List of Minnesotan desserts

Minnesota is home to a wide range of desserts that were invented in the state, surrounding region, or brought by immigrants. This list includes common desserts, and pastries found in Minnesota.

Desserts

• cookie salad ^{[1] [2]}
• watergate salad
• Jello fluff- made with cottage cheese, canned fruit, jello, and whipped topping ^[3]
• Snickers salad
• strawberry delight
• glorified rice

• Rosettes
• Sandbakelse- Norwegian cookie eaten during Christmas
• lebkuchen- German gingerbread cookie
• Krumkake ^[4]
• Dessert bars ^[5]
• Scotcharoos ^[5]

• Bundt cakes- a donut-shaped cake, invented in Minneapolis ^[6]
• Kransekake ^[4]
• German Christmas bread (stollen)- essentially a German fruitcake made with dried fruit, marzipan, spices, nuts, and topped with icing.
• gingerbread

• Lefse- a flatbread brought to Minnesota by Norwegian immigrants, is often eaten as a dessert if it is topped with butter and a variation of sugar and cinnamon or brown sugar ^[7]
• Sweetened rice pudding
• German baked apples- stuffed with marzipan and other ingredients
• marzipan- a confection made with sugar and almond flour
• Blue Moon- an ice cream flavor that is popular in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest. ^[8]
• Pie à la Mode- pie served with ice cream, this was invented in Duluth ^[9]

• 
  pie a la mode with caramel sauce and whipped cream
• 
  A marble bundt cake
• 
  Chocolate scotcheroos
• 
  18-layer kransekake

• 
  Cookie salad
• 
  strawberry delight

Pastries

• Poppy seed roll ^[10]
• Kolaches- made with cream cheese, jam, Nutella, or poppyseed filling in Minnesota. ^[4]
• Potica- a rolled pastry made of leavened paper-thin dough filled with any of a great variety of fillings, but most often with walnut filling. ^{[11] [12]}
• Scandinavian donut (smultring)- a Norwegian cake donut made with cardamom and cinnamon
• Cardamom bread ^[4]

• 
  Potica for sale at a bakery
• 
  cardamom pulla bread

References

1. "10 Ways to Master the Midwestern Dessert Salad". Allrecipes. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
2. Nosowitz, Dan (2015-05-22). "Minnesota: Land Of 10,000 Dessert Salads". Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
3. "These Fluffy, Creamy, and Decadent Dessert Salads Are Holiday Staples in the Midwest". Matador Network. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
4. "Scandinavian Baking in Northern Minnesota". North and Shore. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
5. Columnist, Amanda Stone | Globe (2020-07-02). "Amanda Stone: In Minnesota, bars mean dessert, not drinks". Joplin Globe. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
6. "The Minnesota cake: How and why to use your bundt pan". Twin Cities. 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
7. Spiers, Katherine (2022-11-03). "Lefse Lives on in the Upper Midwest". Smart Mouth. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
8. Hutton, Rachel (2022-08-29). "The delicious mystery of Blue Moon ice cream, a Midwest cult favorite". www.startribune.com. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
9. "Duluth: Birthplace of pie à la mode?". Perfect Duluth Day. 2017-10-24. Retrieved 2025-08-21.
10. "Up north, a mother lode of food traditions. The families that settled here shared recipes and cultures". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2025-08-21.
11. "Up north, a mother lode of food traditions. The families that settled here shared recipes and cultures". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN   0882-7729 . Retrieved 2025-08-21.
12. Pease, Krystyna (2015-12-02). "Appetites: Preserving Iron Range recipes". MPR News. Retrieved 2025-08-21.