How to create restaurant-worthy desserts at home

“The components of an elegant plated dessert should have unexpected contrasts in texture, temperature, and acidity in order to create balance and harmony in the perfect final bite.” Natasha Pickowizc “More Than Cake”

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If you are anything like me, when you plan to go to a new restaurant, the first thing you do is not just check out their menu online but immediately scan down to the dessert section of the menu. There is something about restaurant desserts that makes them special. And as I realised over time, it’s not just the flawless execution. More often than not it’s that restaurant desserts are simply more interesting than the bowl of ice cream and berries we might bring out after a Sunday roast or dinner with friends (not that there's anything wrong with that!).

Thinking back to the many wonderful desserts I was lucky enough to enjoy in restaurants over the years, restaurant desserts seem to follow a certain formula, and one you can easily replicate in a home kitchen without fancy equipment(!): 

1. They often start with one focal point: e.g. fruit, a piece of cake, ice cream etc.;

2. They are typically built around contrast (hot and cold, sweet and sour, crunchy and creamy or soft etc.); or

3. They tend to have at least one unusual element - this could be an ingredient not traditionally used in desserts like Miso, or maybe a spice you have not yet come across like Tonka beans, or an unusual preparation (some sweet pickled cherries served alongside your chocolate cake, or a fruit element served multiple ways, e.g. grilled pineapple alongside fresh pineapple and a pineapple puree etc.); and

4. They often come with fun garnishes - think caramelised nuts and seeds, meringue shards etc., or something like a drizzle of syrup or a dollop of lemon curd or chestnut jam, or even simple things like a pinch of sea salt flakes or a dusting of matcha powder etc..

Not every single element needs to be present in a dessert to make it truly special but using this framework as a guide, you can easily come up with and create a restaurant-worthy dessert at home for your next dinner party - regardless of your skill level in the kitchen. Let me show you how (and I’ll link to some recipes below)! But be warned - this edition of my newsletter has been a while in the making, and it is long but hopefully you’ll find it helpful and interesting! 

Just like other courses, desserts are typically built around a single focus point - e.g. seasonal fruit, ice cream, cake etc. So start with your focal point and build from there. 

1. Fruit

Fresh fruit 

Whenever there is an abundance of fresh fruit (be it in the middle of winter when supermarket shelves are heaving with all manner of citrus fruits, late spring or early summer when the berries are so ripe they usually don’t last all the way home from the market or mid- to late summer when we get the full range of stone fruits and the first figs as well) I like making fresh fruit the focus of my desserts. And there are a number of ways to do so:

Fruit salads are an obvious choice yet an underrated dessert option. When fruit is at peak ripeness they are a tasty yet inexpensive dessert option. Plus, after a multicourse dinner, a lighter dessert with fresh fruit is often more appealing than something rich and heavy. 

One of my favourite ways to liven up a fruit salad is to dress it with a flavoured simple syrup - i.e. a sugar syrup made from boiling equal parts (by weight) of sugar and water just long enough for the sugar to dissolve. When it comes to making simple syrups to sweeten and add flavour to fruit salads, I like raiding my spice cabinet and tea drawer for ideas. For example:

• A cinnamon or cardamom simple syrup (which would work brilliantly with apples, pears or stone fruits); or

• A star anise or Chinese five spice powder simple syrup (e.g. for plums or pineapple); or 

• If you have fresh lemongrass or ginger to hand you could also use those to flavour a simple syrup; 

• When it comes to tea, I am partial to a jasmine tea simple syrup which works beautifully with a mix of berries, watermelon and peaches, as pictured above. An Earl Grey simple syrup for a fruit salad made from citrus fruit would also be lovely. Or an Osmanthus tea syrup to drizzle over peach wedges.

• Your fruit salad does not need to be made from raw fruit – e.g. you could grill some pineapple wedges and serve them with a star anise and tamarind syrup.

