Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as

confections Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categories ...

, and possibly a beverage such as

dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...

and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, M ...

, and most parts of China, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal. The term ''dessert'' can apply to many

, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins,

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

pastries Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ...

, pies, puddings,

macaroon A macaroon ( ) is a small cake or biscuit, typically made from ground almonds (the original main ingredient), coconut or other nuts (or even potato), with sugar and sometimes flavourings (e.g. honey, vanilla, spices), food colouring, glacé ...

s, sweet soups,

tart A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes wit ...

s, and

fruit salad Fruit salad is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, sometimes served in a liquid, either their juices or a syrup. In different forms, fruit salad can be served as an appetizer or a side salad. When served as an appetizer, a fruit sala ...

Fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts.

Etymology

The word "dessert" originated from the French word ''desservir,'' meaning "to clear the table". Its first known use in English was in 1600, in a health education manual entitled ''Naturall and artificial Directions for Health'', written by William Vaughan. In his book ''Sweet Invention: A History of Dessert'' (2011), Michael Krondl explains that it refers to the fact that dessert was served after the table had been cleared of other dishes. The term dates from the 14th century but attained its current meaning around the beginning of the 20th century, when "

service à la française (; "service in the French style") is the practice of serving various dishes of meal at the same time, with the diners helping themselves from the serving dishes. That contrasts to (; "service in the Russian style") in which dishes are brought ...

" (setting a variety of dishes on the table at the same time) was replaced with "

service à la russe The historical form of (; "service in the Russian style") is a manner of dining that involves courses being brought to the table sequentially, and the food being portioned on the plate by the waiter (usually at a sideboard in the dining room) bef ...

" (presenting a meal in multiple courses).

Other names

The word "dessert" is most commonly used for this course in Australia,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, while it is one of several synonyms (including "'' pudding''", "''sweet''" and "''afters''") in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and some other Commonwealth countries.

History

Sweets were fed to the gods in ancient Mesopotamia and

ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by m ...

and other ancient civilizations.

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

mentions that

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

meals featured many desserts, and were more varied in their sweet offerings than the main dishes. German army officer Helmuth von Moltke whilst serving in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

noted the unusual presentation of courses with the sweet courses served between roasts and other savory dishes. Dried fruit and honey were probably the first sweeteners used in most of the world, but the spread of sugarcane around the world was essential to the development of dessert. Sugarcane was grown and refined in India before 500 BC and was crystallized, making it easy to transport, by AD 500. Sugar and sugarcane were traded, making sugar available to Macedonia by 300 BC and China by AD 600. In the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

, the Middle East, and China, sugar has been a staple of cooking and desserts for over a thousand years. Sugarcane and sugar were little known and rare in Europe until the twelfth century or later when the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

and then colonization spread its use. Europeans began to manufacture sugar in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, and more sweet desserts became available. Even then sugar was so expensive usually only the wealthy could indulge on special occasions. The first

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is gene ...

recipe was published in 1381. The earliest documentation of the term ''cupcake'' was in "Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats" in 1828 in

Eliza Leslie Eliza Leslie (1787–1858), frequently referred to as Miss Leslie, was an American author of popular cookbooks during the nineteenth century. She also wrote household management books, etiquette books, novels, short stories and articles for magazin ...

's ''Receipts'' cookbook. The

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

in Europe and later America caused led to the mass-production of foodstuffs, including desserts, that could be processed, preserved, canned, and packaged. Frozen foods, including desserts, became very popular starting in the 1920s.

Ingredients

Sweet desserts usually contain cane sugar, palm sugar, brown sugar, honey, or some types of syrup such as molasses, maple syrup, treacle, or corn syrup. Other common ingredients in Western-style desserts are flour or other starches, cooking

fat In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specifically to triglycerides (triple est ...

s such as butter or lard, dairy,

eggs Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...

, salt, acidic ingredients such as lemon juice, and spices and other flavoring agents such as

chocolate Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...

