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JUST DESSERTS

Cherries, apples, corn, and garlic, delicately modeled in marzipan and colored with vegetable dyes … this masterpiece of the pastry chef’s art comes from Catania in Sicily, where making such frutta martorana is a centuries-old tradition.

A little self-indulgence, say the philosophers, can be good for the soul. And despite the challenge to our teeth and waistlines, a great dessert is a surefire way to enhance the sum of human happiness. The craving for sweetness is hardwired into us, and the world’s great pastry chefs and confectioners have devised ingenious ways to satisfy this longing—in settings as enticing as the delicacies themselves. American pie, for instance, is more than the name of a song. In their fruit-filled variety, pies embody the places they hail from: Florida’s zingy key lime pie from quirky Key West, or the homespun goodness of shoofly and huckleberry pies from tranquil Amish country in Pennsylvania. Lovers of the allied arts of patisserie and architecture will profit from a pilgrimage to Vienna and Budapest to savor glorious constructions of chocolate, fruit, and cream in belle epoque coffeehouses. Press on east to encounter luminous lokum (Turkish delight) in its Istanbul home or lick a mango-infused kulfi—India’s sensuous take on the frozen dessert—on Mumbai’s Chowpatty Beach.

NEW YORK

SWEET TIME IN NEW YORK

At the Ferrara Bakery and Café in Manhattan’s Little Italy, chef Franco Amati squeezes the ricotta filling into cannoli shells.

With choices ranging from cookies and cheesecakes to cupcakes and cannoli, your blood sugar need never dip in the Big Apple.

Nowhere else can you indulge your sweet tooth so freely at any time of day or night than in New York City. In midtown Manhattan, fortify yourself for a day of sightseeing with one of Petrossian Café’s Bordeaux-style cannelés—small molded cakes with caramelized crusts and custard-like centers. Also in Manhattan, conquer a hamburger-size chocolate chip walnut cookie from Levain Bakery, or head for Momofuku Milk Bar near Union Square to guess at the many ingredients in its sweet-and-salty compost cookie. Both treats are served warm and gooey, so be warned: Finger-licking may be necessary. While at Momofuku, grab a slice of candy bar pie—luscious layers of caramel spiked with peanut-butter nougat, shards of peanut brittle, pretzels, and a chocolate glaze—for the road. It takes a strong will to make the pie last even halfway down the block. For exquisite cheesecake, duck into the quiet calm of Lady M Cake Boutique. The gâteau nuage (“cloud cake”) is your target here—a smooth, sweet, and tangy blend of cream cheese and sour cream on a graham cracker crust, which as its name suggests practically floats on the tongue. While you are sitting comfortably, spring for Lady M’s mille crêpes, a cake whose name promises a thousand crepes but delivers 20, layered with a fluffy pastry cream. The crowning crepe is dusted with sugar and torched for a caramelized crust like a crème brûlée.

Cannoli: A Taste of Sicily in New York

The boundaries of Manhattan’s Little Italy have been shrinking for years, but New York is still home to the creamiest, crunchiest cannoli outside of Sicily. Golden tubes of deep-fried pastry shell are filled with sweetened ricotta cheese. Some bakers gild the lily with chopped pistachios, chocolate chips, or candied citrus. But the key is that the ricotta is piped in fresh to order- and the cannoli devoured in seconds. After a day exploring Greenwich Village, take a sweet break at Rocco’s Pastry Shop & Espresso Café to savor its sublime cannoli. Or step out of Manhattan to experience New York’s real Little Italy in the Bronx, where the Madonia Brothers Bakery on Arthur Avenue awaits. You will be amazed by the speed at which they fill the pastries here and by how fast they disappear.

PENNSYLVANIA

PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH PIES

Amish women traditionally gather together to make quilts, like these ones for sale in Intercourse.

In Pennsylvania Dutch Country, relish shoofly pie and other farmhouse desserts as generations have done before you.

Traveling east from Lancaster along the Old Philadelphia Pike (State Route 340), you hear the clip-clop of a horse-drawn buggy. This is Amish country, with its well-tended farms, one-room schoolhouses, covered bridges, and shops with handmade quilts for sale outside. And all along the route are restaurants, bakeries, and farmers’ markets offering food fresh from the farm, including Pennsylvania Dutch pies of all descriptions. Shoofly pie is the regional specialty, but you will also find huckleberry pies and Amish half-moon pies (schnitz or dried apple). At the Bird-in-Hand Bake Shop and Bird-in-Hand Bakery, pies have almost every conceivable filling—peach, pumpkin, strawberry and rhubarb, cherry, and sour-cream raisin. Pies sweet and savory are also on the menu at the Plain & Fancy Farm Restaurant, offering family-style, pass-the-platter dining. A few miles along Route 340 is Intercourse, whose parking lots have horse-hitching posts. Visit the Intercourse Canning Company or the Jam and Relish Kitchen at Kitchen Kettle Village to watch Amish and Mennonite women processing hundreds of jams, relishes, butters, salsas, and preserves. Sample pear butter and plum preserve before filling your shopping basket with pumpkin schmier (a sweet spread), spiced peaches, and raspberry salsa.

Shoofly Pie

This gooey concoction of molasses and brown sugar, more like a cake than pie, can be found on bakery shelves and restaurant menus throughout Lancaster County. While no one really knows how shoofly pie got its name, the commonly accepted story is that flies had to be “shooed” away from the sugary pies as they were cooling. Pies with a thick layer of molasses under the crumbly brown sugar topping are known as “wet-bottom”; “dry-bottom” pies have a thinner molasses layer. Some cooks add spices or a layer of chocolate spread on top of the pie, but true connoisseurs eschew anything other than the original-recipe version. Shoofly pie is best served warm, preferably with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Views of Prague’s Old Town Square with the magnificent Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in the background create a perfect setting for a café.

