Make my birthday awesome with a showstopping gluten-free dessert!

July 25, 2021 6:40 PM

It’s my birthday soon and I want to make the best gluten-free dessert ever! I’m in the mood for a gorgeous, fussy project with multiple steps. 8 servings or so would be great. I’d like to prep most of it the night before, but I'm willing to hunt for ingredients and even buy a few tools. Off the wall flavor combinations are encouraged.

Show me what you got, MeFi!

More is more: I like extreme flavors and textures. Smoky, sour, salty, bitter, spicy, dense, silky, icy, crunchy!

Fave bites:
> raw tiramisu

> salted kumquat icees
> super sour lemon bars with a gf brown butter shortbread crust
> Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern orange-almond cake with citrus glaze (I thought the lemon poppyseed variant was excellent too)
> perfectly ripe pineapple with yuzu drizzle and tajín
> chocolate pots de creme
> apricot tart with pistachios

Yes: citrus, peach, mango, coconut, dark chocolate, caramel, dates, cheese, black tea, red bean, taro, herbs, edible flowers, nuts (esp. pistachios, walnuts and pecans)

No: 

Nothing too sweet. No mint, berries or peanuts. Small amounts of dairy are fine but I’d prefer a vegan twist if, say, you’re suggesting a cheesecake.

posted by lloquat to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Where r u located? Can u get durian?
posted by at at 6:56 PM on July 25, 2021

Best answer: LIKE AFFOGATO, BUT DIFFERENT!
This was my first brainstorm from reading your list. I have never made this, but I also like extreme flavors. I would try the following just to try it. And I would probably like it. Borrow a juicer if you don't have one. Don't buy a juicer unless you're reeeeally into juice.

INGREDIENTS
- lemon sorbet/sherbet/gelato/icecream/etc.
- basil
- fresh ginger, maybe one finger, give or take
- kale (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS
Juice* a couple shots of basil with ginger. Pour over a serving of lemon sorbet/sherbet/gelato/icecream/etc. If the flavor is too intense, cut the basil/ginger shot with some kale juice.
posted by aniola at 7:11 PM on July 25, 2021

Response by poster: I'm in the States with access to specialty groceries. I can get durian
posted by lloquat at 7:11 PM on July 25, 2021

Also I think you should make 8 different kinds of dessert.
posted by aniola at 7:12 PM on July 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Perhaps home made nougat or marzipan with some pistachio and or savory additions (bergamot? five spice? Hibiscus?), dipped in dark chocolate? (Hard to make fully vegan.)
posted by eotvos at 7:14 PM on July 25, 2021

Poha Loquat Salsa
posted by aniola at 7:14 PM on July 25, 2021

How do you feel about eggs? What would you think about a Baked Alaska? You bake a cake, make ice cream, make meringue, and the blowtorch the whole shebang before serving. You could do like a coconut milk ice cream flavored with cardamom (one of my favs!) or mango over a GF ginger flavored cake....
posted by goingonit at 7:48 PM on July 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Eggs are great! (And cardamom, yum!) I'm not vegan, just lactose intolerant. Actually allergic to peanuts and wheat.
posted by lloquat at 7:59 PM on July 25, 2021

I like aniola's suggestion of 8 desserts because thats definitely more is more lol

I was coming in to suggest a pavlova with seasonal fruit.
posted by vespertinism at 8:45 PM on July 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Pavlova with lemon curd is DELICIOUS and BEAUTIFUL and perfect for this time of year when delicious fruits are coming into season. Pavlova is often served with whipped cream but it doesn't need to be if you've got a delicious fruit curd on there. Note that you can make the flavor combinations more interesting if you like by changing up the curd & the fruit toppings. I personally would approach it by looking for the absolute best, in-season, perfectly ripe fruit I could find and building the flavors around that. Consider meyer lemon curd, blood orange curd, and heck even durian curd.

Macarons are incredibly fussy and also gluten-free, being traditionally made with almond flour. Depending on what filling you pick, they can also be dairy-free. Here's a great roundup of macaron flavor combinations from David Lebovitz's blog; if you want to be extremely fussy and decadent, you could pick two or more flavors (the weirder the better). They do take practice & technique to get right; you might want to plan on a practice batch before the big day.

Happy birthday -- and enjoy your dessert, whatever you pick!
posted by ourobouros at 8:47 PM on July 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I feel like the Wondersmith can help you out. Here's an example, but check out her archive for waaaayyyy more.
posted by shadygrove at 8:49 PM on July 25, 2021

Ok, you asked for it. This is the Death by Chocolate cake recipe by the celebrated Marcel Desaulniers of The Trellis restaurant, who used to indulge my 6 year old palate with chocolate sundaes when his regular offerings were too overwhelming. This is less a cake than a beguiling assembly of chocolate flavored things: brownie, ganache, mousse, meringue, and sauce. The layers of texture elevate them in an astonishing way.

