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.
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Lemon meringue pie is a dessert pie consisting of a shortened pastry base filled with lemon curd and topped with meringue.
Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed. It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of sweetened condensed milk, to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condensed milk" are often used interchangeably today. Sweetened condensed milk is a very thick, sweet product, which when canned can last for years without refrigeration if not opened. The product is used in numerous dessert dishes in many countries.
Rice pudding is a dish made from rice mixed with water or milk and other ingredients such as cinnamon, vanilla, and raisins.
Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. It is similar to pecan pie without any nuts.
Lemon ice box pie is an icebox pie consisting of lemon juice, eggs, and condensed milk in a pie crust, frequently made of graham crackers and butter. It is a variant of key lime pie; in both, the citric acidity sets the egg yolks, with minimal baking. There are also no bake versions.
A cream pie, crème pie, or creme pie is a type of pie filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, sugar, wheat flour, and eggs. It comes in many forms, including vanilla, lemon, lime, peanut butter, banana, coconut, and chocolate. One feature of most cream pies is a whipped cream topping. The custard filling is related to crème patissière, a key component of French cakes, and tarts. It is a one-crust pie, where the crust covers the bottom and sides but not the top. The crust may be a standard pastry pie crust, or made with crumbled cookies or a graham cracker crust.
Fruit curd is a dessert spread and topping. It is usually made with citrus fruit, though may be made with other fruits. Curds are often used as spreads and as flavourings.
A chiffon pie is a type of pie that consists of a special type of airy filling in a crust. The filling is typically produced by folding meringue into a mixture resembling fruit curd that has been thickened with unflavored gelatin to provide a light, airy texture; it is thus distinguished from a cream pie or mousse pie, which achieve lightness by folding in whipped cream rather than meringue. This filling is then put into a pre-baked pie shell of variable composition and chilled. This same technique can also be used with canned pumpkin to produce pumpkin chiffon pie.
A lemon tart is a dessert dish, a variety of tart. It has a pastry shell with a lemon flavored filling.
Buko pie, sometimes anglicized as coconut pie, is a traditional Filipino baked young coconut (malauhog) pie. It is considered a specialty in the city of Los Baños, Laguna located on the island of Luzon.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.
Icebox pies are no-bake pies including ice cream pies, chiffon pies, and classic cream pies like key lime pie, lemon ice box pie, chocolate pudding pie, grasshopper pie and banana cream pie. The crust can be a crumb crust or blind baked pastry. They are associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States.
