The reins are off. Crème Brûlée Blondies.
View this post on Instagram
You don’t need to hear the depressing words "extreme heatwave" to realize, usually at the height of July, that it’s time to loosen up a bit and try to survive what is known as the summer break, or the Israeli summer. The reasons are clear, the alibi is documented, and the rest is just you and the humidity in a duel with a known outcome.
To soften this reality, Max Brenner has introduced a new summer menu, free from unnecessary heroic tales and battle talk, inviting you into a refreshing, cool haven.
The starting point here was fun, and the path to it includes countless sweet and indulgent stops, some more and some much more. Sundaes and fruits, milkshakes, and chocolate in unlimited shapes and forms. Summer, after all, and our summer at that.
The menu includes six new summer additions to the regular indulgences of the chain, divided into four desserts and two milkshakes. You know, so you can order drinks alongside your food and maintain your diet.
We begin with the trio of sundaes (NIS 62), presented in a tall, deep glass, showcasing three versions of sweet and textured constructions that surely required, and received, approval from the Ministry of Infrastructure.
The "Tropical Mango Sundae" includes layers of white chocolate ganache, mango, crumble, mango ice cream, and whipped cream. The "Banana and Salted Caramel Sundae" features caramelized bananas, toffee sauce, Belgian waffle cubes, and salted caramel ice cream. The "Bueno and Chocolate Sundae" combines milk chocolate ganache, brownie fudge, Bueno cream, milk chocolate ice cream, whipped cream, and waffle balls.
This is, at the very least, a celebration of long spoons and giant scoops. They dig deep and slowly come out trying to hold as much as possible without dropping anything on the way to your mouth. Inside, it’s just you and the crunch sliding alongside the creaminess, the warmth melting with the cold ice cream, and the sheer delight of breaking conventions and barriers.
Shall we continue?
The Pretzel Nutella Milkshake (NIS 37) slides over with a towering cup of salted caramel ice cream, Bueno cream, pretzels, and whipped cream, making it surely an Instagram hit and best-seller.
The Mango and Whipped Cream Milkshake (same price) opts for fewer ingredients and refines itself in more moderate directions - well, mango and whipped cream - approaching a real fruit shake. Sweet, of course, and packed with whipped cream, but excellent for sharing and generally a great indulgence.
The star of the menu, at least according to the looks and sounds from those around this particular table, is the Crème Brûlée Blondies (NIS 64), a title that already takes you into a sweet bunker, but bombs you with the best softness possible.
Here - on the same plate, obviously, it's huge - is a blondie chocolate fudge in vanilla sauce, topped with crème brûlée and mango ice cream, a description that only begins to explain what it is.
What we have here is a tower of discs with a base of creamy vanilla sauce, an ideally thick layer of semifreddo brûlée, topped with that blondie fudge, and mango or vanilla ice cream.
The result, if it isn’t clear by now, is a supreme effort to concentrate and cut a bit of everything (or a lot of everything) on the way to sending this summer’s sweet food to your mouth. It’s neither subtle nor refined nor elegant, and it’s not supposed to be any of those things. On the contrary. It’s an indulgence, and an indulgence with a license. A license to kill this summer just a bit.
Max Brenner Summer Menu 2024, available at branches across the country.