Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Chocolate Cake at an Indian restaurant who's name escapes me in Hermosa Beach, Ca.

My mommy's german chocolate cake on my birthday :D Had it every birthday for 20 years and its still my favorite

Not to suck up, but it's quite possibly donuts from DeMasco-era Craft. Though the Butterscotch Budino at Mozza is nipping at its heels, mainly because of the accompanying rosemary pine nut cookies!!

My GF makes a flourless chocolate/coconut torte that pretty much guarantees I'll stay with her forever. I mean...she's a nice person and all, but the torte is amazing.

I have loved making and trying fancy desserts, but it always comes back to my all time favorite. Jam tart with warm custard.

Once made a New York style cheesecake but my mixer was on the fritz so I ended up having to stir everything together by hand. Had the most amazing dense and lucious texture I've ever had. With the lack of pretty much any air in the batter the cheesecake was a half inch shorter then normal but was soooo good.

A chocolate bread pudding that was hands down the easiest and most amazing dessert I have ever made

The tarte aux citrons at Chez Omar in Paris.

My grandmother used to bake these Apples with this stuffing inside of them that was baked in this bath of this concoction that had Faygo Lemon Lime soda in it. I unfortunately dont have the recipe since she passed away many years ago and she did everything from her head, but it was a good child hood memory none the less. She also made this killer pie with this custard filling and the crust was made with Zweiback cookies.

My father's tarte tatin was something really special, a taste I will never forget.

The sticky toffee pudding from The Ebbitt Room in Cape May, NJ.

My mom's Japanese-style strawberry shortcake!

Favorite within-the-realm -of-possibility dessert: soft molasses cookies. Extravaganza category: Julia Child's Gateau a Los Gatos. Made it once for a friend's major birthday celebration; it turned out to be both breathtakingly beautiful (even tho the cat rolled on one of the dry meringues. quite the 11th hour kitchen experience, hyperventilating & carefully patching it according to Julia's sane, these-things-do-happen instructions) AND fabulously delicious.

I had a wonderful vanilla/ginger creme bruelee at a small restaurant in Maui. Magnificent!

I'm a 'naturalist', so I've to go with nature's candy - raw fruits, but the crispy ones, like apples and bosc pears.

i am always partial to the berry cake from sweet lady jane's

mom's mocha meringue cake. think hazelnut mocha meringue sheets with chocolate mousse in between. nothing beats it.

I recently made a tres leches cake with coconut milk that was incredible. I'll definitely make it again.

My gramma's lemon meringue pie. I have been unable to duplicate the wonder of it.

Fig cookies my friend in college baked. Yum!

Ooooh, this is a hard one but I'd have to go with my mom's iced sugar cookies! They're amazing! :)

banoffee cream pie its a cross betweena recpe for banoffe pie and my grammy's classic banana cream pie. Pastry cream, sliced bananas, dulce de leche, and whipped cream all in a graham cracker crust.

The first time I had creme brulee - what an amazing combination of hot and cold, crisp and creamy - yum.

This question is WAY too hard for me. I love all desserts!!!!
Probably any pastry or macaron from France.

Chocolate peanut butter cupcakes from Trophy Cupcakes in Seattle. The peanut butter frosting was AMAZING.

Chocolate macaroons which are so rich, dense and chocolately that it's like eating fudge.

Bread pudding with a layer of brownies or blueberry bread at the bottom, at a little restaurant outside of Yosemite. Sadly, the chef and his pastry chef wife retired.

my Aunts apple pie at Thanksgiving... I cant wait!!!

I used to go to to a Southern Baptist church that had lots of pot lucks. A little old lady there used to make a date bread pudding that may have cost me my salvation...

Maple-Bacon ice cream. It was awesome.

Homemade apple crumble with extra crumbles

I was at the typical and expensive Hollywood hangout Dan Tana's and ordered a $12 tiramisu. It was clearly meant for two but I ate it all and have been raving about it ever since. Absolutely sublime and worth every penny.

this is such a hard question to answer! maybe because I was so proud of my first complex cake baking success, but the devil's food peppermint cake that I made from Bon Appetit last Christmas will be engrained in my memory for quite some time. I know I should really choose a dessert that my mom has made before, because she is quite the baker, but this cake truly takes the cake!

My French grandmother made the best Chocolate Mousse when we were kids. Never tasted any better!

