NYC's Best Nontraditional Thanksgiving Desserts
Here's the dilemma: you've been tasked with providing dessert for Thanksgiving dinner, but you don't want to bring same-old same-old pumpkin pie. Don't worry—we've got you covered. Below are our picks for unusual -- yet entirely appropriate -- desserts for T-Day. You will definitely not have leftovers. By Jessica Allen.
Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts at Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 505-3700
More: NYC's Most Creative Doughnuts
Since 1994, Doughnut Plant has been cranking out some of the city's most delicious confections -- many relying on family recipes. The seasonal apple cinnamon doughnut, available in cake, yeast, or as a miniature "doughseed," is robust, and very, very autumnal, thanks to its cinnamon glaze. Other fall favorites are pumpkin, which comes dusted with spiced pepitas, and gingerbread cake. If you're too hungry to gobble them post-turkey, remember that you can always save them for breakfast the next day.
Butternut Squash Sorbet at OddFellows
175 Kent Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11211
(347) 599-0556
More: Best Restaurants Serving Thanksgiving Dinner
Regardless of where we live, most Americans eat a very similar menu on Thanksgiving Day, generally including cranberries, corn, and root vegetables -- like butternut squash. OddFellows' non-dairy butternut squash sorbet lets you nod to tradition while modernizing the meal for 21st-century palates. Also, it's just plain cool (no pun intended.) Every single scoop of OddFellows' innovative, unique ice cream is freshly-made in small batches.
I'll Take Eggnog For $200 Alex at Rice to Riches
37 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
(212) 274-0008
More: Best Pumpkin Dishes In NYC
Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, so why not celebrate the start of the countdown to Christmas with dessert? Rice To Riches' "I'll Take Eggnog For $200 Alex" isn't just a clever pudding name -- it's also an ooey, gooey, creamy dessert. Other seasonal flavors include "Gingerbread Joyride," "Curse of the Orange Cranberry," "Secret Life of Pumpkin," and "Perfectly Legal Pecan Pie." You can also jazz things up with a little "Oreo" Gasm, "Hazelnut Chocolate Bear Hug," or "Coconut Coma."
Pumpkin Pie Cake Truffles at Milk Bar
220 Eighth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
(347) 577-9504
More: Best Bakeries In NYC
Since everything's unusual (and yummy) at Milk Bar, you really can't go wrong with whatever you pick out. But we'd like to recommend the eminently pop-able pumpkin pie cake truffles. For those of you who haven't yet had the pleasure, a "cake truffle" is a ball of cake mixed with several other bits of goodness. In this case, spiced pumpkin cake gets combined with pumpkin milk, then covered with white chocolate, graham cracker crumbs, and spiced pie. Go ahead and try to eat just one. You'll quickly understand why they come in packs of three.
Walt and the Blackbirds Ice Cream Pie at Ample Hills
623 Vanderbilt Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238
(347) 240-3926
More: Best Ice Cream Shops In NYC
Pie on Thanksgiving is as expected as, well, turkey and cranberry sauce. Ample Hills, an extraordinary Brooklyn-based ice creamery, has joined forces this holiday season with Four & Twenty Blackbirds, an extraordinary Brooklyn-based bakery, to create the Walt and the Blackbirds ice cream pie. Clocking in at a whopping 5.5 pounds, this frozen treat includes homemade fudge, frozen salty honey custard pie, sea salt, so-called crack cookies (Saltines smothered in sugar, chocolate and butter) and a huge scoop of Nonna D's Oatmeal Lace ice cream.