Just Desserts

by : Sunayana Choudhry

“ Sweets for my Sweet, sugar for my Honey”, so goes a song of yesteryears!

In a special relationship, whispered ‘sweet nothings’ say it all.

On a special occasion, “sweet somethings” are the piece de resistance – be it the delectable ‘dolce’ of Italy, the finger-licking-good ‘mithai’ of India, the ‘postres’ of the Spanish-speaking world, the ‘dessert’ of France.

The word dessert comes from the French word of the same name and may have been derived from the French word ‘desservir’, which means ‘clear the table’.  A dessert could be either one or a combination of fruit, cheese, or a sweet dish. In the world outside of Europe, it generally means the last.

Western desserts are often described as a custard, blancmange, mousse, soufflé, gelato, ice cream (milk/cream based); cake, gateau, torte, tart/pie, crepes (flour based). The list, of course, is endless!

A fine line separates some of these desserts and it is not surprising that these terms are used loosely as in the case of a mousse and a cold soufflé.

A mousse is a light moulded dessert made with milk/cream, eggs, gelatine and flavoured with chocolate, or crushed or pureed fruit. A cold soufflé is much the same. The difference lies in that a soufflé is made light & airy by whipping and/or baking. The egg whites are whipped up till they look like snowy peaks and then gently folded into the fruit/chocolate mix to give a spongy dessert. Yes, soufflés can be either hot  (baked) or cold and not just a dessert but a hot dinner dish with a savoury filling as well!!

The word ‘patisserie’ or pastry shop, conjures up visions of scrumptious gateaux, tarts/pies, crepes, tortes etc. Like the mousse & soufflé, the similarities between a torte & a gateau are many. The torte is a layered cake where the layers are separated with a rich and creamy filling while a gateau, which is also a layered cake or a pastry shell, is filled with a lighter custard or mousse. To the uninitiated, this sounds as confusing as the difference between rabadi, kheer and payasam!! A pie/tart also consists of a baked pastry shell that is filled either with a chocolate or a fruit mousse, nuts or just chopped fruits. As in a soufflé, a pie can also be served hot or cold, or with a savoury filling as a dinner dish.

The flaming ‘Crepes Suzette’ is a spectacular finish to any dinner! Crepes are paper-thin, flat pan-cakes, literally cooked in a frying pan or griddle. They are sometimes filled and folded, or stacked in layers with a fruity sauce and more often than not a liqueur is poured over the whole dessert and then ignited to ‘flambe’. 

 In todays world of ‘health’ foods and ‘body beautiful’, sugar and cream are ‘no-nos’. So, will a dessert soon be a thing of the past?  Not as long as there are enough of us to whom the  ‘sweet tooth’ cliché justifies the temptation to indulge in ‘sugar-energized foods’!

By Sunayana Choudhry