, coffee, peanut butter,

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

s, and nuts. The proportions of these ingredients, along with the preparation methods, play a major part in the consistency, texture, and flavor of the end product. Sugars contribute moisture and tenderness to baked goods. Flour or starch components serves as a protein and gives the dessert structure. Fats contribute moisture and can enable the development of flaky layers in pastries and pie crusts. The dairy products in baked goods keep the desserts moist. Many desserts also contain eggs, in order to form custard or to aid in the rising and thickening of a cake-like substance. Egg yolks specifically contribute to the richness of desserts. Egg whites can act as a leavening agent or provide structure. Further innovation in the healthy eating movement has led to more information being available about vegan and gluten-free substitutes for the standard ingredients, as well as replacements for refined sugar. Desserts can contain many

spice A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spice ...

s and extracts to add a variety of flavors. Salt and acids are added to desserts to balance sweet flavors and create a contrast in flavors. Some desserts are

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

-flavored, for example an iced coffee

soufflé A soufflé is a baked egg-based dish originating in France in the early eighteenth century. Combined with various other ingredients, it can be served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of t ...

or coffee biscuits. Alcohols and liqueurs can also be used as an ingredient, to make alcoholic desserts.

Varieties and elements

Dessert consist of variations of tastes, textures, and appearances. Desserts can be defined as a usually sweeter course that concludes a meal. This definition includes a range of courses ranging from fruits or dried nuts to multi-ingredient cakes and pies. Many cultures have different variations of dessert. In modern times the variations of desserts have usually been passed down or come from geographical regions. This is one cause for the variation of desserts. These are some major categories in which desserts can be placed.

Cakes

Cakes are sweet tender breads made with sugar and delicate flour. Cakes can vary from light, airy sponge cakes to dense cakes with less flour. Common flavorings include dried,

candied Candied fruit, also known as glacé fruit, is whole fruit, smaller pieces of fruit, or pieces of peel, placed in heated sugar syrup, which absorbs the moisture from within the fruit and eventually preserves it. Depending on the size and type o ...

or fresh

, nuts, cocoa or extracts. They may be filled with

fruit preserves Fruit preserves are preparations of fruits whose main preserving agent is sugar and sometimes acid, often stored in glass jars and used as a condiment or spread. There are many varieties of fruit preserves globally, distinguished by the met ...

dessert sauce A dessert sauce is a sauce used for desserts. It is drizzled or poured atop various desserts, and is also used for plate decoration. Dessert sauce adds flavor, moisture, texture and color to desserts, may be cooked or uncooked, and is sometimes p ...

s (like

pastry cream Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from ...

), iced with

buttercream Buttercream, also referred to as butter icing or frosting, is used for either filling, coating or decorating cakes. The main ingredients are butter and some type of sugar. Buttercream is commonly flavored with vanilla. Other common flavors a ...

or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, for example

weddings A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marria ...

anniversaries An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints. ...

, and

birthdays A birthday is the anniversary of the birth of a person, or figuratively of an institution. Birthdays of people are celebrated in numerous cultures, often with birthday gifts, birthday cards, a birthday party, or a rite of passage. Many rel ...

. Small-sized cakes have become popular, in the form of

cupcake A cupcake (also British English: fairy cake; Hiberno-English: bun) is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup. As with larger cakes, frosting and other cake decorations such as frui ...

s and petits fours.

Puddings

Puddings are similar to custards in that their base is cream or milk. However, their primary difference is that puddings are thickened with starches such as corn starch or

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...

. On the other hand, custards are thickened using only eggs and are usually more firm.

Small cakes and pastries

A batched dough between a cake and pastry by the mix of ingredients. An Old French ''bescuit'', commonly spelt in English as biscuit, is a derivation of Latin for ''twice-baked''.See, for example,

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's use of "Twice-sod simplicity! ''Bis coctus!''" in '' Love's Labour's Lost''. () A Dutch ''koekje'', commonly spelt in English as cookie, is a derivation of ''cake-ie '', meaning little cake. This form of dough can have a texture that is crisp, hard, chewy, or soft – in the UK a biscuit is the former two and a cookie is typically the latter. Examples include a

ginger nut A gingersnap, ginger snap, ginger nut, or ginger biscuit is a biscuit flavored with ginger. Ginger snaps are flavored with powdered ginger and a variety of other spices, most commonly cinnamon, molasses and clove. There are many recipes. The bri ...

, shortbread biscuit and

chocolate chip cookie A chocolate chip cookie is a drop cookie that features chocolate chips or chocolate morsels as its distinguishing ingredient. Chocolate chip cookies originated in the United States around 1938, when Ruth Graves Wakefield chopped up a Nes ...

