Walking The Line Between Sweet And Savory

Originally posted March 25, 2015.

When I meet people who claim they don’t enjoy dessert, I tell them they’re crazy and then ask them why. The response they give usually includes that most of the treats they’ve indulged in are either too sweet, or that they’ll simply just never compare to the [insert favorite sweet here] their grandmother, mother, great aunt, etc. makes.

And those are two completely valid arguments! While I can’t travel back in time to learn how to make everyone’s favorite dessert right beside their talented baker relative, I can suggest this: Use slightly less sugar than what your chosen recipe calls for and actively incorporate ingredients into your pastries that are considered more savory than sweet.

I’ve long affirmed the notion of baking with savory ingredients. When the sugar levels and non-traditional savory ingredients used are well balanced, the result can be a dessert that’s both extremely memorable and one that’s less likely to leave you feeling full of regret.

Take, for example, this walnut-sage cake with tangerine infused whipped cream, supremed tangerines, fresh blackberries and sage blossoms. Three important factors contributed to balancing this dessert – the amounts of sugar, acid, and the savory ingredient used.

I based the cake recipe off of Julia Child’s Hazelnut Baby Loaves as featured in Dorie Greenspans's Baking With Julia. This recipe was perfect to modify because it doesn’t have much sugar in it to start with! I substituted walnuts for hazelnuts (because that’s what I had around), half brown sugar for half of the required conventional sugar, and added minced fresh sage. Seriously, this farm fresh sage was too good to pass up with it’s beautiful, delicate violet blossoms and nearly minty taste. I have absolutely no regrets! The Watsonville blackberries and tangerine segments added a necessary acidity to round out the dish as a whole, and the barely-sweetened tangerine whipped cream helped to lighten each bite of a fairly dense cake.

The best thing about baking with less sugar and throwing in a savory component or two is that these dishes tend to be total crowd pleasers! Sure, there are purists out there who will always want their favorite dessert the one and only way they’ve ever had it prepared, but let’s give the larger eating population the benefit of the doubt - people are adventurous and frequently enjoy a good challenge to popular notions regarding what good food is and what it can potentially be made with.

So the next time you’re not sure what sort of sweet to feed your potential dessert lover, throw them a curve-ball. A little less sugar and a surprise ingredient might be just what the doctor ordered!