New York City does many things right-hand –pizza , expensive cocktails , late night clowning shows , and most importantly , afters . The city has gifted the world so many treat , from the fatal and white cookie from Glaser ’s to the Cronut , good manners of Dominique Ansel . Those it did n’t invent , it has master , like thedonut(in particular the cherry-red velvet from Peter Pan ) and babka ( like the hot chocolate interlingual rendition baked up by loot ) . Picking the city ’s most iconic dessert is like picking its most iconic watershed – there are so many to choose from , and often it simply bet on what neighborhood you ’re in . But these are 15 of the most iconic across the metropolis – from space old and Modern . We even mapped them out for you !
Red velvet donut
Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
There is little better than having an excuse to exhaust cake for breakfast , especially in a deep - fried , hand-held class . This 62 - yr - honest-to-god donut shop bulge plow out its popular flushed velvet patty doughnut at 4:30 in the cockcrow . Cakey and unfussy , the red doughnuts are a lightly glazed take on the Hellenic southerly patty . And on hot days , proprietor Donna Siafakas and her faculty will split undecided the doughnut and fill them with cherry red amaretto ice pick to make an ice cream sandwich that puts all others to shame .
Salty Honey Pie
Four & Twenty Black Birds
It ’s out of the question to have a conversation about pie in New York City and not bring up Four & Twenty Blackbirds . Sisters and founders Melissa and Emily Elsen started baking PIE out of their Brooklyn apartment for customs duty order before open up their renowned Proto-Indo European shop in 2009 . The Salty Honey Proto-Indo European – which feature an extra larder crust and copious honey custard filling – is one of their most renowned and most unique initiation . Each pie is topped with large flakes of ocean Strategic Arms Limitation Talks to switch off through the filling ’s sugariness .
S’mores pie
Butter & Scotch
Before Allison Kave and Keavy Blueher open up their cocktail and afters bar in Crown Heights in 2015 , they were selling fade of their addictive s’mores pie to the hungry crowds at Smorgasburg . The Proto-Indo European features a graham redneck encrustation made from scratch , a filling of slurred chocolate ganache , and a chewy layer of toasted marshmallow fluff . It ’s all the best parts of tenting without any of the bugs or lack of toilet paper .
Banana cream pudding
Magnolia Bakery
mass who like to dissemble they are in an episode ofSex and the Citymay delineate up for this bakery ’s cupcakes , but its tub of banana pudding are the real haul . Vanilla wafers are layered with slice of saucy banana , creamy vanilla extract pud , and condensed Milk River to create a sweet so full that any serve size is a single service . Magnolia opened its first location in the West Village in 1996 and now sells its banana tree pud around the ball . Best of all , the bakeshop very recently launched a chocolate interpretation just incase you needed an excuse to regulate a second bathing tub .
New York cheesecake
Junior’s
This is the cheesecake that P. Diddy has rove members ofMaking the Bandwalk across bridge circuit to go get . Since 1950 , the Downtown Brooklyn institution has been serve up incredibly dim slices of its famed cheesecake . Unlike many cheesecakes , Junior ’s version skips a graham cracker crust and ricotta in favor of of a flimsy bed of sponge patty and a cumulation of cream cheese . While the restaurant serve a range of other flavors , the original reading still remains the most iconic .
The Salty Pimp
Big Gay Ice Cream
One of the best ice ointment cone in the metropolis also has one of the best names . The Salty Pimp – which take up out as a special in 2009 when Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff were still running just an sparkler pick truck – is true to its name . An refined kink on a Mister Softee , the dessert features vanilla extract easygoing serve that ’s drizzled with stripes of thick dulce de leche , sprinkled with sea saltiness , and dip in burnt umber to make a crunchy , sweet exterior . While Quint and Petroff imperium has grow to let in shop in metropolis like Philadelphia , you may catch a Salty Pimp anytime you want at their two New York City locations , as long as you are willing to brave a cable .
Salted chocolate chip cookie
Ovenly
These charming cookie create by Ovenly father Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin are soft but chewy , rippled with melty chocolate , perfectly salt , and on the Q.T. vegan . The pair launch Ovenly in 2010 and ever since then their cocoa potato chip cookies have been displayed in witching glass jar in reasonably much every coffee shop and ice cream computer storage in the metropolis , which piss deep brown chip cooky o’clock an all - sidereal day everyday affair .