Yes, it takes a lot of chocolate and eggs. The only gluten is in the brownie layer, which can be subbed with any gluten free brownie mix, or these black bean brownies. No, it does not take three days to make as some people insist, but does take several hours. Most of it can be done in one go, then you'll just need to chill it in the fridge, and finish assembly the next day.
posted by ananci at 9:14 PM on July 25, 2021 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I bake for gluten-free lunches pretty regularly in the summer and this past weekend was a Hawaiian Butter Mochi cake with fresh cherries. That has dairy, but the Coconut Mochi Cake use coconut more or less throughout, and you can swap a plant milk for the small dairy amount. It’s a lovely moist cake with a very distinctive texture.

For -fancy- multi component stunt baking, I’d make a base out of whatever - I went with hazelnut dacquoise but you could do a nut-free cracker crust if needed, then fill with a layer of lemon mousse, blackberry gelatin center filling in a smaller diameter so it doesn’t reach the outside, more mousse to surround and cover, once all that is set in the freezer (in a springform), berry mirror glaze on top. To meet your requirements, I am confident you could make an equivalent with coconut cream in a maybe mango mousse with a lime jelly and glaze? It needs a lot of wait time in the freezer, plus some amount of faff to make and set the jelly layer separately, but it looks SO FANCY once unmolded and sliced. And it need not be very sweet.
posted by janell at 10:03 PM on July 25, 2021

Ok I misread the nuts rule. Dacquoise! Ganache! More dacquoise!

Also- marzipan in a cake mix hides a lot of the sins of gluten free baking flour mixes. The marzipan cake from the Perfectly Golden cookbook is very nice although it is misprinted so you have to play Choose Your Own Number of Eggs. (I went with five, it worked out. Probably 3 would have been ok).
posted by janell at 10:07 PM on July 25, 2021

Another vote for Pavlova, which is a great showpiece and can be customized to your tastes with summer fruits and edible flowers.
posted by quince at 2:17 AM on July 26, 2021

One more vote for 8 different desserts.
Chocolate mousse (no cream needed); coconut-lime or coconut-mango ice-cream (or both); macarons; I don't know what it is called, but basically two layers of flat, lacy almond-chocolate crisps with a nut cream in between; chili-spiced fruit jelly; strawberries in red wine; red currants shaken with sugar. Maybe organize into two servings.
posted by mumimor at 3:25 AM on July 26, 2021

Rice kheer (Indian/Pakistani rice pudding) is gluten-free, and can be spectacularly aromatic. Don't hold back on the cardamom and rose water.
Here's one recipe, but there are tons more.
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/74203/kheer-rice-pudding/
Feel free to add some pink food coloring and silver sugar balls for a nice presentation.
posted by Too-Ticky at 6:46 AM on July 26, 2021

Best answer: Happy birthday! My showstopper that fits most of your requests (dark chocolate, no dairy, multiple steps, no nuts): Concorde cake (linking to a vegan recipe, we use this recipe with a French / non-dairy mousse when we make it)
posted by Mchelly at 8:44 AM on July 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

I've recommended these cardamom orange pistachio cookies here before, but damn they're just so good. They're technically a passover recipe but I would eat them any time. I don't bother with the chocolate, and I tend to just press some chopped pistachios onto the tops of the cookies after slicing rather than rolling the log in them, but you can't go wrong.
I think these would be really great alongside a creme caramel/flan or even just some really nice citrusy sorbet
posted by CookieNose at 12:34 PM on July 26, 2021 [1 favorite]

For Passover a friend regularly makes pavlova with whipped cream made from coconut milk and it’s lovely. So for all the pavlova recommendations, you can add that!
posted by kellygrape at 4:27 PM on July 26, 2021

I've made this flourless chocolate torte from King Arthur flour's site multiple times, and it's been a hit every time, including one when I made adjustments to be dairy free as well.
posted by sapere aude at 4:29 PM on July 26, 2021

I just made this coconut tapioca pudding and had a dead-ripe mango to go with it and it was killer. In my opinion, if you can get ripe mango, don't puree it, just drop pieces on top of the pudding.
I use a can of full fat coconut milk and add 3/4 cup milk for the rest. Super easy, super good.
posted by Lookinguppy at 12:50 PM on July 27, 2021