What’s better than buying desserts for your Valentine? Making them is, hands down.
Right in time for V-Day, we hosted some of our favorite dessert experts to join Edible readers last Wednesday at the Brooklyn Brewery for a night of demos, discussions and tastings. Guests had the opportunity to sip suds, sample sweets and pose their most burning culinary inquiries to the ladies behind Roni-Sue’s Chocolate Shop, Love Sweet Love Pralines and Sugarbuilt.
Known for her imaginative truffles, Rhonda “Roni-Sue” Kave showed attendees how to make a classic snack (caramel popcorn) with her signature twist (bacon) called “bacorn.” It’s a sweet and savory dream akin to one of her shop’s best sellers: “pig candy,” aka bacon coated in chocolate. You can find both pig candy and bacorn in her Manhattan shops.
Courtney Feemster of Love Sweet Love Pralines gave the crowd a 101 intro to her southern inspired treat. Although she follows her mother’s (who is a New Orleans native) recipe, Courtney adds aromatic twists — including lavender and bourbon — to her bite size desserts. Turns out that pralines are fairly adaptable in the kitchen and can make delicious pie crusts and crumbled ice cream toppings.
We never doubted that food is an artform, and were especially convinced after learning more about Amelia Coulter’s Sugarbuilt cookies. The Sante Fe native, who is also a sculptor by training, described her cookie making process that includes thoughtful surface design, intentional color selection and irresistible recipes. The icing piping pro shared her baking tips (she achieves her clean edges by baking from frozen dough) and bite size samples (pictured above) that were almost too cute to eat.
