Dessert should never be an afterthought, in fact, there are many people who don’t think twice about abandoning main courses and skipping through to the good stuff.
Good news for sugar fiends is that there has been an marked uptick in dessert only bars in the Klang Valley. From Korean Bingsu to Italian Gelato, these dessert parlours offer a taste of Seoul or Florence with the convenience of never having to leave the city.
As enticing as this is, it’s the cafes which utilise available ingredients and explore familiar flavours which intrigue us the most. Here is a round-up of three unmissable dessert bars that are doing our local produce proud.
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Frozen Artisan
Best for those who love the cold
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MadHatter Desserts
Best for those who like to play with their food
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Dew
Best for those who eat with the eyes
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Decoding Desserts
To best appreciate dessert, it’s important to have the requisite vocabulary. Here are some important terms to get you on the way:
- Brûlée – French for burned, in cooking it refers to food that has been sprinkled with sugar and baked or torched to caramelise the sugar to form a hard brittle top.
- Creme Patissiere – Not an item in itself but this vanilla-flavored custard filling is used in a wide variety of fruit tarts and pastries.
- Frangipane – Similar to a pastry cream and used in the same way as a filling for pastries and fruit tarts, this is an almond paste base enriched with sugar, butter, and very often, eggs.
- Ganache – Made of chocolate and cream, this mixture can be used as a glaze, icing, sauce, or filling for pastries.
- Meringue – A mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar which is then usually browned and used in confections or as a topping for pies, pastry etc.
Text by Jennifer Choo