. Other small cakes and pastries can also be counted as under these terms, due to their size and relative similarity to cookies and biscuits, such as

jaffa cakes Jaffa Cakes are a cake introduced by McVitie and Price in the UK in 1927 and named after Jaffa oranges. The most common form of Jaffa cakes are circular, in diameter and have three layers: a Genoise sponge base, a layer of orange flavoured ...

and

Eccles cake An Eccles cake is a small, round pie, similar to a turnover, filled with currants and made from flaky pastry with butter, sometimes topped with demerara sugar. The word cake has generally since narrowed in meaning to sweet, leavened baked good ...

Confection

Confection Confectionery is the art of making confections, which are food items that are rich in sugar and carbohydrates. Exact definitions are difficult. In general, however, confectionery is divided into two broad and somewhat overlapping categorie ...

, also called candy, sweets or lollies, features sugar or

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

as a principal ingredient. Many involve sugar heated into crystals with subtle differences. Dairy and sugar based include caramel,

fudge Fudge is a type of confection that is made by mixing sugar, butter and milk, heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency. In texture, this crystalline can ...

and

toffee Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses (creating inverted sugar) along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of . While being prepared, toffee ...

or taffy. They are multiple forms of egg and sugar

meringue Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream o ...

s. and similar confections. Unheated sugar co-adulate into icings, preservatives and sauces with other ingredients.

Chocolate

Theobroma cacao ''Theobroma cacao'', also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree, is a small ( tall) evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. Its seeds, cocoa beans, are used to make chocolate liquor, cocoa solids, cocoa butter and chocolate. The largest pr ...

beans'' can be a substitute or more commonly mixed with sugar to form chocolate. Pure, unsweetened dark chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids. Cocoa butter is also added in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate currently consumed is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining chocolate with sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids. Dark chocolate is produced by adding fat and sugar to the cacao mixture, with no milk or much less than milk chocolate.

Mithai (sweets)

Mithai, derived from the Sanskrit word sharkara','' represents the range of Indian desserts.

Custards

These kinds of desserts usually include a thickened dairy base. Custards are cooked and thickened with eggs. Baked custards include

crème brûlée ''Crème brûlée'' or ''crème brulée'' (; ), also known as burnt cream or Trinity cream, and virtually identical to the original crema catalana, is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hardened caramelized sugar ...

and flan. They are often used as ingredients in other desserts, for instance as a filling for pastries or pies.

Deep-fried

Many cuisines include a dessert made of deep-fried starch-based batter or dough. In many countries, a doughnut is a flour-based batter that has been deep-fried. It is sometimes filled with custard or jelly. Fritters are fruit pieces in a thick batter that have been deep fried. Gulab jamun is an Indian dessert made of milk solids kneaded into a dough, deep-fried, and soaked in honey.

Churro A churro (, ) is a type of fried dough from Spanish and Portuguese cuisine. They are also found in Latin American cuisine and in other areas that have received immigration from Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, especially in the Sou ...

s are a deep-fried and sugared dough that is eaten as dessert or a snack in many countries.

Frozen

Ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

, gelato,

sorbet Sorbet (), also called "water ice", is a frozen dessert made using ice combined with fruit juice, fruit purée, wine, liqueur, honey, etc. Generally sorbets do not contain dairy ingredients, while sherbets do. Etymology The word "sorbet" en ...

and shaved-ice desserts fit into this category. Ice cream is a cream base that is churned as it is frozen to create a creamy consistency. Gelato uses a milk base and has less air whipped in than ice cream, making it denser. Sorbet is made from churned fruit and is not dairy based. Shaved-ice desserts are made by shaving a block of ice and adding flavored syrup or juice to the ice shavings.

Gelatin

Jellied desserts are made with a sweetened liquid thickened with gelatin or another thickening agent. They are traditional in many cultures.

Grass jelly Grass jelly, also known as leaf jelly or herb jelly, is a jelly-like dessert eaten in East and Southeast Asia. It is created by using Chinese mesona (a member of the mint family) and has a mild, slightly bitter taste. It is served chilled, w ...

and

annin tofu Annin tofu or xingren tofu (), sometimes translated as almond tofu, is a soft, jellied dessert made of apricot kernel milk, agar, and sugar. It is a traditional dessert of Chinese cuisine, and Japanese cuisine. A similar dessert is blancmange. T ...

are Chinese jellied desserts.

