GQ Eats: Alan Richman's Five Best Desserts of the Year
By Alan Richman, GQ magazine
After thousands of miles and countless calories, our tireless correspondent names the tastiest this land has to offer.
1. Paris-Brest
Balsan, Chicago
Perhaps the tastiest of all great French pastries, created a hundred years ago to honor a bicycle race. Assembled to order, which I've never seen done in a French patisserie. Wheel-shaped choux pastry stuffed with hazelnut mousse and hazelnut nougatine, topped with powdered sugar and toasted hazelnuts. Will have your wheels spinning.
2. Panna Cotta with Wild Huckleberries
The Walrus and the Carpenter, Seattle
Light, smooth, silken, and barely able to hold its shape. Topped with berries-maybe Washington's greatest culinary asset-poached in white wine. Hard to believe good old panna cotta can be this transcendent.
3. Honeyed Pumpkin Pie
Four & Twenty Blackbirds, Brooklyn
Held my own personal pie-eating contest at this small, celebrated café. Sampled five slices. The winner had the lightest pumpkin filling ever, barely graced with honey. To be fair, the salted-caramel apple pie was almost as profound. Time you knew: Pie is the new cupcake.
4. Salted Butterscotch Pot de Crème
Gjelina, Venice, CA
Comes out warm, with thickened cream quivering on top. What could be more irresistible than salt, butterscotch, and cream, not long from the oven?
5. Sticky Toffee Pudding (pictured)
Branch Water Tavern, Houston
Everyone is doing it. Nobody is doing it as well. A miniature Bundt cake enhanced (as usual) with chopped dates, in a sauce tasting of butter rum and caramel, served with housemade pistachio ice cream and a small slab of pistachio brittle. It's not this great in Great Britain.
More from GQ:
• The Best Pizza Joints in America
• 14 Tips for Ordering Wine at a Restaurant
• The 10 Best New Restaurants in America
• The 25 Best Cocktail Bars in America
• Alan Richman's 5 Best Dishes of the Year