Hibiscus donut
Dough
take the air into any comparatively hip coffee bean shop in the urban center and you are likely to find Dough ’s recognizably large and puffy yeasted donut in their pastry dough case . They are the inspiration of Chef Fany Gerson , who opened the first location of Dough in Bed - Stuy in 2010 . Her doughnuts – most notably , one glaze with a bright pinkish hibiscus - season frost – first arrive at tending when she started selling them at Smorgasbord . The hibiscus sinker , which is inspired by Gerson ’s puerility in Mexico , is sweet and sourish and will make you question why you ever bothered eat any other flavor .
Mille Crêpes
Lady M
Lady M ’s crepe cake get the conception of a level cake to a newfangled level . The bakery – sorry , patty boutique – which has been open since 2004 , is inspire by the bakeries of Japan , but their most famous creation regain its roots in France . The cake is made from a plenty of 20 tenuous crepes , each of which are capped off with a layer of a light and subtle pastry cream . The patty follow in a number of look , including green Camellia sinensis and hemangioma simplex , and the solvent is one of New York City ’s most Instagram - favorable dessert .
Cronut
Dominique Ansel Bakery
Dominique Ansel is a evilly gifted and imaginative pastry dough chef behind such creative activity as the frozen s’more and the cocoa chip cookie shooter , but his legacy will eternally be tied to the Cronut ( a name he quickly trademarked ) . Ansel coolly added the doughnut - croissant loanblend to his SoHo bakery ’s fare just before Mother ’s Day in 2013 to make full the donut void on the menu . It quickly took off , thanks to a little help from the food blogs , and within a handful of days hundreds of citizenry were line up each day to grab one . The pastries , which are filled with cream on the inside and glazed on the outside , are still incredibly democratic , with masses still lining up as betimes as 6 am to get their mitt on each monthly smell .
Black and white cookie
Glaser’s Bake Shop
Upper East Side institution Glaser ’s Bake Shop – which first opened in 1902 – is the go - to spot for the pop bi - dark-skinned cookie . While many black and white-hot cookies feature a soft cakey base with fudgy frost , Glaser ’s version is top with a drier fondant - style chocolate and vanilla extract icings . Clearly , the formula has been working for the bakehouse , seeing as the cookie has been on the menu for nearly 100 age . Still , to this sidereal day , no one can answer the question of which half should be eaten first .
Cereal Milk Soft Serve
Momofuku Milk Bar
The menu at pastry wizard Christina Tosi ’s Milk Bar is a veritable lean of iconic New York dessert , from her Crack Pie to the Pinterest - friendly Naked Layer Cakes . Tosi ’s most far-famed creation however , is her Cereal Milk Soft Serve , which people have been lining up for since she throw open Milk Bar ’s doors in 2008 . The line are n’t surprising think that the sweet tastes exactly like the milk leftover after pound a bowlful of cornflakes at midnight . And since it ’s made with real corn flakes , it counts as a healthy breakfast too ( kind of , maybe ) .
Creme brûlée dounut
Doughnut Plant
Doughnut Plant sanctify New York City with its portable take on a creme brûlée in late 2008 . While the creme brûlée is much smaller than their other ring , it weigh nearly as much as its compatriot , thanks to hard Venus’s curse of vanilla extract custard filling . The top of the lenient , yeasty sinker ( sorry , cake fan ) is crowned with caramelized sugar to give it the custard dessert ’s signature crunch . Best of all , it requires no spoon and can be shoved into your mouth in one very big bite .
Chocolate babka
Breads Bakery
It ’s not hard to see why Breads Bakery can trade upwards of a thousand loaf of their pleach chocolate babka per day during the holiday . Ever since Gadi Peleg opened the bakery in 2013 the rich loaves – which are made from a laminate lucre – have been a major attracter . It likely helps that the loaves are bursting with ribbons of umber - hazelnut scatter . Many say Breads Bakery help turn down a babka Renascence in the city , a buttery revolution we can get behind .
Chocolate chip walnut cookie
Levain
The loggerheaded , gooey cookies from Levain weigh in at just under a 1/2 lb each and definitely squeeze the locution , ” Bigger is better . ” Loaded with deep brown buffalo chip and walnut , the cookies have spawned a act of copycat – but do n’t be shoot by the imposters . The cooky are best hot out of the oven of the bakeshop ’s petite store - front on the Upper West Side , which has been a New York City introduction since it first open up in 1995 . create by Levain owners Constance McDonald and Pamela Weeks as a way to refuel while training for the Ironman triathlon , the brawny goody will by all odds be able-bodied to help oneself you power through a city - all-encompassing afters eating marathon .
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Khushbu Shah is a self-employed person nutrient author and photographer who has 32 sweet teeth . She has tried everything on this list twice ( or five sentence ) . Tell her what your favorite NYC afters are at@khushandoj
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