Yōkan is a wagashi (Japanese confection) made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar. It is usually sold in a block form, and eaten in slices. There are two main types: ''neri yōkan'' and ''mizu yōkan''. "Mizu" means "water", and indicates that it i ...

is a Japanese jellied dessert. In English-speaking countries, many dessert recipes are based on gelatin with fruit or whipped cream added. The vegetarian substitute for Gelatin is Agar.

Marshmallow Marshmallow (, ) is a type of confectionery that is typically made from sugar, water and gelatin whipped to a solid-but-soft consistency. It is used as a filling in baking or normally molded into shapes and coated with corn starch. The sugar c ...

is also most commonly made with gelatin.

Pastries

Pastries are sweet baked pastry products. Pastries can either take the form of light and flaky bread with an airy texture, such as a

croissant A croissant is a buttery, flaky, Austrian viennoiserie pastry inspired by the shape of the Austrian kipferl but using the French yeast-leavened laminated dough. Croissants are named for their historical crescent shape, the dough is layered wi ...

or unleavened dough with a high fat content and crispy texture, such as

shortbread Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part white sugar, two parts butter, and three to four parts plain wheat flour. Unlike many other biscuits and baked goods, shortbread does not contain any leavening, ...

. Pastries are often flavored or filled with fruits,

, nuts, and

spices A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices are ...

. Pastries are sometimes eaten with

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...

as a breakfast food.

Pies, cobblers, and clafoutis

Pies and cobblers are a crust with a filling. The crust can be either made from either a pastry or crumbs. Pie fillings range from fruits to puddings; cobbler fillings are generally fruit-based. Clafoutis are made of batter poured over a fruit-based filling before baking.

Sweet soups

Tong sui, literally translated as "sugar water" and also known as tim tong, is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. ''Tong sui'' are a Cantonese specialty and are rarely found in other regional cuisines of China. Outside of Cantonese-speaking communities, soupy desserts generally are not recognized as a distinct category, and the term ''tong sui'' is not used.

Wines

Dessert wine Dessert wines, sometimes called pudding wines in the United Kingdom, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal ...

s are sweet

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

s typically served with dessert. There is no simple definition of a dessert wine. In the UK, a dessert wine is considered to be any sweet wine drunk with a meal, as opposed to the white fortified wines (fino and amontillado sherry) drunk before the meal, and the red fortified wines (

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

and madeira) drunk after it. Thus, most fortified wines are regarded as distinct from dessert wines, but some of the less strong fortified white wines, such as

Pedro Ximénez Pedro Ximénez (also known as PX and many other variations) is the name of a white Spanish wine grape variety grown in several Spanish wine regions but most notably in the '' denominación de origen'' (DO) of Montilla-Moriles. Here it is used to ...

sherry and Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise, are regarded as honorary dessert wines. In the United States, by contrast, a dessert wine is legally defined as any wine over 14% alcohol by volume, which includes all fortified wines - and is taxed at higher rates as a result. Examples include Sauternes and Tokaji Aszú.

Gallery

File:Apple pie.jpg,

Apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is gene ...

File:Baked Alaska (5097717743).jpg,

Baked Alaska Baked Alaska, also known as Bombe Alaska, ''omelette norvégienne, omelette surprise,'' or ''omelette sibérienne'' depending on the country, is a dessert consisting of ice cream and cake topped with browned meringue. The dish is made of ice cre ...

, ice cream and cake topped with browned meringue File:Baklava - Turkish special, 80-ply.JPEG, Baklava, a pastry comprising layers of filo with chopped nuts, sweetened and held together with syrup or honey File:Homemade Flan.jpg, Baked custard File:Brennan's Bananas Foster.jpg,

Bananas Foster Bananas Foster is a dessert made from bananas and vanilla ice cream, with a sauce made from butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, dark rum, and banana liqueur. The butter, sugar and bananas are cooked, and then alcohol is added and ignited. The bananas ...