I don't think I can narrow it down. I have a favorite gingersnap recipe that I make as often as possible. Does that count?

i suck at these best ever questions. so i'll just go with the first thing that comes to mind. this flourless chocolate cake with raspberries!

Peanut butter ice box cake at BLVD in SF.

My mom's 'everyday' cake. My absolute favorite.

Sticky toffee pudding @ Tea and Sympathy in NYC. Mmmmmmmm.....

My good friend's tres leches cake - served at countless birthdays, but each new version as delicious as the one before!

homemade cinnamon rolls.

also does the peanut butter and jelly truffle at jean georges count if I only took a sliver?

Fruit crisps with an oatmeal topping, anything with coconut, oatmeal cookies, too many to count actually!

While I have had amazing desserts at lots of fancy restaurants, I will go local with my "favorites." White chocolate bread pudding from Harry's Detour and cheesecake from the Cheesecake Corner in Memphis... I could eat those any day, every day!

Man, that's a tough one! How to pick just one? I made these twix bar-like shortbread caramel cookies over the weekend that are to die for. But I think I'd have to go with the chocolate mousse at the Moosse Cafe in Mendocino.

A chocolate and raspberry ganache that I make. That is one of my favorite flavor combinations, and it is so rich that you can only eat a small piece at a time. This lets me enjoy it longer than most desserts!

I absolutely love the Vegan Chocolate Death Cake from The Grit in Athens, GA. I've said it here before and I'll say it again - it is truly one of the best things to have ever crossed my lips. We even served it at our wedding!

Hm...the best dessert I've had fairly recently was the creme brulee at the Med in Boulder.

i am in love with the chocolate duo mousse cake from sugar flour butter in sunnyvale, ca.

my NY cheesecake

I love this book already.

Gelato from the Gelateria dei Neri in Florence, Italy.
The mousse from Chez Josephine in NYC.
Billy's Bakery's Icebox cake in vanilla, also in NYC.

A coconut and keffir lime sorbet from a local restaurant. It was like dessert with a thai curry flair.

My sisters chocolate bread pudding is the best!!

Tres Leches cake at Ciudad in LA. Mmmm....

My grandmother's cheesecake - haven't found a better one. Thankfully I have the recipe now too!

Can't beat grandma's pumpkin pie

i love all desserts and have yet to discover the best!

Grandma's homemade ginger bread cookies with a nice glass of milk. Simple but excellent!

I love the toasted coconut ice cream made at an ice cream parlor in my downtown.

i'll never forget my first moltant bittersweet chocolate cake. salivating now...

it was probably the one i never had - the last perfect slice of chocolate tart from Mon Vieil Ami in Paris that was ordered by someone else seconds before i could grab it.

One Christmas, my dad made these rice flour coconut sweet balls on a whim. He made them from his memory of what his mother used to make 20 years ago in Thailand. Somehow though, the recipe makes 40 large balls, and he swears he can't cut the recipe down or make them any smaller in size.

At my previous employer's Christmas dinner we used to get this killer bread pudding served with white chocolate sauce.

My mother baked an apple pie every day while the children took afternoon naps - the pie, and the cinnamon pinwheels she made with the scraps, are my favorite sweets.

La Duree macaroons.

It's definitely a toss-up between my dad's bread pudding and my grandmother's peach cobbler!

Toss up between a good homemade custard or the flourless chocolate cake at Grizzly Peaks in Ann Arbor, MI.

a chocolate and coffee fantasy from adour, the scooter bar from tumbador chocolates, and of course a classic favorite, the all american drakes ring ding. (and of course anything karen bakes)

Still-warm chocolate cream pie at a now-closed diner in Asheville, NC, eaten at breakfast time because we were leaving town and it was the only chance to have their pie.

The chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese filling that my mom used to make for me to take to school on my birthday.

Don't forget about Gale Gand and Jacques Torres

My mom is a baker extraordinaire, so there's no legitimate way to pick which is the best...but I do adore her banana cream pie with the best homemade vanilla pudding in the world.

My sister in-laws pumpkin cookies with cream cheese icing

It's hard to pick one favorite and It can be hokey, but I love eating Baked Alaska on cruises. The patriotic singing, dancing, and of course the fire, all get to me!

My Sephardic grandmother made delicious biscochos de almondras - almond cookies. She died way too soon when I was about seven, and as my mother never liked to bake, the recipe has been lost. I've searched for years and found recipes online, but none of them come close to having the same flavor and texture that I remember so well - they were crunchier than sables, but a kind of similar taste. I remember almonds that she would grind with a mortar and pestle, and I think halvah or almond paste too. I will continue to search and experiment....

