The Evolving Art of Casa de Luz Deserts
[Desert Chef Barbara Martin has been making deserts and baking at Casa de Luz for about 9 years and has seen a lot of change through the years. The process is all about "philosophy and practice. This is real life," she reflects, "and transformation is what keeps the job interesting. It's an evolving art." Here are some of her thoughts about the current approach to deserts at Casa de Luz. Editor]
Those of you who are new to Casa and those who are long time dinners may reflect on the sorts of desserts available at Casa these days. There have been recent changes in a move towards the healthiest possible selections available. The overriding goal at Casa is to produce desserts that satisfy but do not weigh one down. A variety of textures, colors, ingredients allow for all tastes to be satisfied and various restrictive diets such as gluten-intolerance to be accommodated. The dessert case continues to have ever evolving delicious selections. We feature one cookie, Almond Bliss Cookies which are a flourless, gluten free wonder, and the long time favorite Almond Butter Bars. Both of these you will now find wrapped in our waxed bags rather than plastic to respect the goal of Casa to reduce the use of plastics. Their durability makes them appropriate for take-out and travel snacks.
Our variety of ingredients make for many possibilities in delicious desserts. Our sweeteners include: maple syrup, rice and barley syrup, agave nectar and rice powder. Our flours include spelt, rice, corn, millet, amaranth. We currently mill our own spelt and millet and will soon be milling our rice and amaranth. For nuts we use almonds, walnuts and pecans. We sprout our almonds and walnuts by soaking in salt water and dehydrating for the health enhancement. Our oil of choice is coconut but we also use sesame and occasionally olive. We use rice milk exclusively except for the last remaining dessert using soy milk is the flan. We use a variety of juices and frozen fruit for our light delicious fruity desserts. Other coconut products we use are shredded coconut, coconut milk and coconut cream concentrate. Amasake is often found in some of your favorite pies.
While an attempt is made to consider the seasons in our desserts available, there are favorites that you will find year round in your choices. Squash pie has recently reappeared in the dessert case. Baked apples, apple crisp, stewed apples will be appearing soon. We welcome input from of you for that one dessert you remember fondly from your childhood.
Our team of dessert chefs include: Barbara Martin (dessert chef at Casa for almost 9 years), and our new dessert chefs who are attending classes at the Natural Epicurean School: Stella May and Monica Hardy. Nora Garcia a recent and welcomed addition to our team. Keeping our dessert case full of luscious selections is our goal and the reason we come into Casa at 4:30 on our baking day looking forward with anticipation for delicious desserts springing from our great ingredients and the help from the 'kitchen God'.
--Barbara Martin
Most of us have our favorites. For many regulars it's the Coconut Sorbet and Casa Parfait. General Dining Room favorites are the sumptuous Coconut Cream Pie and refreshing Flan de Luz. The Walnut and Kabocha Tarts are comforting and hearty whereas the Lemon Raspberry or Blueberry Kantens are light and cooling. Casa de Luz Manager Kimball Lorio recommends dipping the scrumptious Almond Bliss cookies into the luxuriously silky Coconut Sorbet for an serendipitous union of different textures. Deserts range from $1.50 to $3.00. Enjoy! [Editor]