, made from bananas and vanilla ice cream with a sauce made from butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, dark rum and banana liqueur File:Plain cheesecake.jpg, Cheesecake, a type of dessert with a layer of a mixture of soft, fresh cheese, eggs and sugar File:Cannoli siciliani (7472226896).jpg,

Cannoli Cannoli (; scn, cannola ) are Italian pastries consisting of tube-shaped shells of fried pastry dough, filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta—a staple of Sicilian cuisine. They range in size from . In mainland Italy, they are ...

with pistachio dust, candied and chocolate drops File:Chocolate mousse.jpg,

Chocolate mousse A mousse (; ; "foam") is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as e ...

, a chocolate variety of a dessert incorporating air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture File:Coconutbar.jpg,

Coconut bar Coconut bar is a refrigerated dim sum dessert found in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southern China and in overseas Chinatowns. It is sweet and has a soft, gelatin-like texture but is white in color rather than translucent like gelatin. It is sometimes ref ...

, made with coconut milk and set with either

tang flour Tang or TANG most often refers to: * Tang dynasty * Tang (drink mix) Tang or TANG may also refer to: Chinese states and dynasties * Jin (Chinese state) (11th century – 376 BC), a state during the Spring and Autumn period, called Tang (唐) ...

and corn starch, or

agar agar Agar ( or ), or agar-agar, is a jelly-like substance consisting of polysaccharides obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from ogonori (''Gracilaria'') and "tengusa" (''Gelidiaceae''). As found in nature, agar is ...

and gelatin File:Creme brulee.jpg, Preparation of

, a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel File:Egg custard tart by Stu Spivack.jpg, Egg custard tarts, a pastry originating from Guangzhou, China. File:Hwangnam bread (cropped).JPG, Gyeongju bread, a small pastry with a filling of red bean paste File:씨앗호떡.jpg,

Hotteok ''Hotteok'' (, ), sometimes called Hoeddeok, is a type of filled pancake; and is a popular street food in South Korea. It originates in Korean Chinese cuisine, when it was first brought into Korea from China during the 19th century. Preparati ...

(a variety of filled Korean pancake) with edible seeds, sugar, and cinnamon File:Kkultarae, Korean court cake.jpg,

Kkultarae (), also known as Korean court cake, is a Korean dessert and a variation of Dragon's beard candy which originated in China. A hard dough of honey- maltose mixture is kneaded, twisted, stretched and pulled into skeins of silky threads, in whic ...

, fine strands of

and maltose, often with a sweet

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Co ...

filling File:Jell-o cream cheese square.jpg, Jell-o cream cheese square File:Lemon tart (cropped).jpg, Lemon tart, a pastry shell with a lemon-flavored filling File:Mämmi, memma.jpg,

Mämmi Mämmi (; sv, label=Swedish, memma) is a traditional Finnish dessert, eaten around Easter. Mämmi is traditionally made of water, rye flour, powdered malted rye, seasoned salt and dried, powdered Seville orange zest. The mixture is then ...

, a

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

dessert File:Pastry assortment.jpg, An assortment of

File:Rum cake.jpg,

Rum cake A rum cake or black cake is a type of dessert cake which contains rum. In most of the Caribbean, rum cakes are a traditional holiday season dessert, descended from the holiday puddings (such as figgy pudding). Traditionally, dried fruit is soa ...

, a type of cake containing rum File:King of Spotted Dicks.jpg,

Spotted dick Spotted dick (also known as "spotted dog" or "railway cake") is a traditional British steamed pudding, historically made with suet and dried fruit (usually currants or raisins) and often served with custard. Non-traditional variants include re ...

File:Tiramisu with blueberries and raspberries, July 2011.jpg,

Tiramisu Tiramisu ( it, tiramisù , from , "pick me up" or "cheer me up") is a coffee-flavoured Italian dessert. It is made of ladyfingers (savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of eggs, sugar, and mascarpone cheese, flavoured w ...

File:Banana pudding, homemade.jpg, Homemade banana pudding File:Homemade Flan.jpg, Flan, a type of custard.

By continent

Africa

Throughout much of central and western Africa, there is no tradition of a dessert course following a meal. Fruit or fruit salad would be eaten instead, which may be spiced, or sweetened with a sauce. In some former colonies in the region, the colonial power has influenced desserts – for example, the Angolan ''cocada amarela'' (yellow coconut) resembles baked desserts in Portugal.

