# The best classic American desserts

The sweets that define American baking, from Thanksgiving pies to diner cheesecake, ranked by how often they appear in dessert roundups, food magazines and TasteAtlas ratings.

- 316 votes · 18 items
- May 23, 2022 · Kayla Ward
- https://even.best/en/l/14/the-best-classic-american-desserts

## Top 15

1. **Apple pie** (32 · ▲35 ▼3) — Double-crust pie of spiced apples; 'as American as apple pie' since the 20th century.
2. **New York cheesecake** (26 · ▲28 ▼2) — Dense, rich cream cheese cake on a graham cracker crust, made famous by Junior's and Lindy's.
3. **Chocolate chip cookies** (20 · ▲22 ▼2) — Invented around 1938 by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.
4. **Key lime pie** (18 · ▲21 ▼3) — Florida Keys pie of key lime juice and condensed milk; the official state pie of Florida.
5. **Pecan pie** (15 · ▲18 ▼3) — Southern pie of pecans in a gooey filling of corn syrup, butter and eggs.
6. **Carrot cake** (12 · ▲13 ▼1) — Spiced cake with grated carrots and walnuts under cream cheese frosting.
7. **Banana pudding** (12 · ▲12 ▼0) — Southern layered pudding of vanilla custard, sliced bananas and Nilla wafers.
8. **Pumpkin pie** (11 · ▲14 ▼3) — Spiced pumpkin custard pie, the essential Thanksgiving dessert.
9. **Bananas Foster** (9 · ▲12 ▼3) — Bananas flambéed in rum, brown sugar and butter over ice cream, created at Brennan's in New Orleans in 1951.
10. **Red velvet cake** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Crimson cocoa buttermilk cake with cream cheese frosting, linked to New York's Waldorf-Astoria.
11. **S'mores** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Toasted marshmallow and chocolate sandwiched between graham crackers around the campfire.
12. **Texas sheet cake** (9 · ▲11 ▼2) — Thin chocolate cake baked in a sheet pan and covered with warm chocolate pecan icing.
13. **Boston cream pie** (8 · ▲11 ▼3) — Actually a cake: sponge filled with custard and topped with chocolate, created at Boston's Parker House Hotel; Massachusetts' official dessert.
14. **Brownies** (7 · ▲11 ▼4) — Fudgy chocolate squares first baked at Chicago's Palmer House Hotel for the 1893 World's Fair.
15. **Whoopie pie** (5 · ▲10 ▼5) — Two soft chocolate cakes sandwiching a fluffy cream filling, Maine's official state treat.
16. **Cherry pie** (5 · ▲8 ▼3) — Double-crust pie filled with tart cherries, a classic for the Fourth of July and Presidents' Day.
17. **Strawberry shortcake** (4 · ▲7 ▼3) — Sweet biscuits split and filled with macerated strawberries and whipped cream.
18. **Peach cobbler** (3 · ▲10 ▼7) — Baked peaches under a biscuit or batter topping, a Georgia summer favourite.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.