THE NEW GRANDMOTHERLY DESSERTS

Here we are in the middle of a food revolution. The supermarket shelves are laden with mysterious fruits from the other side of the world -- guava, feijoa, tamarillo. We snap up strawberries in December and butternut squash in July. Innovative dishes such as sea urchin sushi and goat cheese ravioli proliferate.

But does the dessert menu change?

No. When it comes to sweets, we are hopelessly, incurably conservative. Dessert is comfort food, dessert is grandmother, and we do not want to change.

This drives chefs crazy. What talented baker wants to turn out that signature apple and raisin crumble year in year out, however foolproof and delicious? Any chef worth his turbinado sugar tries to make us change our minds and here are some of the latest endeavors.

Look beyond a simple chocolate cake or even a dark chocolate souffle. At Gramercy Tavern in New York we are lured by chocolate-caramel tart topped with caramel ice cream. At Tarbell's in Phoenix, Ariz., mousse is made with vintage Hawaiian chocolate -- gourmet chocolate is now identified by its birthplace, following the lead of coffee.

My most vivid memory is the dark chocolate peanut butter ice cream topped with a froth of espresso at Cafe Cello in New York. The tiny tasting portion comes in a hollowed eggshell nested on granulated sugar in a white bowl, a surreal composition of white on white concealing the tawny dessert itself.

Fruit pie is another perennial favorite, but the creative chef tries a twist, a roasted pineapple tart topped with coconut ice cream perhaps, or a raspberry tartlet topped with warm gianduia chocolate. At Al Forno's in Providence, R.I., Johanne Killeen bakes flaky pastry with wafer-thin slices of Meyer lemon, then tops them with lemon curd and a mountain of meringue, a take on lemon meringue pie that combines the best of new and old.

Familiar pie may become a crisp sandwich of spring fruits with tarragon sauce, as at Red Sage in Washington, D.C., or the dried plum (plain old prune to me) and Grand Marnier parfait Napoleon at Handke's in Columbus, Ohio.

To flavor a dessert with herbs may appear new, though in fact we are resorting to early colonial tradition when we perfume syrup for fruit salad with rose geranium or flavor our cookies with lemon thyme or tarragon.

Woodruff, elderflower, golden oregano and sage -- all are inspiration for today's pastry chef. At Galileo in Washington, D.C., Roberto Donna serves polenta cakes with white chocolate mousse in a sweet basil sauce based on egg custard. The sauce makes great ice cream too, as I discovered recently when Roberto left a quart of it by mistake in my refrigerator.

In another hot trend, the tasting dessert plate has been taken over by the mini-dessert -- a mix-and-match choice of little tartlets, berries, miniature souffles, tiny scoops of ice cream and sorbet. At the Fairmont Bar and Grill in Bethesda, Md., you can choose just one, though most diners opt for at least three, at $2 each.

Gale Gand, chef owner of Tru in Chicago whose book ``Butter Sugar Flour Eggs'' is up for a James Beard award, is enthusiastic. She bakes tiny chocolate doughnuts, and as a mini creme brulee, she scoops creamy egg custard with a long-handled iced tea spoon and tops it with a slice of banana crisply caramelized with sugar. Ice cream now comes flavored with exotica such as toasted gingerbread, licorice, limequat or sapote. More and more rarely are they made in-house.

Thanks to new technology, the quality of pre-prepared and frozen desserts is immensely improved. Good pastry chefs are rare and many a restaurateur might be tempted by the frozen cakes of masters such as award-winning Francois Payard of Payard Patisserie and Bistro in New York.

One easy way to give any menu an update is to add a trendy ingredient. Right now, quince, passion fruit, and -- hold your breath -- banana top the list. Pears are in, particularly when roasted; apples are out but don't ask me why. Mascarpone is a has-been, now that we can find it in any supermarket, replaced by fromage frais (fresh cheese). Carambola and kiwi are also last year's news, but rhubarb and blood oranges are showing unexpected staying power, thanks to their vivid taste. Less appealing are chic Asian flavorings such as sesame in sweet tuiles and green tea in ice cream, too exotic for me, I guess.

Cookie plates are the rage. What could be more reassuring than that? In many an Italian trattoria, a selection of biscotti has become the standard close-out, perfect for dipping in that cappuccino or double shot latte. At Al Forno in Providence, R.I., the cookie plate comes garnished with truffles and chocolate orange peel, but not until you bite into a freshly baked, warm, butter cookie does the full pleasure strike. Wow!

As for puddings, there's the buzz word for the millennium. Take your spoon to peach and bourbon cobbler, and pineapple-macadamia upside-down cake. Flavor your ice cream with buttermilk, blueberry or chocolate chip cookie dough.

There you have it, the ultimate in nostalgia, comfort with a twist. Nowadays even grandma wears short skirts and colors her hair, so it's appropriate that her desserts do likewise.

VANILLA ROAST PINEAPPLE WITH COCONUT ICE CREAM

This whole pineapple, spiked with sticks of vanilla bean and roasted until it is caramelized, will fill the kitchen with fragrance. I like to serve it with coconut ice cream, or you can serve it with any nut ice cream of your choice.

Coconut Ice Cream:

2 cups half and half

1 (8-ounce) package flaked coconut

5 egg yolks

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Vanilla Roast Pineapple:

1 large ripe pineapple

4 vanilla beans, each cut into 2 to 3 sticks

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Grated zest and juice of 1 orange

Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

About 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

To prepare Coconut Ice Cream, bring half and half just to boil. Stir in coconut. Cover and leave to infuse over very low heat 15 to 20 minutes. Beat egg yolks and granulated sugar in bowl until well mixed, about 30 seconds. Strain in coconut liquid, pressing well to extract all half and half. Discard coconut.

Return custard to pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until custard just coats back of spoon. Remove immediately from heat and strain into cold bowl. Let cool, then chill. Freeze in ice cream churn according to manufacturer's instructions until set. Transfer to chilled container, cover and store in freezer. (Ice cream can be kept up to 1 week in freezer.)

To prepare Vanilla Roast Pineapple, cut plume and base from pineapple and set upright. Following curve of fruit, cut away skin and hollow out eyes with point of knife. Cut out core with apple corer. Spear fruit with pieces of vanilla beans. Set pineapple standing upright in baking dish.

Heat brown sugar, water, grated zests and juices in small pan, stirring gently until sugar dissolves. Pour syrup over pineapple. Roast in oven at 325 degrees, basting often, until pineapple browns and syrup starts to caramelize, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours. Toward end of cooking, keep close watch as syrup will scorch rapidly once it cooks to a glaze.

Slice pineapple into thick rings. Serve warm, basted with cooking syrup and each topped with 1 scoop Coconut Ice Cream. (If desired, leave beans for decoration. They cannot be eaten.) Makes 4 servings.

(Anne Willan is the author of a new book, ``From My Chateau Kitchen,'' Clarkson Potter.)

(c) 2000, Anne Willan. Distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

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Author: Anne Willan