Like anything else on a restaurant’s menu, dessert also ebbs and flows to the rhythm of the seasons. That’s why when a treat has me especially awestruck, well, I figure I ought to tell you sooner rather than later before poof it’s gone with the wind. Here are a few sweets that I’ve been thinking about long after the last bite is licked off the plate.
Homewood’s
…Heavenly Sorbet
It is no secret that Maggie Huff, this Oak Lawn restaurant’s lauded pastry chef, is a whiz with dessert. (We did just give Homewood a Best of Big D nod for dessert, after all.) The playful sweet and savory mash-ups throw your tastebuds curveballs in the best way. One of Huff’s latest creations, a cantaloupe and honeydew sorbet with labne, a scoop basil granita, shiso, olive oil, and black pepper sourdough crunchies, does exactly that. The crisp-cold basil granita isn’t overly herbaceous since basil lends itself to sweetness. It goes well with the utterly smooth sorbet that tastes like the melons were plucked directly off the vine, heavy with ripeness, and made into this creamy iced treat moments before it hits the table. There’s a whole world of texture going on inside a little dessert dish—a wonderful world.
Thunderbird Station’s
…Elevated Snack Cakes
The short but sweet dessert menu at this Deep Ellum service-station-turned-bar feels like a nod to the plastic-wrapped treats of gas station pit stops. The treats come from pastry chef Diana Zamora of Nena’s Postreria. There’s a fresas con crema snack cake that doesn’t merely suggest strawberry flavor but bursts with the berry’s true sweetness rather than a cloying doppelganger. The Cinnamon Cream Pie is a spiced oatmeal cookie sandwich that hugs a thick swirl of cream cheese buttercream filling. It tastes like the after-school snack you wish you had growing up. And the Hazlenut Ding Dong, a nod to the Hostess cake of the same design, boasts a nutty nuance that puts the regular ol’ chocolate version to shame.
Khao Noodle Shop’s
…Coconutty Bua Loy
It’s not often one might gravitate toward a dessert soup, but hear me out. Chef-owner Donny Sirisavath concocted this chilled dessert last year, pre-pandemic, and I don’t think it’s getting the love it so deserves. His Bua Loy, which means “floating water lily” or “floating lotus” in Laotian, was Sirisavath’s late mother’s favorite dessert. (And it’s she who Sirisavath owes his love for and knowledge of Lao food.) Back to this chilled soup dessert in which purple potato dumplings and taro slices float in pandan-imbued coconut cream, the sweet liquid then garnished with toasted sesame seed, scallions—yes, an allium makes a welcome appearance here!—kaffir lime leaf, and sea salt. It’s both sweet and savory; it’s chewy yet slurpable; it’s the exact hot weather dessert I love.
