A number of things make New Yorkers love returning to their cities, regardless of wherever else they travel to: never-ending vibes, constant opportunities, diversity, and of course, endless food and fun options. Despite its deep diversities, many residents and tourists in The Big Apple seem to rally around its sweeties, whether they’re hosting small parties or just passing time out under the moonlight at a medium-sized restaurant.
It’s no secret that the city plays host to some of the tastiest desserts across the country, thanks to an ever-increasing pool of highly innovative brands and chefs. What’s not as popular, however, is the origin behind New York’s most famous desserts.
Caveat: some stories here date back centuries, but they can elevate your obsession for NYC desserts even more. So, what’s the story behind New York’s most famous desserts?
First, There Were Cakes…
German immigrants started arriving in the state around the mid-nineteenth century, bringing the cake culture to their new home. Summarily, there’s no telling about the formative influences behind NYC’s desserts without crediting the Germans and their Kleindeustchland neighborhood. You might want to read up about the famous neighborhood later, or just remember to credit the German ingenuity the next time you’re munching a slice of cake.
…Then Cheese Cheesecakes
Outside New York and the United States, folks have been combining cheese and cake for over five hundred years in Europe. They used “curd cheeses” like pot cheese and farmer’s cheese while making up their cakey concoctions. However, it wasn’t until the 1900s, when cream cheese became a thing, that New Yorkers birthed a “New York-style cheesecake.”
While the dessert might go around the world’s biggest cuisines and inquisitive kitchens, cream cheese’s origin dates back to New York. It started out as a dense, smooth, and mouth-meltingly luscious dessert – and hasn’t changed much for devotees who still crave the classic delight to date.
They were first produced for sale by a dairyman in Orange County and distributed by A.L. Reynolds. The dairyman packaged it in a foil, naming it after Philadelphia, a city that was renowned for its pleasant dairy pastures. After him, two brothers who immigrated from Lithuania and owned a Lower East Side grocery store started producing cream cheese for the local Jewish community, marking a timeline widely considered the breakout era of native cheesecakes in New York.
About Crumbcakes
There’s hardly any New Yorker who didn’t grow up snacking on this palatial delight – amidst brunch breaks, in-between meals, or at the next neighbor’s get-away. They’ve become so popular that residents often don’t mind the lackluster cello-wrapped crumb cakes that are often mass-produced and sold in most places.
Thankfully, some local bakeries still provide the superior, original crumb cake versions: a perfect silver of yeasted pastry sitting elegantly over a gigantic pile of crumbs adorned with powdered sugar. Sliced, chomped, or just grabbed with the teeth, crumb cakes couldn’t be too much for the average New Yorker.
Like classic cakes, crumb cakes have German roots. This time, they evolved from Streuselkuchen, one of the European nation’s many coffee cakes introduced as immigrants reached their new base. Streuselkuchen included coffee rings and Danishes replete with jams or cheese, and the multiple stores across virtually every crossing or street across NYC are a witness to the ingenuity behind them.
And Molten Chocolate Cakes
Molten chocolate cakes became a thing when New York chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten erroneously pulled his chocolate sponge cake out of the oven a little earlier than normal. Thanks to the chef’s inquisitiveness, he allowed his unplanned move to birth a dessert classic.
He discovered a river of hot, oozing, liquid chocolate after cracking open the spongy outer layer. The error turned out to be one of the most delicious – and popular – ones in New York’s recent history. While others might claim credit for discovering New York’s molten chocolate cakes, Jean-Georges was the one who popularized the gooey delight, also called lava cake.
Conclusion
Some of these cookies were imported by immigrants, and others were invented in New York and soon spiraled to become a global delight in high-end cuisines globally. Regardless of their unique beginnings, this briefer can elevate your dining experiences while you travel through New York’s boroughs and try out the city’s host of sweet treats.