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I don't personally like cooked fruit. I will use preserves and conserves on tarts and pastries and cookies. But cooked fruit to me is nasty. I will however eat a nice warm apple pie, go figure.

Honestly, to me stewed fruit compote is more a curiosity, something reminiscent of old Russian dining rooms, where you wish babci had maybe instead baked something instead of boiled the living daylights out if it.

A fruit compote might be ok OVER something, like pound cake or good ice cream. But I'd still prefer something baked, with chocolate. And I'm wellll over 30.

Fruit dessert? Lemon mousse? Blackberry cobbler? Strawberry shortcake? For that matte, strawberries, sour cream and brwn sugar? What's the problem?

I love fruit desserts...especially after eating a really heavy meal, when I can't even think about chocolate. I never even knew anyone had a problem with them! Lemons - I'm with you!

I just know I'm giving myself away as unrefined when I say "Hork City!"

@keight--Lagavulin 32 year? Nice. I like your pronouncement of "band-aids" during the tasting. Lagavulin, and Islay malts in general, seem to me to have a large component of iodine, both on the nose and the finish (in addition to alot of peat). So, "band-aids" work for me.

As for the cooked fruit for dessert...I've always loved a great apple pie a la mode. It was my breakfast of choice when I was in high school. But then again, I've been told I have an old soul.

Like @brooke29, I love fresh berries with zabaglione. Heck, I'm a fan of fresh fruit in general. Especially during the warmer months when so much fruit is spectacular.

And it's really hard for me to turn down chocolate, unless it's chocolate mixed with raspberries...never been a big fan of that combination.

Mostly, though, I go through phases where I'm insane about something like Key Lime Pie for a few months...then back to chocolate...then onto creamy desserts...

@Keight: I personally agree with your assessment of whisky, but there are those who genuinely love it; my boyfriend is one of them, and he's the sort who simply will not eat or drink something if he doesn't like it. There's just no explaining tastes for things (e.g. I love licorice, and so do plenty of others in the EU countries, but in the States, it is generally loathed)

I personally like some fruit desserts, and have since I was little, but it has to be the right sort of fruit, and the fruit has to be really good too often, crap fruit is used for fruit desserts, with the idea that 'it won't matter'... HAH! A mealy apple is a mealy apple, and it will make a horrible compote. Also, you can't just take a bunch of fruit, and cook it with added sugar, and hope it will make a fantastic dessert (and I can think of no reason to make a less-than-fantastic-dessert). Stewed fruit and many compotes and leave me wondering what the cook was thinking... Let's not forget that fruit pies are fruit desserts, too, and can be brilliant. And cherry-chocolate pie strikes me as a sound argument for the existence of a benevolent god.

But I'm not certain why a fruit dessert has to involve cooked fruit; if someone says 'fruit dessert' to me, I find myself thinking (and hoping) 'fresh alpine strawberries'. With nothing.

I love cooked fruit desserts and yes, I'm over 30. Summer Pudding is one of my favorites but I'll do any kind of fruit pie or crisp. Crisps and cobblers are especially attractive to me because guests can help themselves to as much (or little) as they like and not be limited to a portion size that's doled out on a plate.

As a matter of fact, it's got to be 102 in the shade before I'll crave a piece of cold fruit.

I love fruit desserts, and I'm under 30. Apple pie and applesauce, any sort of fruit jam, cobblers, tarts, fruit sauces, compote, berry pie, lemon meringue or key lime pie, poached pears...heck, fruitcake. I'll eat 'em all. Fruit desserts are probably my favorite type of dessert, but they haven't always been. I definitely remember preferring chocolate or cream-based pies, etc., when I was younger...apple pie is definitely my favorite now. But I also eat piles and piles of fresh fruit when it's in season - cooked fruit desserts are only for fall/winter.

I'm 23, and I love fruit-based desserts. Pies, shortcake, crisps, cobblers, shortcake, baked apples - count me in!

Heh. I still don't drink coffee and I do like Scotch. I also like fruit desserts, but not the awful ones like the packets of mixed dried fruit cooked until they are DEAD. I do like baked apples, and Peach Melba, and most pies. I have also done fresh fruit pies where you bake a sweet crust, add a layer of pudding or sweetened cream cheese, and then fresh fruit in a design. A light glaze (such as heated and thinned apple jelly) and it's fantastic.

Being from the south, I also eat things like ambrosia, and with relatives in Hawai'i we learned about grilled pineapple. So it might be a locality thing. It's a lot easier to get fresh fruit more of the year in those places, and so I grew up eating fruit for dessert more than Northern people might.

I love fresh fruit, but really don't like fruit desserts. For 'dessert calories,' I spend them on chocolate.

I've always hated fruit-flavored syrups and ice creams, even as a little kid--then my palate was less discriminating, so I would eat pie if offered, but given the choice between pie and chocolate, usually I'd go with the chocolate.

I'll take my fruit dessert with coffee followed by a nice single malt. Thanks!

I get where you're coming from, but can you really not be satisfied by a gooey peach cobbler or an extra-tart key lime pie?!

I agree about the Scotch, but I just don't know what to tell you about the fruit desserts. It really depends on the mood for me, so perhaps it is an age thing? Although, I'm only 21, so I don't know which way that leans on the age thing ...

@Pavlov -- mojito fruit salad?? Do tell!

For me to enjoy a fruit dessert it needs some kind of dairy or other creamy decadent element. IE pie a la mode, or berry pavlova with whipped cream.

Fruit desserts: a retrospective.
I'm a northerner.
I detest cinnamon.
And scotch. But, I DO like Dewar's, for mixing with soda.
I hate all cooked fruit.
But, I love fresh fruit.
Oh, and I love bourbon and coffee.
Yet, detest chocolate.
I think I've learned a lot about myself. Thank you, serious eats.