My favorite desserts almost always have some combo of the following:
- butter
- sugar
- flour
- chocolate
And preferably, the dessert has all four!
This excludes a number of sugary things, such as slushees, milkshakes, popsicles, fruity candy, hard candy, gummy candy, Smartees, SweetTarts, and so on.
Basically, I would much rather have a brownie than a popsicle.
And I’d rather eat a cookie than a handful of Twizzlers (I kind of actively dislike Twizzlers.)
One exception to the “all four” rule is chocolate candy. I do love dark chocolate-based candies, like a salted dark chocolate bar.
And sometimes Reese’s Pieces hit the spot.
An exception in the other direction: I’m not a huge fan of cake. I like my butter, flour, sugar, and chocolate to take a dense, chewy form most of the time; cakes are generally too fluffy!
To be very honest, though, if I am going to eat something that is both delicious and also of little nutritional value, I would almost always opt for a sweet yeasted baked good.
Like my grandma’s apricot sweet rolls. SO GOOD.
I’m a chocoholic, preferring dark chocolate or bittersweet chocolate, and I like it as a candy, with no or very little adulteration. I rarely eat it as a dessert, however.
For an actual dessert, making the choice of a favorite is difficult. Here are the things I always prefer most:
Pumpkin pie (I know Kristen isn’t a fan of pie, but I like them a lot, and I even like making them)
Rich, dark brownies – a recipe in a kids’ cookbook we own has so much butter and cocoa in it, the brownies are super rich.
Cream Cheese Pound Cake – a recipe from Southern Living that is always a hit.
And finally, the cake that my late mother-in-law made, then I started making a few years after her death – Christmas Lane cake, with a thick filling between the white layers that is made of nuts, raisins, coconut, egg yolks and bourbon. It’s frosted with buttercream frosting. The family looks forward to this extravagant cake at Christmas every year, as that’s the only time I make it.
Kristen, pound cake can be pretty dense, and I know a number of people who force it to fall when it bakes so it will be even denser. I was just thinking that its texture might appeal to you. It’s got almost all your required ingredients, and you could drizzle it in chocolate sauce. 🙂
Pumpkin pie is my favorite dessert, probably followed very closely by chunky cheesecake brownies. Pumpkin pie doesn’t have a ton of sugar so I can feel better about eating it! I know that having a whole pan of those brownies in my house is a BAD idea. A whole pumpkin pie, though? Sure!
Pumpkin pie DOES have more redeeming nutritional qualities than brownies do! 🙂
Cheesecake, plain with none of that fru-fru fruit drizzle on it.
Milk chocolate. When we lived there, England had a double milk chocolate bar that was so milky it practically melted in the wrapper. I loved it.
Pound cake. My grandmother made one that was so dense, like a cake brownie, that we called it ton cake.
Banoffee pie is one of 2 favorites. I was introduced to this pie when in Ireland. It has a digestive biscuit/cookie crust with layer of bananas covered with toffee layer and topped with whipped cream. I make at Christmas lemon extract fruit cake. It will make you a convert to fruit cake. I send as a very special gift to family members and special friends. It’s heavy as it has pound of pecans, pound of candied cherries, 1/2 pound of candied pineapple and golden raisins with 3oz lemon extract, 6 eggs and a pound of butter among the ingredients. It just takes a tiny piece to satisfy and is a wonderful treat once a year.
Lazy Day Cake. Butter, coconut and other standard ingredients. But the broiled coconut topping can’t be beat!!! 2nd would be homemade devils food with peanut butter frosting. One or the other requested the most here.
Mine is fruit salad. I am very boring, I know ;-), but I am a real fruit junkie!
Pecan pie, and anything with chocolate and salted Carmel.
I think we must be dessert twins. (I hate twizzlers, gummy things, swedish fish, etc.) But I have learned to like pies as an adult but only if they are homemade completely, and I really prefer crust made from lard. And coffee helps it all.
Does fresh-baked bread with lots of butter on top count as a dessert? (I would probably pick this over many desserts nowadays.)
Chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Conveniently, my daughter’s favorite, too, so I make and have it at least once a year.
I like all things peanut butter except peanut butter frosting. Go figure.
I’ve never met a cookie I didn’t like.
Or a crunchy cake you don’t like? 😉
The other day I made a small (6 inch)gluten free apple pie. I ate the top crust off the pie and put the rest in the fridge. The next day I turned it over into a dish, nuked it, and ate the bottom crust off the pie. I now have pie insides as left overs. I need to rethink how I make pie. Mo crust, less the rest.