Asia

In Asia, desserts are often eaten between meals as snacks rather than as a concluding course. There is widespread use of rice flour in East Asian desserts, which often include local ingredients such as coconut milk, palm sugar, and tropical fruit. In India, where sugarcane has been grown and refined since before 500 BC, desserts have been an important part of the diet for thousands of years; types of desserts include burfis, halvahs,

jalebi ''Jalebi'' (, , , Urdu: جلیبی‎, , , si, පැණි වළලු, ), is a popular sweet snack in south and west Asia, Africa, and Mauritius. It goes by many names, including ''jilapi'', ''zelepi'','' jilebi'', '' jilipi'', ''zulbia'', ...

s, and

laddu ''Laddu'' or ''laddoo'' (; ms, kuih laddu; id, kue laddu) is a spherical sweet originating from India and spread through the Indian subcontinent and the Malay world. Laddus are primarily made from flour, fat (ghee/butter/oil) and sugar or j ...

Bubble tea Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; , ) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially ...

, which originated in Taiwan, is a kind of dessert made with flavored tea or milk and tapioca. It is well known across the world.

Europe

In Ukraine and Russia, breakfast foods such as nalysnyky or

blintz A blintz ( he, חֲבִיתִית; yi, בלינצע) is a rolled filled pancake of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, similar to a '' crepe'' or Russian ''blini''. History Traditional blintzes are filled with sweetened cheese, sometimes with the addition ...

or oladi (pancake), and

syrniki Syrniki ( be, сырнікі; russian: сырники) or syrnyky (Ukrainian: сирники) are fried Eastern Slavic Tvorog pancakes. In Russia, they are also known as tvorozhniki (творо́жники). They are a part of Belarusian, Russ ...

are served with

and

jam Jam is a type of fruit preserve. Jam or Jammed may also refer to: Other common meanings * A firearm malfunction * Block signals ** Radio jamming ** Radar jamming and deception ** Mobile phone jammer ** Echolocation jamming Arts and ente ...

as desserts. In the Netherlands vla is a popular dessert. It is a custard-like dessert that is served cold. Popular flavours are: vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and several fruit flavours. There is also hopjesvla which is flavoured like a Hopje, a Dutch coffee and caramel sweet. The traditional dessert for informal meals in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

consists of cheese or fresh fruit with coffee. However, the French tradition of

pastry Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" sugges ...

is highly developed, and desserts in

haute cuisine ''Haute cuisine'' (; ) or ''grande cuisine'' is the cuisine of "high-level" establishments, gourmet restaurants, and luxury hotels. ''Haute cuisine'' is characterized by the meticulous preparation and careful presentation of food at a high pric ...

may be very elaborate, with generous use of cream and butter. Because of its long Christian history, all countries of Europe have developed traditional desserts and sweet snacks for the

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

season.

North America

European colonization of the Americas yielded the introduction of a number of ingredients and cooking styles. The various styles continued expanding well into the 19th and 20th centuries, proportional to the influx of immigrants.

South America

Dulce de leche ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, w ...

is a very common confection in Argentina. In Bolivia, sugarcane, honey and coconut are traditionally used in desserts. ''Tawa tawa'' is a Bolivian sweet fritter prepared using sugar cane, and ''helado de canela'' is a dessert that is similar to sherbet which is prepared with cane sugar and cinnamon. Coconut tarts, puddings cookies and candies are also consumed in Bolivia. Brazil has a variety of candies such as

brigadeiro The () is a traditional Brazilian dessert. The origin of the dessert is uncertain, but the most common theory is that it was created by a confectioner from Rio de Janeiro, Heloisa Nabuco de Oliveira, to promote the presidential candidacy of Edua ...

s (chocolate fudge balls), cocada (a coconut sweet),

beijinho Beijinho ("Little kiss" in Portuguese), also known as ''branquinho'' ("little white one"), is a typical Brazilian birthday party candy prepared with condensed milk, grated desiccated coconut, rolled over caster sugar or grated coconut and frequen ...

s (coconut truffles and clove) and romeu e julieta (cheese with a guava jam known as

goiabada Goiabada (; from ''goiaba'', guava] is a Jam, conserve made of red guavas and sugar, commonly found throughout the Portuguese-speaking countries of the world. It dates back to the colonial times of Brazil, where guavas were used as a substitute ...

