A unique dessert was opened during the quarantine: there was still no one in the capital

So we found out what really creates a dessert with an interesting and unique name. Do desserts heal? Doctors and dessert Delfi are connected by the founders of the company “Daktaras Desertas”: the food technologist Deividas Šalnis and the creator Marius Dijokas.

– “Doctor Dessert” was chosen as the most beautiful name of the company. How did you come up with this name? After all, for many, desserts are associated with a not very healthy diet, and here even the word mentioned in the name – doctor. How did such an idea come about?

– And why can’t dessert be healthy? There is such a universal attitude, the stigma, that dessert is something unhealthy, sinful and, if possible, rare, in small quantities. But why? No name makes dessert unhealthy, but what and how is it made. We are convinced that a good dessert as a food supplement can enrich the body with fiber, minerals and vitamins, just like a full breakfast or dinner.

And such a name was born by accident. That’s what we wanted to say. Our desserts must meet two criteria: they must be healthy and delicious. You will also find it delicious, filling, just healthy. And we try to make it healthy and delicious. And another dessert. And if possible. Difficult, but possible.

– You say you only make healthy desserts. What did you have to give up to make them healthy?

– We have abandoned the two cheapest and most important ingredients in baking: sugar and white flour. The price of both kilograms is less than the euro. Sugar also acts as a preservative, which prolongs the shelf life of products, and white flour gives a nice, crunchy texture. Simply perfect – no wonder the entire dough is actually based on sugar and white flour.

Still, the medal has two sides: simplicity and low cost on the one hand, empty calories, and elevated blood sugar on the other. Frequent use of these products can have negative health consequences. It goes without saying that we ate the same sugar and white flour without even knowing it and not for dessert, but simply for lunch, eating bread or steak with barbecue sauce. It’s the other way around with us: You don’t find a single gram of added sugar when you eat dessert.

– How do you switch sugar and regular white flour? Is it difficult to do without them in the production of desserts and find suitable alternatives?

– Very difficult. Especially when you don’t commit. There are places that boast of sugar-free desserts, but in the end it turns out that instead of beet sugar, they use “marketing” sugar: fructose or cane sugar, dates, agave syrup to extract sweetness. Unfortunately, all of the listed sources of sugar, even if they sound more sophisticated or more beautiful, do not raise blood sugar levels much worse than the cheap sugar beet sugar that is usual for us.

Meanwhile, we use sweeteners from nature that don’t raise blood sugar levels and are safe, even people with diabetes can use them. We use stevia and erythritol. But they are not easy to work with, there are many nuances: there is no way to just put stevia or erythritol in place of sugar and it will be delicious. Who tried it, knows it, so it cannot surprise us that we succeed.

Instead of white flour (completely clean), we use whole grain oats and organic brown rice. There are also many things to do here. It took not only time, but also ingenuity, a creative approach. Again, anyone who has tried to replace purified white flour with healthy ones and not compromise on loss of flavor will understand.

– So maybe your desserts are classified as vegan?

– It’s funny, but when you say to someone the phrase “healthy desserts”, probably 95% of people react to something like “Oh, is it vegan?”. Vegans generally avoid sugar or white flour and sometimes even use sugar even more to offset and hide certain flavors to build integrity (since they don’t use dairy, eggs, or gelatin).
That is, if people already have a hard time convincing that there can be healthy desserts, then when you specify that they are also a vegan, it is already surprising enough.

In terms of nutrition, we don’t see anything wrong with dairy or eggs. Of course, if a person is lactose intolerant then for example we make pancakes containing organic lactose free yogurt, something that really has problems for that, we can offer alternatives. We understand veganism as a philosophy and everything is fine with that, but why healthy desserts are associated with veganism in our society is interesting and strange.

It is true that we are also working on really healthy vegan desserts to be able to respond to that need as well. And of course, they will not only be without animal products, but also without sugar or white flour, but we are not selling vegan desserts yet.

– Do you create these desserts yourself?

– Yes, the dessert recipes are created by food technology co-founder David Šalnis.

– How long has it been since you opened your dessert?

– We open in the heat of the second quarantine, on November 20. People are often surprised that we weren’t afraid to start right then. But it seems to us that it is a great moment. Now more than ever, wellness, health, and strengthening immunity are important. And here we are. Also, people move fewer extra pounds. And you can buy a torch from us with no regrets.

– Although you recently settled, but you are already being talked about, how do people discover you and discover you?

– When we start working, we work from the shoulder. From morning to afternoon, we produce, we experiment, we come from the streets, we talk, we count, we sell dessert. The next day, a friend, neighbor or colleague shows up. And so the language began to spread quite quickly. Yes, each other. In addition, the neighborhood is very grateful: very friendly, sociable and sociable people around. At first, maybe more newcomers discovered it, and now it happens that they come from other districts especially and from other cities, they call, they say that as soon as the quarantine is over, they will be angry because we only open in Vilnius.

Tomas Ramanauskas, the creator of another good taste guru, added us to the 2020 list of gastronomic discoveries for the concept, which was also published by DELFI, and after the New Year, an additional group of followers of fashion trends flooded . None said: I had heard of you for some time, I wanted to visit a long time ago, but since Ramanauskas wrote, it is absolutely necessary. Snowball effect. The snowball had already formed, it was already rolling, and Tom was still pushing up the hill.

– Desserts can only be removed during quarantine, and after? Will it be possible for people to sit down and enjoy a healthy dessert at the venue?

– Here are the top 1 questions from our patients. People ask every day, wondering if it will be possible to sit down and be there. We fear that there will not be room for everyone who wants to, they will have to make restaurant reservations or move to larger rooms (laughs).