Fruit

My issue with fruit ice creams is not being able to taste the fruit, so to keep that flavor foremost, I cook the ice cream base on its own and then add fresh fruit. Less fat—no eggs in the ice cream base—allows the berry flavor to stand out.

This is a Thomas Haas signature, and it’s more of a combination of ice cream and granité than just simple ice cream. I fell in love with it the first time I made it for its delicate balance of fat and acid. It pairs well with berries and would be great in a smoothie.

This very rich ice cream, with the lush mouthfeel of white chocolate, may be one of my sweetest recipes. Try serving it with ripe peaches and a drizzle of tarragon oil or basil oil (see page 187). You should be aware that this ice cream can take a long time to freeze in a home ice cream maker, and that it will need to cure in the freezer overnight before serving.

One of the first things I learned to make at Restaurant Daniel was a madeleine, and I fell for the buttery, citrusy flavor. I wanted to find a way to use the little cake as part of a plated dessert, without making the classic seashell form. So I worked on the recipe, adapting it until I captured the texture and flavor of a fresh-baked madeleine in a sponge cake baked in a sheet pan.

I’ve always wanted to create some interesting chocolate texture to pair with strawberries, and one night during a brainstorming session, Michal Shelkowitz—one of my cooks—suggested spaetzle. After much manipulation, we figured out how to make it something great and new and a cool contrast to the berries.

François Payard, with whom I worked at Daniel and at his own pastry shop, believes in signature desserts. His banana tartlet is one of those signatures, with crunchy cashews and creamy white chocolate mousse paired with rum-sautéed bananas. In this tribute to his dessert, I borrowed the structure and changed the flavors to creamy milk chocolate paired with a salty hazelnut caramel.

These little desserts are all about contrast. Picture a spongy soufflé with a creamy center, sitting in a crisp pastry shell. Then there’s the sensation of the two different kinds of chocolate playing off the bright, acidic taste of the passion fruit. Experiment with the flavors of the soufflé if you want, but keep it acidic. Try it with a puree of red currant, black currant, or raspberry.

I’m a doughnut fanatic. I love eating them, and I love making them, but I’m always looking for a way to counter their tendency to be oversweet. Here, tangy cheese and the acid from kumquats and lemons are the answer.

In this dessert, a grapefruit gelée gets poured over grapefruit segments, which brings a different flavor note out of the grapefruit. It’s important to add the zest at the end to avoid bitterness. The combination of grapefruit and tarragon is one I really love, but I also wanted to add something spicy. Ginger is a natural, since it enlivens the herb flavors and is intense enough to carry through the ice cream, which gives this dessert its great mouthfeel.

Pineapple has a balance of sugar and acid that I really like. I wanted to capture that sweet-tart flavor in an upside-down cake, but in a refined one. So I’ve made a batter with cornmeal that gives the cake a great foundation and a terrific crumb.

I like eating breakfast in the middle of the day and even for dinner, so why not turn a breakfast dish into dessert? This version of French toast is highlighted by seasonal exotic fruits—the acidity of papaya and lime taming the sweetness of the coconut.

I always thought it was a shame that you had to burn the alcohol off when you flambéed bananas, so I’ve reintroduced the rum in a different form—in ice cream. Peanut Phyllo Crisps add the crunch you need to play off the soft bananas and ice cream.

I enjoy going out for Indian food and pairing a cool, calming lhassi with a heavily spiced meal. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to develop one for my dessert menu. This one—which I worked out with my friend and onetime sous-chef Jason Casey—is creamy smooth and softly perfumed with rose water and cinnamon.

Chocolate and lemon make an age-old combination; the tartness of lemon enhances the acidity of the cacao bean and cuts the fatty mouth feel. Meyer lemons have a short window of availability, and they’re coveted for their lemony-orangey flavor—which is particularly good when paired with chocolate. They’re versatile, with as many uses in the savory kitchen as in the pastry kitchen.

As I’m a great fan of a true margarita, I thought it would be fun to take the components apart and rearrange them into a dessert. This makes a lot, but leftovers will keep for a month in the freezer. I learned a version of this sponge cake, which is called biscuit mirliton, at the Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo. I love it for its airy/ cakey texture, which is like no other sponge. Perfumed with citrus zest, it is a great complement to the tangy semifreddo. The key to the sponge is baking just before serving. You’ll need eight to nine 1-ounce aluminum timbale molds for the cake and twenty 2 x 2-inch ring molds for the semifreddo (see Note, page 120).

This dessert is a delicate balancing act showcasing the diversity of citrus. Each element supplies a different taste and texture: the creamy ice cream, the chewy grapefruit, the crispy sticks, and the airy curd.

Calamansi is a limelike citrus from the Philippines with a distinct flavor. It’s sweeter than a lime, but it retains that tartness you expect. For this dessert, I turn calamansi puree into “noodles” by setting it with gelatin and then weave the tangy, slippery noodles in and out of a salad made with blood oranges and clementines.

Pumpkins and pine nuts are in the same boat in that both are easily influenced by other ingredients. I felt they needed each other in this dessert, which I created particularly for this book. In addition to flavor, the pine nuts provide structure in the cake and texture in the streusel.

The technique here is traditional and French. The fresh and dried cranberries and the star anise are modern and provide bright hits of flavor in every bite. You’ll need two 6-cavity Flexipan savarin molds (the 2 3/4-inch size) if you want to match the shape of the dessert in the photograph. But you could also freeze the nougat in a baking sheet and cut pieces to serve.

We had Concords growing in the backyard when I was a kid, but I didn’t like them. They were just too strong for my young palate. But I came to love this flavor and now I wait all year for the grapes to be in season so I can make this sorbet. It’s my favorite thing to do with Concords. I always serve this sorbet on its own—pure and simple.