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Dessert Magic

Dessert Magic

Sweet endings take many forms. According to data from MenuTrends 2001, chocolate is the most common dessert flavoring, more popular than all fruits combined. And when it comes to the most popular desserts on menus, baked goods (64%) outnumber ice cream (34%) almost two to one. In full-service restaurants, the three most common desserts are pies, which account for 26.1% of desserts, cake (12.9%) and cheesecake (10.9%).

On this month’s recipe pages, you’ll find some out-of-the-ordinary specialties from a sampling of restaurants around the U.S. From Pacific East in Amagansett, New York, comes a recipe for Toasted Coconut Baked Alaska. Savona Restaurant in Gulph Mills, Pa., provides a recipe for Valrhona Warm Chocolate Cake. And for a Southern slant on sweets, consider the Southern Chocolate Pecan Torte from Mimosa Grill in Charlotte, N.C., and the Sweet Potato Flan from Charleston in Baltimore.

West Coast offerings include Warm Banana Upside-Down Cake from Rancho Valencia Resort in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., as well as Chocolate Espresso Souffle from La Toque in Rutherford, Calif. Also, from Millennium in San Francisco, you’ll find a recipe for Creme Brulee Napoleon with Fresh Strawberries. Look for these and other end-of-the-meal inspirations in our recipe section.