Food Channel Reveals 2010 Top 10 Dessert Trends

CHICAGOThe Food Channel®, in conjunction with CultureWaves, the International Food Futurists, and Mintel International, released its "Top Ten Dessert Trends" detailing the sweet, savory and tasty indulgences that will grace Americas menus this year.

Desserts are a great place to experiment with the non-traditional and unexpected," said Kay Logsdon, editor in chief of The Food Channel. "It's all about unusual pairingseverything from beer with dessert to donuts adorning milkshakes."

The Top 10 dessert trends for 2010 include:

1.The Unexpected Complement. These days we're all about trying something new to get us out of the everyday routine. So, we're pairing sweet and savory in new ways (and it's not just about bacon).

2. You Say Macaroons, We Say Macarons. In Paris and New York, dessert right now is all about macarons, which is like a colorful little sandwich made by a pastry chef.

3. Dessert Meister. What we're seeing now is beer coming into play both as a dessert ingredient and as a pairing option. This trend is probably the natural outgrowth of the rise in microbreweries, because any restaurant willing to brew its own beer just has to be a fan of trying new things.

4. Transformers. This trend is about the use of common, everyday foods combined with familiar flavors then reassembling them in a new way. We're seeing it with Burger King's Funnel Cake Sticks, and at Mexican burger chain Burguesa Burger, where every milkshake comes straw-skewered with a donut.

5. Tweet! Here Comes the Dessert Truck. The Kogi taco truck and other maindish nomadic vehicles paved the way, and now the sweet treat trucks (really a trend in itself) are merging into the traffic of city life.

6. Darwinist Desserts. This trend is about the evolution of desserts and our human desire to make them what we want them to be. That could mean gathering up odds and ends of leftovers and turning them into something, and it usually means trying to deliberately create something that no one else has thought of.

7. Freshly Baked. These days, bakers and pastry chefs are becoming a specialty business. If your town is typical, odds are good that you have some young entrepreneur opening up a cute little bake shop where they are baking amazing confections and selling them like hotcakeser, cakes.

8. OK, Just a Bite. This trend is the amalgamation of several others all rolled up into the smallest possible confection with the biggest possible burst of flavor.

9. Soda Fountain Fizz. Last year desserts were all about ice cream, and we're still seeing it mixed in here and there. The usual dessert drink of port or a hot latte is getting some competition from some of the new floats, shakes, malts and coolers.

10. The Sandwich Generation. This trend speaks to the artisan within. We see it come to life in the traditional ice cream sandwich, as it evolves into something new..

Click here to read in-depth information about each trend.