Macarons are becoming common in American bakeries. The French pastries are adaptable to a multitude of flavors and applications.

As American as…well, you name it. While apple pie certainly still tops the list, don't be surprised to find exotic, ethnic flavors like cardamon, rosewater and mango flavoring everything from cakes to brownies or almost any baked product.

Few ethnic flavors have shown the breakout momentum of the Latin dulce de leche, which is now so much a part of mainstream America that it is a Girl Scout cookie variety. But pastry chefs throughout the country report that their customers also are developing an appetite for certain Middle Eastern and Asian ingredients and flavor profiles.

Mintel's “Hot Flavors of 2010” list includes cardamom, a bakery product staple in both South Asia and Scandinavia; rosewater, traditionally regarded as a fragrance in the United States, but long an integral flavor component in Middle Eastern sweets; and the South Asian mango, which has successfully crossed the line from exotic fruit to go-to dessert ingredient for U.S. pastry chefs. In addition, lemongrass, native to India and extensively used in Thai and Vietnamese cuisine, is providing herbal inspiration for American pastry chefs resulting in its inclusion in an increasing array of desserts.

Chad Durkin, owner of Desserts International, Exton, Pa., recently created a prickly pear and white chocolate cardamom cream cake that was a hit with his company's wholesale customers. He also likes to mix cardamom into spice cakes, especially during the holidays.

With a vivid purple hue, ube provides sweet potato-like functionality.	Cardamom lends an aromatic fragrance to baked products.
Macarons act as a vehicle for interesting flavor profiles.

Heather Hurlbert, executive pastry chef, Cherokee Town and Country Club, Atlanta, is pleased that cardamom, which she says has been long underused, is finding its way into the sweets spotlight.

“Cardamom goes beautifully with chocolate and fruit; I've used it in buttercreams and ganaches, and I grind it into a fine powder to add to the dry ingredients for chocolate cakes and cupcakes,” she says.

Marda Stoliar, director of the International School of Baking, Bend, Ore., likes to add the “peppery-lemon” flavor of cardamom to round out lemon cake, curd and pastry cream, as well as chocolate items. She believes many American consumers would respond positively to a higher cardamom profile in fruit-topped Danish pastries, especially cherry, or mixed with the honey in baklava as it is made in the traditional Turkish style.

At her Blackmarket Bakery in Irvine, Calif., owner Rachel Marie plans to debut a Caspian Sea shortbread — a Middle Eastern twist on the ever-popular Mexican tea cake — with cardamom, toasted pistachio nuts, cinnamon and orange zest. And Thomas Trevethan, pastry chef at Paris and Bally's Las Vegas likes the idea of a cardamom-spiced chocolate ganache center for a croissant.

Journey toward mainstream

When it comes to rosewater and other florals, Durkin recommends they be added sparingly. “If you use too much, your dessert can wind up smelling and tasting like soap,” he explains. “Just a hint is enough, a ‘nose flavor’ to excite the olfactory gland.”

Rosewater pairs particularly well with strawberries. For Valentine's Day weekend, he offered a romantic dessert that combined layers of rose vanilla mousse, rose-infused sugared strawberries, chocolate mousse and red velvet cake.

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