Baked Alaska from L'Etoile in Madison, WI, comes to mind today. I love dessert, so I have a lot of "favorites"!

The angel food cake with strawberry and raspberry topping that my husband made me for my birthday this year :)

Made from scratch Banana Pudding with home made vanilla cookies.

Tiramisu made by a friend of mine...so creamy and yummy

Right now I'm thinking hot, fresh beignets with lots of powdered sugar sounds like the best thing ever!

Wow, I can't even begin to think of an answer to this if "ever had" is in the question...in recent memory, hot chocolate from Angelina in Paris or a Dorie Greenspan cheesecake with a gingersnap crust.

Bread Pudding Souffle from Commander's Palace in New Orleans

a deliciously dense cheesecake with shortbread crust
euphoric

So many delicious desserts, but the most recent is a huge slice of rum cake that I shared with one of my best gal pals at our local Italian restaurant. It was super-moist and had a fabulous almond-cream filling.

Home made apple pie!

Chocolate moose.

cheesecake from carnegie deli! it's even amazing when you get it shipped to your house!

That's way too hard, but one of my favorite's is my mom's peach and blueberry cobbler.

I am unshakably loyal to the ice cream of my childhood, which comes from Kimball Farms in Westford, MA. It faces some stiff competition from the house-made tiramisu at Trattoria Toscana in the Fenway in downtown Boston, though.

creamy, vanilla flan is something I always have to get and for special occasions will make.

The best dessert...that's a difficult one. I think the best desserts are those enjoyed during the holidays with family and friends. We make a pumpkin roll for Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin pie. I've had many pumpkin rolls, but none of them compare to "our" recipe.

Also, my dad's favorite cookie, butterscotch-oatmeal, are pretty incredible.

Earl Grey chocolate mousse (served in an egg of dark chocolate) from Madeline's in Ithaca, NY.
So smooth and so rich.

Bannoffee pie at Konditor & Cook in London. Condensed milk yogurt, homemade. Mango Basil Icy at NYICY.

The cakes at La Baguette in Norman. The cafeteria at OU has them, and it was always so much fun to go the cafeteria when you knew an amazing dessert was waiting for you (even if the rest of the meal wasn't as great)!

I could never pick just one. Maybe the first piece of cheesecake I ever tasted? It was a triple-layer, chocolate & raspberry cheesecake from the Waldorf Astoria. Or perhaps the warm chocolate & banana crepe I had on the streets of Paris once. Or my mother's amazing recipe for chocolate cake. This list could go on indefinitely...

Tres leches cake (Mexico).

I can't stop thinking about the princess torte I had. So cute and tasty.

de Pierre Hermé: Truffe Blanche & Vanille: biscuit macaron, éclats de noisettes du Piémont grillées, crème à la truffe blanche

blueberry white chocolate cheesecake. that's the best dessert i've had this month, anyway.

I'm don't have much of a sweet tooth. My faves so far have been a cornmeal & dried fig cake my mom makes -- it's almost a breakfast cake -- and our family friend's blueberry tart, basically a whole grain and oil crust topped with blueberries and a little coarse sugar.

I'm not sure about best, but the most memorable was the time I was in Paris and spotted something on the menu called "Damnation." It turned out to be a scoop of hazelnut cream and a dollop of sweetened cream served together in a glass, both drizzled with fudge sauce.

The _best_ dessert might be the Bananas Foster Brulee Cheesecake I had a couple years ago at a slightly more local restaurant.

Mom's pumpkin pie.

hard to pick just one!
The Warm Yuzu Mousse @ Inox Restaurant (warm yuzu mousse, shiso granular, coconut cream, candied kumquats). It's amazing!

For homemade desserts, it's gotta be my Grandma's Guava Chiffon Pie, hands down.

I make a homemade raspberry swirl cheesecake with a white chocolate topping. It's sooooooooooooo good. I serve it just like that, or with some fresh raspberries on the side

baked alaska.

What a tough question. I guess my first choice would be "Death By Chocolate" cake.

Warm spiced bread pudding with caramel sauce....mmmmmmmm.......

cdziuba@aol.com A slice of Red Velvet Cake from the Bubble Room in Captiva, Fl.

The Creme Brulée at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - yum!