). Peanuts are used to make

paçoca Paçoca () is a candy made out of ground peanuts, sugar and salt. Some recipes also add flour, such as corn flour, oat flour or cassava flour. It is typical of the Brazilian Caipira cuisine and most present in the countryside of southeastern st ...

rapadura Panela () or rapadura (Portuguese pronunciation: ) is an unrefined whole cane sugar, typical of Central and Latin America. It is a solid form of sucrose derived from the boiling and evaporation of sugarcane juice. Panela is known by other na ...

and

pé-de-moleque 'Pé-de-Moleque' () (literally "brat's foot" in Portuguese) is a traditional candy from Brazil. It is made of peanuts and rapadura or molasses. The candy is prepared by mixing roasted, peeled peanuts with melted brown sugar, with or without th ...

. Local common fruits are turned in

juice Juice is a drink made from the extraction or pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat or seafood, such as ...

s and used to make

ice pop An ice pop is a liquid-based frozen snack on a stick. Unlike ice cream or sorbet, which are whipped while freezing to prevent ice crystal formation, an ice pop is "quiescently" frozen—frozen while at rest—and becomes a solid block of ice. ...

s and

. In Chile, ''kuchen'' has been described as a "trademark dessert". Several desserts in Chile are prepared with ''manjar'', (caramelized milk), including ''

alfajor An ''alfajor'' or ''alajú'' (, plural ''alfajores'') is a traditional confection typically made of flour, honey, and nuts. It is found in Argentina, Peru, Chile, the Philippines, Southern Brazil, Southern France, Spain, and Uruguay. The arche ...

'', '' flan'', ''cuchufli'' and '' arroz con leche''. Desserts consumed in Colombia include

dulce de leche ''Dulce de leche'' (; pt, doce de leite), also known as caramelized milk, milk candy or milk jam in English, is a confection from Latin America prepared by slowly heating sugar and milk over a period of several hours. The resulting substance, w ...

, waffle cookies, puddings, nougat, coconut with syrup and thickened milk with sugarcane syrup. Desserts in Ecuador tend to be simple, and desserts are a moderate part of the cuisine. Desserts consumed in Ecuador include

tres leches cake A tres leches cake (; , or ), also known as pan tres leches (), is a sponge cake—soaked in three kinds of milk: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and whole milk. ''Tres leches'' is a very light cake, with many air bubbles. This distinct te ...

, flan, candies and various sweets.

Oceania

In Australia, meals are often finished with dessert. This includes various fruits. More complex desserts include cakes, pies and cookies, which are sometimes served during special occasions. New Zealand and Australia have a long-standing debate over which country invented the Pavlova. The pavlova is named after

Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlovna Pavlova ( , rus, Анна Павловна Павлова ), born Anna Matveyevna Pavlova ( rus, Анна Матвеевна Павлова; – 23 January 1931), was a Russian prima ballerina of the late 19th and the early 20t ...

, who visited both countries in the 1920s.

Market

The market for desserts has grown over the last few decades, which was greatly increased by the commercialism of baking desserts and the rise of food productions. Desserts are present in most restaurants as the popularity has increased. Many commercial stores have been established as solely desserts stores.

Ice cream parlor Ice cream parlors (American English) or ice cream parlours (British English) are places that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and/or frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed or hard s ...

s have been around since before 1800. Many businesses started advertising campaigns focusing solely on desserts. The tactics used to market desserts are very different depending on the audience for example desserts can be advertised with popular movie characters to target children. The rise of companies like

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ( ...

has marketed many shows which feature dessert and their creation. Shows like these have displayed extreme desserts and made a game show atmosphere which made desserts a more competitive field. Desserts are a standard staple in restaurant menus, with different degrees of variety. Pie and cheesecake were among the most popular dessert courses ordered in U.S. restaurants in 2012.Top desserts ordered in restaurants 2012
Technomic, Inc. September 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2013.

Nutrition

Dessert foods often contain relatively high amounts of sugar and

s and, as a result, higher calorie counts per gram than other foods. Fresh or cooked fruit with minimal added sugar or fat is an exception.