World's 50 best desserts: It was hard to choose just 50 of our favorites! Here they are in alphabetical order. South America's alfajores are shortbread cookies with a variety of fillings can be found in neighborhood bakeries all over South America.
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Apfelstrudel, Austria: Traditional strudel dough is wrapped around a sweet, apple filling that's enriched with buttery fried breadcrumbs, raisins and sometimes walnuts.
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Baklava, Turkey: This syrupy confection -- served in great trays sliced into diamonds, filled with ground nuts and dripping with honeyed syrup -- is a sweet legacy of the Ottoman Empire.
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Black Forest Cake, Germany: This dark round chocolate cake, doused in a cherry syrup, spiked with sour cherry brandy and layered with whipped cream and fresh cherries, is the star of pastry cases around Germany.
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Borma, Middle East and Turkey: Crisp, golden knafeh dough is wrapped around a rich nut filling in this sweet cousin of baklava.
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Brownies, United States. In more than a century of brownie making, they've become a mainstay US treat, a base for sundaes and a popular ice cream flavor.
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Cannoli, Sicily: A crispy shell holds a creamy cheese filling in this Sicilian classic.
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Cardamom Buns, Sweden: Cardamom buns are often part of fika, the coffee break that comes twice daily in many Swedish workplaces.
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Cendol, Singapore: Locals cool off with this chilled and sweet treat made with Iced coconut milk, green rice-flour jelly and a scoop of sweetened red beans.
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Chocolate Chip Cookies, United States: A perfect chocolate chip cookie is a delicate balance of textures and flavors, with a crispy rim giving way to a tender, melting center.
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Chocolate Mousse, France: While Gallic chefs have been whipping up chocolate mousse for at least a few hundred years, the Olmec, Maya and Aztec peoples consumed chocolate long before contact with Europeans. Ancient codices depict cooks pouring chocolate from several feet in the air to create a froth.
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Coconut Cake, Southern United States: There are dozens of versions of this cake, but every single one is cloaked in a frothy layer of shredded coconut.
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Cornes de Gazelle, Morocco: In the classic version, a thin layer of dough contains a filling of ground almonds scented with orange blossom water.
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Crème Brûlée, France: Each bite of this creamy dessert blends a bit of crispy caramel with vanilla custard.
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Dan Tats, Hong Kong: Dan tats are best enjoyed fresh from the oven, when the warm custard meets a perfectly crisp crust.
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Doughnuts, United States: The old-school doughnut has been loaded down under piles of maple frosting, crispy bacon, fresh fruit glazes and boozy toppings that make it a modern wonder.
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Eszterhazy Torta, Hungary: Slim rounds of almond meringue are piled high between stripes of chocolate buttercream, then topped with a marbled spiderweb of chocolate and vanilla fondant.
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Flan, Latin America: Flan might have arrived in Latin America from Spain, but it's since been claimed and reinvented by generations of cooks here.
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Gateáu Fondant au Chocolat, France: This dark and rich cake is a high-wire act of time and temperature: Served too early and it's a sticky pool of hot cake batter; served too late and it's a brownie. When the balance is perfect, the treat blends the tender bite of a chocolate cake with the oozy pleasure of a melted chocolate bar.
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Gelato, Italy. On the global heat map of frozen desserts, gelato earns top honors: Lower fat content and a warmer serving temperature help flavors shine brighter than in ice cream.
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Gulab Jamun, India: Traditional recipes start with a scoop of khoya, a reduction of cow or buffalo milk that simmers for hours over a low flame, followed by frying gulab jamun in ghee and soaking in an aromatic syrup infused with cardamom seeds and roses.
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Japanese Cheesecake: For the cheesecake aficionado who finds the New York version heavy, this treat blends the flavorful tang of cheesecake with the loft of a sponge cake.
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Kashata, East Africa: Wander through a market in East Africa to find this golden sweet, which blends the satisfying crunch of caramelized sugar with the rich heft of peanuts, fresh coconut or a blend of the two.
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Kifli, Hungary: Lekvár, a chunky preserve that retains all the tartness of the region's ripe apricots and plums, is tucked inside these crescent pastries.
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Knafeh, Levant: Golden pastry tops sweet cream, nuts or salty cheese in this syrupy dessert, which offers a satisfying contrast of texture and flavor.
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Kouign Amann, Brittany, France: Once a little-known treat, the kouign amann made it big when celebrity pastry chef Dominique Ansel gave it a boost by serving the caramel-crusted rounds in his SoHo bakery.
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Kulfi, India: This frozen dessert can require hours of constant stirring, start by simmering fresh milk over a low flame, a slow reduction that lends a caramel sweetness to the milk's natural sugars.
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Lemon Tart, France: A slender layer of lemon cream fills this classic French tart, with a crust that's similar in texture to a shortbread cookie.
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Linzer Torte, Austria: This slender torte's dough is filled enriched with ground nuts melted into a jammy filling for a treat that's somewhere between cake and tart.
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M'hanncha, Morocco: This golden spiral of pastry contains a rich filling of ground nuts, orange blossom water and mastic, a natural resin that perfumes sweets from Tangier to Turkey.
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Ma'amoul, Middle East: These filled cookies, whose thin, semolina crust wraps around a delicious blend of chopped dates, nuts or both, are often part of the region's holidays: the Jewish holiday of Purim, for Christians at Easter and Muslims at Eid feasts.
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Mandazi, South Sudan: The addition of coconut milk lends a tender bite and subtle aroma to these satisfying fritters. In some versions, a pinch of ground cardamom provides an extra jolt of spice, and the simple doughnuts are an invitation to get creative with flavors, toppings and sides. They are also a beloved snack across Tanzania, Kenya, Mozambique and Uganda.
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Medovik, Russia: A touch of honey infuses an aromatic lilt into the slender layers of this cake, which can be stacked 10 high in the most elaborate versions.
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New York Cheesecake, United States: A light crumb offsets rich creaminess, but like the city itself, New York cheese cake draws inspiration from around the globe. It's likely inspirations include rumbly, dry-curd cheesecakes of eastern Europe, German kasekuchen and the fresh-cheese versions that are beloved in Italy.
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Oliebollen, Netherlands: A crunchy, crispy ball of sweetened batter studded with raisins or currants, then dunked in powdered sugar, oliebollen are best eaten hot from street stands called oliebollenkrams.
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Pavlova, Australia and New Zealand: Anna Pavlova, the globe-trotting Russian ballerina that the dessert is named for, visited both countries. Each claims the sweet as their own. A crisp meringue shell leads to a sweetly chewy interior, with whipped cream and tart fruits piled high.
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Polvorónes, Latin America, Spain and the Philippines: Tiny, powdered cookies that crumble at the lightest touch, these shortbread treats are beloved from Manila to Mexico City. They're often called Mexican wedding cookies in the United States.
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Qatayef, Middle East: This dessert starts life a yeasted pancake batter, griddled on just one side, creating a balance between the golden-fried crust and tender interior. It's stuffed with a sweet mixture of fresh cheese, dried fruits, nuts or cream, often scented with rose water or ground cinnamon.
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Rigó Jancsi, Hungary: This fluffy chocolate sponge cake is sandwiched with apricot jam and airy chocolate mousse in this classic treat.