The best dessert I ever had was so good because of how necessary it was. My freshman year of college I was dumped by my first real boyfriend. Oddly enough the same day, another friend of mine was also broken up with. We went out to the only fancy restaurant in our tiny college town and ordered the explosive chocolate cake and a pot of tea. Sitting in the oversized plush velvet booth attacking the cake with the anger we wanted to unleash on the men who had wronged us made me feel much better.

chocolate, peanut butter, pecan pie. ohhhh yum

Homemade sour cherry pie with homemade vanilla bean ice cream. Oh my god was it good.

I don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I could never forget the first time I had cheese with membrillo (quince paste) in Madrid. It was served at the end of a fantastic meal -- a friend and I had torn through a huge platter of shellfish, many of which we couldn't identify -- and came with a big tureen of rum that our server ignited at the table.

my sister's cream cheese pumpkin log

Fluffy wonderful semisweet chocolate mousse *drool*

homemade pumpkin pie is delicious

Chocolate Mousse from the Heathman Hotel jn Portland, OR

creme brulee tasting @ the modern

White Chocolate Mousse Cake. So simple, so delicious.

Chocolate cake layered with peanut butter cream, topped with chocolate ganache

Homemade pumpkin ice cream cake - made with good vanilla ice cream, pumpkin, and spices - in a gingersnap crust.

This is so hard, narrowing down to just one! The first time I had creme brulee at the Mansion on Turtle Creek in Dallas, I was smitten!

My moms strawberry rhubarb pie..yum!!

Chocolate Lava Cake.

Grand Marnier cake oozing with the liqueur from a bakery in the Red Light district of Baltimore that probably isn't there anymore!

Harry's Farmer's Market near me used to sell these amazing pumpkin chocolate chip muffins. I used to heat them up before I ate them so the huge chunks of chocolate would be all gooey...and I made my parents ship them to me while I was in college. Sadly, since Whole Foods bought out Harry's they've ceased to sell the muffins...sigh.

My grandmother's chocolate pistachio pound cake.

Strawberry shortcake at Sweet Harmony in Middletown, CT. They have AMAZING deserts.

Well there is a difference between my favorite dessert and the best dessert I have ever had. My favorite is coconut cake with lemon filling. I can, however, make this for myself, but something I can't make for myself seems more elusive. At a shop called "The Baker's Wife" in Minneapolis they make something that they call an American Teacake. It is sort of like a cinnamon roll, but not. It is crunchy on the outside, but tender in the middle. I have no idea how to make it. My husband and I drive the hour or so across the Cities just to get one of these. They are that good. Dang, we might have to make the drive tomorrow now...

A chocolate mousse pie with ladyfingers at a French restaurant in NYC.

There is a dessert brownie at Paley's in Portland, Oregon that is to die for.

I can't resist a chocolate fondant cake with all that gooey ,melting chocolate seeping out when you cut into it!

A dark chocolate brownie with walnuts in it and vanilla ice cream on top. No whipped cream, no cherry, just simple goodnums.

The best dessert I ever had was a gooseberry crumble a la mode from a restaurant/brewery in Portland, OR.

for nostlgia - it's the "atomic" cake my parents got me every year for my birthday in the chicago suburbs. can't find it anywhere else!

for taste, the banana creme pie at emeril's in las vegas 8 years ago was amazing!

The best dessert I ever had was at a local Columbus restaurant called Marcella's. It was Profiteroles (mini cream puffs) filled with 3 different flavors of gelato and topped with chocolate fudge sauce. It was amazing!

Plum pudding that a friend had brought over one Christmas... never had it again but never forgot it.

When I lived in Reims, France, there was this Irish pub on the main drag called James Joyce. A friend had directed me and my roommate there for for their profiteroles. They put three large profiteroles stuffed with a nice helping of ice cream and hot fudge all over them. It was a perfect shared dessert for catching up with a friend.

pear and raisin bread pudding. With whisky. Mmmm. Whisky.

Grandma's bread pudding. Mmmmm...

Hard to pick one, but a pistachio & cardamom ice-cream with honey and cookies I had in Anchorage a couple years ago is especially memorable.

My blue ribbon brownies!

Charlotte Russe.

I love creme brulee. Wow.

I agree with HSlater351. The best dessert that is consistenly available is Creme Brulee. The first one I ever had was a long time ago when I was on vacation in Hawaii.

chocolate and caramel tart with sea salt at marlow and sons OH YES

chocolate eclairs in Paris!

The pecan pie a la mode at The Camellia Grill in New Orleans. They put the pie face down on the flat top with butter to warm it up and then top it with fresh vanilla ice cream.

