20 fancy desserts you should try immediately

Just hearing the words crème brûlée sounds fancy. Crème brûlée is a custard with a caramelized top that you have to break open. It’s sweet and sugary, and it’s a lot of fun to eat. Even if you don’t like it, you need to say you’ve tried it.  

Macarons are a delectable little cookie with a crisp outside and a soft filling. They come in loads of flavors and are a quintessential French dessert. They’re not easy to make, which makes them so sought after. 

Baked Alaska might be hard to find, but if you see it on a menu, order it. It’s basically a super fancy ice cream cake with a meringue on the top. It comes in all different flavors, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s the fanciest of the fancy desserts. 

Biscotti are typically served with coffee as they’re a twice-baked cookie, making for a very hard texture. Softened by coffee, however, they’re lovely to eat, and you’ll feel very fancy having some as a morning or afternoon treat. 

Pignoli cookies are fancy because of their most notable ingredient: Pine nuts. Pine nuts do not come cheap, so if you’re offered a pignoli cookie, take one and know that the dessert was expensive to make. 

Any dessert featuring meringue is fancy because meringue is fancy. It’s difficult to master and isn’t served nearly as often as regular desserts like chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Pavlova is made almost entirely of meringue and features fresh fruit, making it a very fancy dessert. 

Beignets are a French pastry that are deep-fried, pillow soft, and covered in powdered sugar. They’re popular throughout New Orleans, but you’ll have to search for a beignet in other American cities. If you happen upon one, try it. 

A cannoli is a classic Italian dessert that features a deep-fried pastry dough as the exterior and an interior of ricotta filling. Though made with cheese, the dessert is sweet and it’s quite delectable. Pastry chefs like to make their cannolis their own, giving each one a unique spin. 

Tiramisu has become a fancy dessert because it’s not seen that often on menus or at events. Anyone who’s made it, though, will say how easy it is to concoct, so if you don’t have the chance to eat tiramisu that someone else has made, you might be able to make it yourself. 

Any time a cake is individually made, it’s fancy. Chocolate lava cake is a sophisticated dessert with a chocolate cake outside and a lava-like chocolate filling inside. It’s a trick of timing more than anything, but eating one will have you feeling like a million bucks. 

Most cakes come in vanilla, chocolate, or confetti flavors, but chiffon cake is an entirely different beast. It uses different ingredients than a typical cake, and the method to make it requires some specific baking techniques. It results in a very light and fluffy cake, and you’ll feel totally fancy if you have a slice. 

In Italy, panna cotta isn’t particularly fancy, but here in the States, it is. It’s not offered all too often, and it’s much different than typical American desserts. It’s creamy and sweet, and you’ll be glad you at least had a bite. 

Anything that’s flambéed is fancy, and bananas foster are flambéed. In this delicious concoction, bananas, and walnuts are cooked in a rum sauce and served over ice cream. Even if you don’t like rum, you’ll enjoy this dessert. 

Dulce de leche is just a caramel sauce. That’s all it is. But it’s fancy because its name is a different language and it takes a very long time to make. Try a bite if you have the chance, especially if it’s homemade because it was truly a labor of love to make. 

Yule logs, per their name, are a traditional Christmas dessert. If you have the chance, you should try one because they aren’t made throughout the entire year, and following a traditional recipe is a labor-intensive process. 

Even desserts that are easy to make can be fancy, and compote is proof of that. Compote is just fruit cooked in water and sugar, but it’s got a name that makes it sound gourmet, and it’s often used to class up whatever it’s being served with.  

There are all sorts of soufflés in the world, but that doesn’t make them any less fancy. Soufflé is very difficult to make, so you’re not going to find it offered by just any old cook. If you find it offered, take your chance to try some. 

Affogato isn’t difficult to make. It can actually be made at home. However, the ingredients can be expensive, which is why it’s not offered everywhere. If you find it on a menu, give it a try and see if it’s worth investing in the ingredients so you can have it at home. 

Sorbet has been made fancy because it’s used as a palate cleanser at fancy dinners. It’s also typically made with fresh fruit, which can be pricey, and you aren’t given very big servings, so it’s an upscale offering. But it’s worth trying because it is so, so good. 

Baklava is not an easy dessert to make. It consists of layers and layers of phyllo dough, which can be very fragile to handle. It’s not particularly popular in the United States. However, it’s very tasty, and anyone who likes desserts should at least try a bite.