Seafoam, Soufflés and Balsamic Bonbons: Vinegar in Desserts
When you do an image search for “seafoam”, the resulting images are either the salty cappuccino foam that floats atop churning waves or greenish-blue sea glass jewelry allegorical of the aforementioned waters. Add “candy” as a suffix to that search term, and it yields photos of crunchy, golden, air-filled confections. Seafoam, aka honeycomb, candy is made by caramelizing sugar into a syrup, then stirring in baking soda before adding vinegar. What you get is something that resembles a middle school science project: hot, foamy sugar, thanks to carbon dioxide (CO2). Here, it’s vinegar’s ability to activate a leavening agent, that’s similarly seen in baking with cakes using self rising flour. The ensuing bubbles expand and are ensnared in the viscous sugary mixture while it rapidly cools, creating the candy’s signature aerated texture.
Kelly Nam pine needle meringue
You’ll see the same sort of effervesce in this depression-era chocolate cake, which utilizes vinegar, for a light airy crumb, or how some bakers add a dash of vinegar in their pie crusts, relaxing the gluten structure, yielding a flakier bake. To double down on the vinegar content, try making a vinegar pie! When used in meringues, such as pavlovas (a meringue-based dessert, with a crisp and chewy exterior, and soft marshmallow-y center), much like cream of tartar, vinegar will lower the pH of the egg whites, helping to stabilize the albumen which allows the desired peaks to whip up quicker and more easily. This way it doesn’t crumble or get soggy before being piled with whipped cream, lemon curd and fresh berries. Pastry Chef Kelly Nam, of Joomak Banjum in NYC, says, “I spruce vinegar in my pine needle meringues.” She uses vinegar to brighten up the herbal sweetness of the conifer, “as well as in a complimentary caramel sauce — it’s a simple 1:2:3 vinegar to sugar to water ratio,” says Nam.
Spruce Vinegar
In a similar situation of using vinegar for structure and sweet-and-sour stability, Brad MacDonald and Greg Kuzia-Carmel, constructed an apple-cider vinegar soufflé at Governor in Brooklyn, NY, over a decade ago. In a 2012 New York Times review, the aforementioned dessert was called to attention by restaurant critic Pete Wells for their “racy streak of sourness”. “It was a reduction of apple cider vinegar, sugar and glucose used to flavor the soufflé,” marks MacDonald. Kuzia-Carmel recalls using “Jean-Marc Montegottero’s Huilerie Beaujolaise Honey Vinegar, reducing it by half, folding it into the whipped egg whites, pastry cream, etc … and serving it with an Earl Grey crème anglaise”. While MacDonald has gone on to use Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar to his crème caramels in contract jobs around the globe, Kuzia-Carmel’s Menlo Park restaurants Camper and Canteen often serve a crema catalana, a dessert which could very well see the same sort of acidity element applied.
Soufflé by @rosiefoodie
Vinegar makers, and previous pastry chefs, Sarah Conezio and Isaiah Billington of Keepwell Vinegar, add an analogous syrup to their vinegar sticky rolls — pastry crust dusted with sugar, rolled up and baked in a bath of vinegar and sugar which turns into the anticipated glaze. “If you use apple cider vinegar, the apple flavor from the reduction is nice and strong — apple pie with no apples,” Billington remarks, suggesting their Granny Smith and/or York Imperial. As highlighted through their Instagram stories (@keepwellvinegar), Billingston and Conezio offer recipes for old-fashioned pâte de fruits with their Persimmon, soft caramels with Sweet Cherry, and jam with Fig, or Concord Grape, a sweet tart update on Smucker’s of our youth.
Vinegar Sticky Roll recipe
But vinegar doesn’t always have to be assigned to syrups or reductions, as some vinegars already have those conditions on their own! Ron Paprocki, Executive Chef at Gotham Restaurant in NYC, likes to use an already sweet-and-sour cherry balsamic from Villa Manodori (chef Massimo Bottura’s vinegar line) in bonbons. Of course, he says, “We should [all] experience a 25-year-old Extra Vecchio Tradizionale Balsamic Vinegar of Modena DOP over vanilla ice cream at least once in our lives,” because why not end your meal with a little acidity.
Gotham bonbons