There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to Chinese New Year desserts, but popular Sydney cafe and experimental dessert lab is pushing boundaries with its salted duck yolk and curry leaf croissant.
Morris Bacco, one of the creative masterminds behind the limited-edition pastry, says he was inspired by a former star that had come off the menu – Devon’s salted egg lava jaffle. “It was basically a ham and cheese sandwich with salted duck egg custard inside. I really missed eating it.”
Salted duck egg isn’t classic Chinese New Year fare, but the long-cherished ingredient has been making recent waves in Asia as chefs have been experimenting with it in new applications. According to , salted egg yolk potato chips is the latest craze to sweep the region, with one brand even releasing a lucky gold-coloured Chinese New Year edition.
At Devon Cafe, the croissant replaces last year’s ‘prosperity bao’ – – and blurs a delicious line between sweet and savoury.
Before baking, croissant dough is topped with soft cookie dough that crisps, crackles and rises at the same time – much like the frangipane in an almond croissant or a sablé for choux.
Bacco says their first versions were promising but plain, so he and Markus Andrew, Devon’s sweet co-conspirator, did some mind-mapping: how else do people enjoy salted duck egg? “Markus mentioned Malaysia and Singapore using curry leaves. So we chopped and fried some to heighten the aroma and flavour, then put them in the cookie dough.”
Salted duck egg isn’t classic Chinese New Year fare, but the long-cherished ingredient has been making recent waves in Asia as chefs have been experimenting with it in new applications.
Once cool, the croissants are piped full of sweet custard jacked up with salted duck egg yolk, then brushed with gold dust and crowned with extra fried curry leaves – “just to make it more extravagant and celebratory”, adds Bacco.
The result is gripping, with fragrant, savoury undertones, a silky-salty filling, and sweet, crisp pastry-meets-cookie edges. “It’s sweet, but leans just a little to the salty side,” says Bacco.
Salted eggs are preserved by soaking eggs, typically rich duck eggs, in brine or salted charcoal paste, rendering the whites wonderfully sharp, and the yolks extra rich and fatty. In China, the boiled egg is a common congee partner-in-crime and used for X-factor in sauces and food.
While you can make them at home (it takes about a month), buying salted duck eggs is standard and easy – for most of the year. In the lead-up to Chinese New Year, Bacco says getting your hands on them can be tough, but Devon has scored has enough to see them (and that means us) through the festivities.
The lucky croissants are available at Devon’s Barangaroo and North Sydney locations for $7 each in limited supply until February 26. Get ’em while you can and gong xi fa cai.
Devon Cafe's salted duck yolk and curry leaf croissant is inspired by a past savoury dish. Source: Devon Cafe
In this column, , I scour bakeries, patisseries and dessert joints from around the world for the hottest sweet trends, up-and-coming ingredients and game-changing pastry techniques.
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