To elevate your fruit salad even further you can of course consider serving it alongside some whipped cream, panna cotta / blancmanger or even ice cream. And maybe to finish, you can add a fun garnish like caramelised nuts or puffed grains. Here are a couple of ideas:

Mixed berry, melon and stone fruit salad + Jasmine tea simple syrup + Toasted rice Blancmanger + caramelised puffed rice 

OR

Strawberry salad + Sumac simple syrup + labneh whipped cream + toasted cardamom Crumbs 

Both of these fruit salad ideas start out simple yet unusual - fresh fruit with a flavoured simple syrup to dress and sweeten the fruit. This probably takes max. 10 minutes of prep and can easily be done the day of your dinner party. In the first example, adding a toasted rice blancmanger (or your panna cotta recipe of choice) starts adding a bit of time to the dessert prep but the blancmanger (or panna cotta) can be prepared in advance (and in fact should!), so you are still not adding much prep time to the day of your dinner party. Same goes for the Labneh whipped cream in the second example - one of the benefits of not going for a straight whipped cream is that Labneh whipped cream is much more stable. And if you decide to also add a fun garnish like the Caramelised Puffed Rice or Toasted Cardamom Crumbs - both of those can be prepped several days in advance and just need to be stored in an airtight container. 

Cooked fruit

As much as I like fresh fruit, some types of fruit can only be enjoyed cooked (like quince) or become infinitely more enjoyable once exposed to a little bit of heat (like rhubarb or apricots). Depending on the fruit you can roast it, poach it or cook it into a compote (however thin or thick and syrupy you like it). Here is a simple idea for a dessert centred around cooked fruit, in this case poached pears 

Sake poached pears + sake zabaglione + buckwheat shortbread

(Staying with this idea of poached pears, you could also try the following: Saffron & white wine poached pears + strained cardamom yoghurt + chopped toasted pistachios + reduced syrupy poaching liquid from the pears).

An alternative idea and that might come in handy come citrus season could be this:

Silken tofu + syrupy poached kumquat slices + black sesame brittle 

This is a dessert idea that borrows heavily from the Chinese Doufu Hua Tofu pudding that my friend Michelle introduced me to. This doesn’t require a lot of prep time and can also easily be prepared in advance. You get contrast in terms of texture - the silken tofu against the black sesame brittle - but also contrast in terms of flavours - the blank canvas of the silken tofu, the sweet yet tart kumquats and the toasty flavour from the black sesame seed brittle. And of course there is also a contrast in terms of colours. 

Another option in the fruit category are fruit tarts or galettes. They can feel less decadent than some other dessert options and, if you are in a pinch, almost all bakeries sell them (and, bonus point: they can be cut in smaller or larger wedges as each guest prefers). To avoid any soggy bottoms, fresh fruit tarts (whether with cooked or raw fruit) are best made (or bought!) the day you are planning to eat them. A fruit tart doesn’t need much extra - in some ways it already is a perfect dessert on its own. That being said, most fruit tarts do benefit from something extra on the side. To elevate your fruit tarts into a restaurant-worthy dessert, here are some ideas: 

• Whipped cream: it’s great to try and match it to whatever type of fruit tart you are serving. For an apple tart, and assuming no kids are present, try and add a small glug of grappa to your whipped cream which will really bring out the apple flavour of your tart. For a pear tart you could fold some chestnut jam into your whipped cream. And for a cherry or apricot tart, why not add a bit of ground cardamom to your whipped cream? You could also make whipped cream with cream which you previously infused with different spices or herbs - think a fig leaf infused whipped cream to serve with a fig tart, or a cacao nib infused whipped cream with a chocolate tart for example. Or mix some nut butters or praline pasts into your cream before whipping. 

