It may sound like a contradiction in terms, but vegetable-laden desserts are expected to carve a new trend next year, along with an appreciation for hand-made sweets and surprising new flavors.
According to the latest trendspotting forecast for 2012 by San Francisco-based Andrew Freeman & Co., pioneering and creative chefs will increasingly be experimenting with unexpected flavor combinations in desserts, using bases like ice cream as a vehicle to carry the new pairings.
For instance, vegetables are making their way into desserts at Mario Batali’s New York restaurant Del Posto, where they offer a sorbet flavored with celery and fig, while Michelin-starred restaurant Murray Circle in San Francisco also uses candied beet in its Autumn Pear flavor, made with licorice sabayon, confit of Bartlett pear, and sourdough ice cream, the report points out.
Grass and horseradish, meanwhile, make up the main ingredients in an ice cream offered at Max and Mina’s ice cream parlor in Queens, New York.
When it comes to frozen treats, it’s not just unusual flavor combinations that are upping the ante. New textures are also emerging, most notably imported from Taiwan, birthplace of some of the most novel desserts like bubble tea and shaved ices sweetened with condensed milk, fruit or red beans.
The next frozen treat and Asian import to excite ice cream lovers will be snow ice, predict Freeman analysts. With the creaminess of ice cream, the Taiwanese dessert at Snobar in Los Angeles, for instance, looks like layers of a ruffled skirt and has a feathery, cotton candy-like texture that dissolves in the mouth instantly.
The iced delicacy originated in Taiwan about 40 years ago and uses purified water infused with flavoring before it's flash-frozen and then shaved. Flavors include mango, strawberry, peanut butter and banana, chocolate, green tea, taro and rose.
And finally, a confectionery that for years was limited to summer campfires will be resurrected next year and enjoy newfound popularity, analysts predict, as pastry chefs create homemade marshmallows in exotic flavors.
New York-based DreamPuff Marshmallows Handmade Marshmallows, for instance, already come in flavors like Guinness Stout and Blackberry Cabernet.