Coffee with Condensed Milk.
Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth
No matter what you’re into – be it exotic ice cream flavors or paying homage to your childhood with a retro sweet treat – there are tons of goodies out there to satisfy any craving. So what do you think will be the next big dessert trend?