Sweet of the Week: S'mores Baked Alaska at Atwood

Summer may be fading, but I’ll be damned if I allow that to inhibit my rampant obsession with s’mores. The quintessential fireside dessert pops up all over dessert menus in Chicago during the summer months, featured in everything from pies and cupcakes to lattes, cookies, and pot de cremes. But I saved the best for last this season, because the end all-be all of s’mores desserts is the s’mores baked Alaska at Atwood. Hurry up and get there, because this decadent gem probably won’t be around much longer. Thanks, autumn. 

The dessert comes courtesy of chef Brian Millman, who thoroughly revamps a nostalgic favorite in a bold new way. Baked Alaska, of course, is the perfect vessel for a s’mores dessert, in that the exterior (traditionally meringue) is toasted with a blowtorch. It’s not a campfire, but it’ll do. At Atwood, the rendition starts with a moist chocolate cake, topped with a scoop of heady graham cracker ice cream. It’s all ensconced in a dome of marshmallow fluff, which promptly gets bruleed and topped with chocolate sauce, graham cracker crumbs, and flaked salt. It’s at once genius, revelatory, and madly delicious, even for a guy like me who doesn’t fancy himself much of a chocolate junkie. But this was a dessert I couldn’t refrain myself from inhaling. 

- Matt Kirouac