• When choosing an ice cream flavour, it’s a great idea to try and pair it with the fruit in your fruit tart. E.g. an apple tart will be delicious if accompanied by a scoop of salted caramel or cinnamon ice cream, an apricot tart will shine if you can get your hands on some frozen yoghurt or creme fraiche or buttermilk ice cream (or some saffron or pistachio ice cream). And a pear tart? Try and find some walnut, hazelnut or almond flavoured ice cream or go for the darkest chocolate ice cream or sorbet you can find. 

• For custards I like to first infuse spices or tea in the milk - vanilla is an obvious choice but grated tonka bean is wonderful for more acidic fruit like raspberries or rhubarb. A saffron-infused custard will work beautifully with an apricot tart and a custard flavoured with Chinese Five Spice Powder will be brilliant for a prune plum tart. 

2. Cake

If you want to make all elements of a dessert yourself loaf cakes are easy even for less experienced homecooks and don’t require much in terms of equipment. Plus they generally keep well and even freeze well so can easily be made in advance.

To make simple loaf cakes more interesting you have a few options. One would be to toast the cake slices before serving, ideally in a griddle pan for some nice grill marks. To serve, and to counteract any dryness, think moisture - roasted fruits and some sort of dairy work particularly well, and if you are not toasting the cake, maybe a syrup for brushing on the cake. Here are a couple of ideas:

Grilled polenta and corn pound cake + thyme & blueberry compote + whipped creme fraiche (optional: toasted cornmeal and salted honey shortbread crumbs)

Honey & rye cake + Chinese five spice roasted plums + whipped mascarpone cream (optional: caramelised rye flakes) 

Toasted banana bread + brown butter whipped cream + miso caramelised banana slices + toasted walnuts

Another nice option in the cake department are flourless cakes - typically made from ground nuts or with little to no flour they are a great option for guests with gluten intolerance (just make sure to use glutenfree flour for any recipes including even a negligible amount of flour):

Claudia Rhoden’s whole citrus cake + Moroccan Orange salad with Orange blossom water + whipped creme fraiche + chopped toasted almonds

Flourless chocolate cake + candied mandarin halves + whipped sourcream + caramelised cacao nibs

3. Set desserts like panna cotta, mousse, posset, ganache, cheesecake etc

These types of desserts have two benefits when it comes to creating a restaurant-worthy dessert at home: 

• On their own, they are typically quite plain so are the perfect blank canvas around which to build your dessert; 

• They are often made with ingredients with a high fat content which happily absorb and carry other flavours.

Here are some ideas for panna cotta, labneh mousse, mihalabiah and posset: 

Toasted coconut Panna cotta + caramelised tamarind sauce + grilled pineapple wedges 

Labneh mousse + Raspberry & Rose compote + Pistachio studded meringue shards

Toasted Rice and Almond Mihalabiah + Hibiscus Syrup + Cinnamon and Almond Shortbread 

Grapefruit posset + Grapefruit segments + Mezcal simple syrup

You are probably already familiar with ganache, typically made from a mix of chocolate and cream it is often used to fill and/or frost cakes. However, some restaurants serve ganache for dessert - often a generous spoonful accompanied by something crunchy and something fruity on the side. And why not copy that idea? After all, ganache is easy to prepare and can be made in advance. The fact that ganache is made with cream also means it’s easy to flavour (by letting the cream first infuse with some spices for example). Here are some ideas: 

• In winter try the following: Lapsang Souchong infused ganache + boozy syrupy prunes + candied cacao nibs 

• You could also mimic the Spanish snack of bread with chocolate and salt: Dark chocolate ganache + drizzle of olive oil + caramelised breadcrumbs + pinch of sea salt flakes 

• White chocolate ganache + Tonka Bean sourcherry compote + chopped toasted salted almonds

Cheesecake is a bit of a crowd-pleaser, whether baked or set, so they are always a good option for dessert. And there are many ways of making cheesecake that extra bit special:

• Try different dairy - a cheesecake can be made with all kinds of dairy beyond creamcheese: whether thick Greek yoghurt or labneh, Quark and other types of fresh curd cheese, ricotta or mascarpone, they are all options;

• Try a different cookie base: use your favourite cookie for a cookie crumb base

• Make a brown butter cookie base

• Flavour the cheesecake batter itself - e.g. with Tonka bean or cardamom or cinnamon

• Serve an interesting fruit compote on the side or folded into the cheesecake batter - e.g. syrupy saffron apricots, sake-poached pears, Grappa apple compote, Chinese five spice prune compote, roasted Nespole, charred grilled pineapple etc. 

