Baking with Bacon: Area Eateries Get It Right

The baconsprinkled chocolate cremeaux at Talula’s Garden

When it comes to bacon, we are a city obsessed. Thick or thin, straight or spiced, grilled, braised, or skillet-fried—we will take bacon however it comes. Which, these days in Philadelphia, is in countless inventive ways: on scrapple burgers at the Wishing Well, in carbonara from Amis, con huevos anywhere worth waking up for at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning—and, increasingly, on dessert menus all over town.

“Bacon’s history goes back as far as curing meats does,” says Gene Giuffi, chef and partner of cozy Queen Village BYOB Cochon (801 E. Passyunk Ave., 215-923-7675; cochonbyob.com), whose name, fittingly enough, means “pig” in French. “As far as bacon being a trending dessert, that just stems from the fact that Americans probably consume 75 to 80 percent of their annual intake of bacon at breakfast.” His reasoning: We are all accustomed to seeing bacon paired with sweet breakfast staples: brown-sugared oatmeal, French toast dusted with cinnamon, sticky buns, and chocolate croissants. “This in turn makes people more comfortable trying it paired with something sweet [for dessert].” Monica Glass, pastry chef at 10 Arts Bistro & Lounge by Eric Ripert (10 Avenue of the Arts, 215-523-8273; 10arts.com), in The Ritz-Carlton, seconds the notion: “Think maple syrup from a stack of pancakes drizzled on your side of bacon—it’s that sweet-salty-savory combination, and the meatiness subtly makes your taste buds crave more.”

The fairy-tale lights strung about Talula’s Garden (210 W. Washington Sq., 215-592-7787; talulasgarden.com) like Christmas-tree tinsel are great for atmosphere but not so great for eyesight. One too many glasses of the biodynamic wines or local beers and you could be forgiven for not noticing the shards of candied bacon among the crunchy caramel-brown crumbles strewn across pastry chef Jennifer Coyle’s bars of chocolate cremeaux. At first bite, however, there is no mistaking their presence. The saltiness of the bacon underscores the velvety chocolate with subtle perfection, and the smokiness dovetails with those fine crumbs of butter smoked expressly for the dish. The cremeaux (“a thickened chocolate custard,” according to Coyle) cleverly embodies the sweet-salty-savory trinity described by Glass. “Some people crave salty, and some people crave sweet,” says Coyle, who grew up addicted to the dual sensations of chocolatecovered pretzels. The cremeaux, a collaborative effort of Coyle, Talula’s Table pastry chef Claire Shears, and co-owner Aimee Olexy, “is a great combination of the two.”

“My mom always used bacon fat to cook pancakes and make cornbread, and the glazing of bacon in maple syrup happened every time we mushed it all together,” Olexy explains of the inspiration for the dessert. “I think as more restaurants thankfully have begun to make their own cured meats and smoked foods and to bake, they are getting more versed in the natural and very old-fashioned flavor combinations of such foods.”

	Garces Trading Company’s bacon-apple pie

Chic in appearance but satisfying on a primal level, Talula’s bacon-flecked cremeaux is the best of Philly’s porcine offerings, but it is hardly the only one in town. At café-slash-gourmet market Garces Trading Company (1111 Locust St., 215-574-1099; garces tradingcompany.com), pastry chef Jessica Mogardo is reprising the bacon-apple pie she invented last Thanksgiving. “Something about combining salty bacon with sweet baked apples just appealed to me,” she says. “And of course, we’re pork lovers, thanks to chef Garces!” For catered breakfasts and brunches, the Iron Chef’s catering arm, Garces Catering, lays out towers of sticky buns glazed with Lancaster County syrup and showered with bacon crumble, a confection born at Garces Trading.

Across the state line in Haddonfield, Toni Walton, pastry chef at Ralic’s Steakhouse (26 S. Haddon Ave., 856-616-1520; ralicssteakhouse.com) and one-time baker at Carlo’s Bakery of Cake Boss fame, serves a wicked apple bourbon bread pudding. Soft as a pillow, the square of baked, custard-soaked challah French toast shines like gold against the intimate steakhouse’s white tablecloths. Sweet hunks of apple sit buried inside the pudding like a lode of precious gems, but the dessert’s pièce-de-résistance is the crown of maple-bacon brittle. “When Toni brought the idea to us about the bread pudding, it didn’t intrigue us right away,” admits managing partner David Ralic. “But when she mentioned bacon and we had the chance to sample it, it was a no-brainer.”

However, Glass admits to an inclination to tread lightly as bacon desserts slowly gain traction. “Pig in dessert kind of intimidates many diners,” which is why for Mémé’s third annual collaborative Pig Dinner, she stuck to a familiar prosciutto-melon theme that featured goat’s milk and chamomile semifreddo on bacon fatback shortbread cookies. (We can’t imagine the dessert’s garnish of candied headcheese crisps winning over many timid eaters, however.) And Giuffi, who serves Poor Man’s Pudding—shortbread baked in bacon-infused maple caramel with bacon ice cream—for dessert, faces some holdouts as well. “A lot of people still won’t even try our dessert and make faces or sounds at the fact that we try to sell it.” To those haters, we say: More for us.