Sara Steele’s Desserts at BOTERO

[nggallery id=1440]

Sara Steele is one of the major pastry talents we have working in Vegas. Her desserts are basically modern takes on homey, familiar classics like s’mores and cheesecake, but she always seems to add a wrinkle or two to keep your brain fascinated and your spoon and fork digging.

Her s’mores brioche doughnuts are a case in point. Puffy, light and yeasty balls filled with marshmallow filling that spews onto your tongue or squirts onto your plate — depending on how much fun you want to have with your food. She’ll tell you her desserts are all about “playful twists on childhood treats,” and since ELV’s memory of those times becomes dimmer with each passing year, we’ll have to take her word on that. But we can tell you her frozen chocolate candy bar with peanut butter crunch, Godiva mousse and caramel ganache is about the most grown up treatment of a childhood sweet we can imagine — and maybe the best chocolate dessert we’ve had this year.

Her caramel apple bread pudding with brown sugar ice cream is no slouch either, and we love the way she throws a last little accent — cinnamon streusel on the pudding, salty pepita brittle on the pumpkin mascarpone cheesecake — to sharpen the flavors in your mouth.

Sara tells us she loves making and baking little treats like this on weekends for her husband and two children.

Lucky them.

Lucky us.

BOTERO

In the Encore Hotel and Casino

3131 Las Vegas Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.248.3463

http://www.encorelasvegas.com/#/dining/botero_steak/