Carrot cake ice cream on a hot piece of apple pie. YUM

Southern Pecan Cake...a recipe I got from an advertisement page in an old Cooking Light magazine...go figure. Tastes just like Maple Donuts!

Chocolate hazelnut gelato (from The Bent Spoon in Princeton...incredible ice cream) sandwiched between two amazing polenta shortbread cookies. It was creamy and crunchy, sweet and grainy, it was just a perfect combination and I'm drooling a little bit remembering it.

I love an Italian family Xmas sweet called strofulli. Its little fried dough balls covered in honey and non-perils. I am a pastry chef, probably one of the only ones that doesn't really like sweets, but these have been my favorite since i was a kid and my family made them. We had a few years without them until recently I resurrected the recipe, and now they live again!

I love a special concoction made at a local ice cream parlor- an extra thick milkshake with their own chocolate sauce mixed with salted pecans and topped with whipped cream.

Tough question!! I love dessert and I love baking. I'm definitely looking forward to pecan pie at Thanksgiving and I've been thinking about the molasses spice cookies I made last Christmas all year. :-)

Oh boy - that's a hard question! I would have to say my grandmother's Apple Crumble Pie - it's the best I've ever had and look forward to her making it during the holidays! I'm never too full for it!

it was a chocolate dessert I had at the Diva at the met in Vancouver by Thomas Haas. A mousse-like bar of chocolate with feuilletine, smoked sea salt sprinkled on top. To the right, a canelle of really good chocolate ice cream and then a chocolate pot de creme. I think that's what it was but man, I was dreaming about that one for months on end!!

My great-uncle's baklava

No doubt about it. My Mom's Chocolate Bread Pudding. Served warm with whipped cream.

Creme Brulee!! Best thing ever!! Tiramisu is great too, as is flan =D

napolean from Gourmandise/The Bakery, Salt Lake City

Chocolate lava cake

My mother-in-law's Coconut Cream Pie

In Paris, Pierre Herme's shop the vanilla tart. Absolutely divine, little bites of vanilla heaven.

I can't remember the name, but after I insisted on trying it, my family pleased me and ordered some. It was never forgotten (the flavors, not obviously the name). It was in London. Arrgh, the name!
(Do macarons count as dessert if you ate them at 12 AM?)

i've had so many good desserts that it's hard to answer this question but i've managed to narrow it down to a classic decadent molten chocolate cake and a Grand Marnier Souffle with creme fraiche sauce. YUMMM

Chocolate Chocolate chip bread pudding......mmmmmmmmmmm

Grilled cheese (no foolin') with chocolate dipping sauce. Holy smokes, was it delicious!

I'm not much of a sweets eater, but definitely Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango. A recent dessert that was amazing was a wedge of bread pudding that was dusted with cinnamon-sugar. Somehow the outside became crusty (I was wondering if they deep fried the wedge before tossing it with the sugar mixture...I hope not! But I live in the deep South, so it isn't unlikely.) It was served with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of caramel. Unbelievable.

I make a killer chocolate cake--an old Hershey's cocoa recipe, with semisweet ganache in the middle of the split layers and chocolate whipped cream for the frosting and filling, with milk, white and semisweet chocolate curls all over the top.

Or my strawberry shortcake--a giant biscuit, fresh berries macerated in sugar for an hour, and whipped cream.

The best dessert I've had was a Lemon Meringue Pie that my husband made for me and his mother (he doesn't like Lemon Meringue.) It had a hazelnut crust that was just perfect with the tart creamy filling and the light meringue.

My mom made the best chewy brownies!

Apple crepes with calvados at a little cafe in Munich - they were so good, we went back 3 times during the week we were there.

It was these cupcakes my grandmother would bake from scratch. They were the best!

My favorite is a Coffee Creme Brulee that my husband's mother used to make--it was heaven on earth.

Any of the desserts that my mother made from scratch when I was young would be a favorite.

The best dessert I've ever had was a white chocolate cheesecake.

It had to be my first serving of peach cobbler a la mode. That was such an amazing combination of flavors!

It has to be my mom's apple pie with cream. I can't remember the name of it but it's sooo good!

kngmckellar@hotmail.com

The first time I had Boxton Cream Pie.

I love this wonderful strawberry tart made with sour cream.

For me, it's a tie between my mom's homemade peach pie and her homemade cookies from scratch.

Tunnel of fudge cheesecake :)