4. Ice cream

It goes without saying that ice cream is a great choice to build your dessert around, in particular during the warmer months. And your ice cream doesn’t even have to be homemade - I think there is zero shame in making things easy for you when hosting a dinner party and buying some (good quality!) ice cream for dessert. But why not make things a little more interesting than the standard ice cream and berries combination and try any of the following:

• Affogato - but swap the standard espresso with a shot of intense hot chocolate or a shot of matcha or hojicha. Also, why not try different ice cream flavours than vanilla? E.g. an orange flavoured ice cream would be stunning with a shot of hot chocolate and a scoop of strawberry ice cream would be great with matcha.

• And while we are on the theme of hot and cold, why not revisit the childhood classic of vanilla icecream with hot cherries and instead try something like a little different like 

  • Vanilla ice cream (or even better yoghurt ice cream) with hot syrupy Saffron apricots;

  • Dark chocolate ice cream with a hot Chinese five spice powder scented plum compote.

  • Caramel drizzle ice cream with a hot Tonka Bean Apple compote.

  • Stracciatella ice cream with a  hot Cardamom cherry compote.

• A Sundae of sorts - even something as simple as good vanilla ice cream can be transformed into a restaurant-worthy dessert with a drizzle of good olive oil, a pinch of Maldon sea salt and some fresh citrus segments (a mix will look especially pretty). Alternatively, why not serve some dark chocolate ice cream with candied kumquats,  some caramelised cacao nibs and a pinch of sea salt? Or maybe you want to try a twist on banana split and fry the bananas in some butter first and drizzle the banana split with a Miso butterscotch sauce?

5. Garnishes

While not strictly necessary, garnishes can be the finishing touch that can really help bring all the different elements on a plate together - by adding colour or texture, contrast or complimenting other flavours. When making desserts at home, garnishes are also the part you shouldn’t overthink. Instead just let yourself be guided by what you already have at home - many things happily lend themselves to becoming tasty garnishes for desserts with very little effort:

• Texture

  • Crunchy: think caramelised nuts, seeds, or cacao nibs, toasted coconut shavings, meringue shards etc. In a pinch, you can even add some crunch with some caramelised (sourdough) breadcrumbs or toasted cookie crumbs, or, depending on what you are making, caramelised oats or puffed grains.
    Creamy: I use the term “creamy” in the loose sense so for me this covers a broad range of things that can be spooned, drizzled or smeared on a plate. So ranging from things like lemon curd, fruit purees, chestnut jam, milk jam / dulce de leche to simple syrups, reduced poaching liquid (e.g. from poaching pears), to custards like creme anglaise or pastry cream for example. 

• Colour: A dusting of matcha powder, hojicha powder, cacao powder, kinako (toasted soybean) powder, powdered freeze dried fruit, pulverized caramel shards, powdered black limes, powdered dried fig leaves etc. 

• Complimentary flavours: Where you are trying to complement the flavours already on a plate it can be fun to opt for something with a different texture / consistency or temperature. E.g. A slice of preserved lemon loaf cake with some whipped cream flavoured with lemon zest and a dollop of lemon curd.

• Sanding sugars: for certain types of dessert, a flavoured sanding sugar can be a great finishing touch, in particular on fried things like doughnuts, churros, beignets etc. And as delicious as vanilla or cinnamon sugar are, there are so many other options for flavoured sugars, be it Miso sugar, Sumac sugar, Garam Masala Sugar, Fig Leaf sugar etc etc.