A SPRING IN YOUR STEP

Lighten up those dense winter treats with the humble and protean egg

As the hot season bears down on Thailand, much of the rest of the northern hemisphere is enjoying the more refreshing spring weather. But without the buttery, meaty richness of winter, or the juicy, fresh abundance of summer, spring menus can be challenging for chefs across the kitchen. This is especially true for pastry chefs. Even for dessert, customers crave lighter, brighter flavours after months of chocolate, caramel and nuts. Lacking seasonal fruit beyond rhubarb and the first strawberries, pastry chefs reach for that time-honoured staple: the humble and protean egg.

After all, an egg can metamorphose from liquid, to frothy, to softly trembling and barely set, to completely solid and sliceable.

Eggs can leaven and lighten; eggs can thicken and enrich. And while the egg is essential throughout gastronomy, it is a cornerstone of classical dessert making, with much of the pastry canon resting on its curved shell.

The connection between eggs and spring runs deeper than many people may realise. Historically, eggs were a seasonal food, with hens slowing down or ceasing to lay eggs altogether as daylight waned and winter set in. When spring came and the days lengthened again, the hens resumed laying.

The advent of electricity changed that; farmers put light bulbs in their chicken coops to keep hens laying all winter long. But that natural cycle is one reason eggs are symbolically linked to spring, Easter, Passover and the celebration of the vernal equinox. Once you had eggs, you knew spring was finally coming back.

You can still see this symbolism at play in traditional springtime desserts, including the egg-enriched Easter sweet breads common across Europe, and in the egg-leavened nut tortes served for Passover.

In springtime, the judicious use of eggs can lighten and transform even those same flavours we have grown weary of during the frigid months.

For example, in winter, chocolate typically gets melted into dense and molten cakes, tortes and truffled bonbons.

But for springtime, folding a little cocoa into a billowing meringue for a chocolate pavlova gives you a sense of buoyancy, but with a decided bittersweet punch.

Or you could throw yourself headlong into spring by whipping eggs into froth in a double boiler, as you do when you make sabayon. The sweetened eggs turn into a warm, foamy mousse.