A fresh local cob, boiled, with butter, salt and cracked black pepper, is "too tempting to resist”, said Rosanna Dodds in the Financial Times. But the “golden vegetable” is cropping up everywhere, it seems, and in desserts too: from ice cream to lattes.
August and September are “peak” harvest months for sweetcorn and the UK’s “long summer days and sandy coastal soils” make it particularly good for growing the sweetest cobs.
But sweetcorn is a “global vegetable” and “comes in many guises”. From West Africa to China, the cob is a subject of “international adoration”.
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Long used in “sandwich fillings and pizza toppings”, it has recently been “popping up on social media in sweet treat form”, said Alys Davies on the BBC.
The use of corn in desserts is part of a “wider trend” that involves combining “sweet and savoury flavours we wouldn’t traditionally put together”, said Shokofeh Hejazi, from food trends agency thefoodpeople. Corn can be “blended into a creamy texture”, which makes it a “great fit” for the “swavoury movement”.
Hejazi says experimental corn desserts have yet to “hit the mainstream” but there are some venues already embracing the trend. These include the peach and sweetcorn danish pastry available at the popular east London bakery Pophams and gelato store Snowflake’s sweetcorn-flavoured Snow Cob.
Sweetcorn drinks are also on the rise. Crystelle Pereira, a former “Great British Bake Off” finalist known for her “wacky flavour combinations”, shared a recipe for a sweetcorn latte. Inspired by a frappé she enjoyed on a trip to Thailand, she recommends using a blender to make corn milk from cooked sweetcorn, coconut milk, coconut cream, a squeeze of honey and vanilla bean paste. The milk is topped with a shot of espresso, whipped coconut cream and cornflakes.
If you prefer something savoury, try Felicity Cloake’s recipe for the perfect sweetcorn fritters in The Guardian. They taste best made with fresh corn but you can make “very decent” fritters with corn from a can too. Delicious served with a dollop of creme fraiche, they go with most things, “including a cold beer”.
