Dessert

Dessert
Various desserts, including numerous varieties of Cake, Biscuits and Pies
TypeSweet
VariationsNumerous (biscuits, cakes, tarts, cookies, sandeshs, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, custards, sweet soups, fruits etc.)

Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.

The term dessert can apply to many sweets, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatins, ice creams, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad (fruit is commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness).

Historically, the dessert course consisted entirely of foods "from the storeroom" (de l’office), including fresh, stewed, preserved, and dried fruits; nuts; cheese and other dairy dishes; dry biscuits (cookies) and wafers; and ices and ice creams.[1] Sweet dishes from the kitchen, such as freshly prepared pastries, meringues, custards, puddings, and baked fruits, were served in the entremets course, not in the dessert course. By the 20th century, though, sweet entremets had come to be included among the desserts.[2] [3]

  1. ^ Grimod de La Reynière 1805, p. 19.
  2. ^ Montagné 1938, p. 422.
  3. ^ Flandrin 2007, pp. 31, 108.