Inspired Treats For Your Sweet Tooth
Like many Utahns, I love a good treat, and while in pursuit of a unique sweet treat, I came upon Awe Sweet! Inspiring Treats in Bountiful.
The shop is easy to find with its distinctive logo of a fun red heart licking its lips. A bright colorful wall of twenty-two unusual flavors of cotton candy greets customers as they walk in the door. Display cases tempt treat-lovers with decadent cake truffles, creamy fudge, and a large variety of crunchy, glazed nuts
Steven Young, owner and creative genius, greeted me warmly. We chatted as he shared samples of his delicious treats. He offers free samples to all his customers, and it was hard to decide between so many delicious choices, but I started with the glazed nuts.
Young offers ten to twelve unique flavors of glazed nuts in the store, and six to eight flavors at farmers markets along the Wasatch Front. Patrons can choose from peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, or pecans.
When he opened Awe Sweet! in December 2021, he wanted to sell inspiring treats — not what everyone else was selling.
“People who sell nut supplies and equipment say, ‘only do cinnamon — that’s the only thing that is going to sell,’ — but I veered off that path long ago. I’ve created forty unusual flavors,” says Young.
Some of Young’s exclusive glazed nut flavors are whiskey, rum, vanilla, and spicy citrus. Each glazed nut recipe contains simple ingredients, and the nuts are roasted without oil or butter.
“It’s not rocket science, but we pride ourselves in the fact that our nuts are literally three or four ingredients. We take our nuts, sugar, whiskey, rum, beer, whatever, and add a little bit of salt. I like to do things that are unusual. They have just enough liquor to give you that subtle difference in flavor and textures, but they are legal to sell to anyone without a special license. Kids can buy them. You won’t find these flavors anywhere else, especially in Utah,” says Young.
Young also likes to infuse liquor flavors into his fudge. He takes Merlot wine, adds raspberry or blackberry dessert wine, then mixes it with a super dark and dense Belgium chocolate mix. The result is a dark chocolate raspberry merlot fudge. Young also makes an Irish Cream fudge and an Amaretto with almonds.
“You won’t find these liquor and wine flavors anywhere else. I pride myself to think my fudge flavors are unique. They set me apart,” says Young.
If liquor isn’t your thing, Young also carries more common fudge flavors like chocolate or dark chocolate peanut butter. But he also created a special cookie butter fudge just for locals. “I know that Utah loves their biscoff,” Young says.
Young also sells unusual cake truffles. He mixes cake, fudge, nuts, and special flavor ingredients to create a delicious bite of tastes and textures. Then he smothers the bite in creamy tempered Belgium chocolate. “They are like a cake ball or pop, but fancy schmancy,” says Young.
His evocative flavor repertoire includes key lime lavender, dark chocolate raspberry, carrot cake, red velvet, German chocolate cake, and lemon. The lemon is Young’s favorite cake truffle. “It’s completely amazing. The taste and texture combined make it taste like a lemon bar,” says Young.
Looking to the future, Young plans to create a line of peanuts made with glazes from beer. “I want to call them ‘Session Nuts’, and will only make glazes from locally brewed beers. I’d love to have five or six of them going at a time,” he says.
You can visit Awe Sweet! Inspiring Treats at 273 W 500 S, Unit 12, Bountiful, Utah, or order online.
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