FLORIDA

KEY LIME PIE

Jokes aside, Kermit Carpenter of Key West Lime Shoppe is famous for making some of the best key lime pie in town.

Smooth yet with a tangy edge, key lime pie encapsulates the very essence of Key West at Florida’s sun-drenched tip.

Whenever a trolley train tour passes, Kermit Carpenter, owner of Key West Lime Shoppe, dashes out with a pie generously topped with meringue. Wearing a dark-green cook’s hat, he stands poised to throw the pie at startled passengers. But they soon laugh—the pie is a fake. Carpenter is tempting them to try the real thing—key lime pie, the signature dish of the southernmost city in the U.S., where the ghosts of Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams mingle with those of assorted bohemians, pirates, seafarers, and treasure-seekers. The eponymous limes grow throughout the Florida Keys—smaller and tarter than their commercially grown cousins and with yellow juice rather than green. To make the dessert, lime juice is added to egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, which in the days before refrigeration was much more widely available in the Keys than fresh milk. The mixture is encased in a graham cracker crust, then topped with mounds of meringue beaten from the egg whites. Traditionally, the filling was left to thicken on its own without baking, but today’s pie is baked for 10 to 15 minutes. A variation calls for fresh whipped cream on top, garnished with swirls of fresh lime. Key lime pie should be served icy cold—adding green food coloring is considered a faux pas.

Conch Republic

The islanders were first introduced to conch meat in the early 19th century, when Bahamians migrated to the Keys. Locals so admired the sea mollusk’s tough, hardy nature that they adopted the name to mean a Key West native, while Key West itself came to be known as “Conch Republic.”

Harvesting live conch off the U.S. coast is now illegal, but conch meat comes in from the Bahamas. It is used to make deep-fried conch fritters, conch salad, and spicy conch chowder. Although no restaurant uses the same recipe as any other, the more traditional chowder mixes tomatoes, potatoes, lime juice, salt pork, garlic, and onions with conch meat.

CHINA

AFTERNOON TEA IN HONG KONG

Scones with cream and jam … English country fare has found a refined new home across the globe in the Peninsula Hotel.

In the venerable Peninsula Hotel, savor a sanctuary of colonial splendor, where everything still stops for afternoon tea.

In far-flung tropical places that have long since shaken off the yoke of British rule, one vestige of empire often survives—afternoon tea. Best preserved among expatriate communities, the ritual paraphernalia of sugar tongs, cake stands, doilies, tea strainers, finger sandwiches, dainty scones, and fancy cakes carries on in numerous former colonies. In Hong Kong, despite the 1997 handover to China, this achievement has resulted in an extraordinary trading coup: The British sell tea to the Chinese. At the colonial-era Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon, the experience of taking afternoon tea seems scarcely to have changed since the hotel opened in 1928. You sit in the magnificent neoclassical cream-and-gilt lobby, where the buzz of conversation and the tinkle of spoons against Darjeeling-filled bone china rises above the strains of music coming from a string quartet on the balcony. Sunlight streaming in makes the delicately patterned marble floor glow and bounces off the coppery urns of potted palms. Noël Coward might walk in at any moment in search of cucumber sandwiches or a pot of orange pekoe. If he did, the waiters in snowy white livery, materializing with quiet efficiency, laden with cake stands and teapots, would not even raise an eyebrow.

A Proper Cuppa

Queen Victoria’s friend, Anna, Duchess of Bedford, is usually credited with inventing afternoon tea. Although tea as a popular drink had held its place in English hearts since the mid-18th century, this light meal filled the gap between lunch and a fashionably late dinner. To be worthy of the Duchess’s innovation only the highest standards in making tea were—and are—good enough.

Use good-quality leaf tea, never teabags. Warm the pot by swilling hot water around inside it. Tip out the hot water and add the tea—traditionally, one teaspoon for each person and another for the pot. Pour on freshly boiled water, then let stand for three to four minutes, depending on the kind of tea. Ideally, use china cups—tea tastes better out of china. Add milk and sugar to taste, or drink without milk and add a slice of lemon instead.

INDIA

KULFI AT CHOWPATTY BEACH

As the setting sun bathes Chowpatty Beach in gold, people start to gather for an evening of kulfi and other delectable snacks.

On Mumbai’s most popular beach, soak up the carnival nighttime atmosphere as you relish sweet frozen kulfi.

By day, all is relatively quiet on Chowpatty Beach, a sandy strip that lies between the Arabian Sea and the busy Marine Drive leading into Mumbai’s congested center. Groups of people while away the hours on the sand or shelter from the sun under stunted trees. Then as night falls, the beach comes to life. Lights go on in makeshift foodstalls and the crowds arrive, clamoring for hot snacks, such as fiery bhelpuri (rice and potatoes with a tamarind sauce), or a soothing sweet kulfi served on a stick. An Indian version of ice cream with an exquisitely smooth texture, kulfi is made from evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk. Flavors include cardamom, saffron, pistachio, custard apple, vanilla, rose, chocolate, banana, and mango. Traditionally, kulfi was made in an earthenware pot, called a matka, filled with salt and ice; the porous clay helped the milk to freeze. Nowadays, the mixture is more often decanted into molds and frozen in an electric freezer. On the landward side of Marine Drive, a line of people snakes along the sidewalk outside the New Kulfi Centre, which despite its name has been serving the finest kulfi in Mumbai for nearly half a century. Choose from a tantalizing list of flavors, and head back to the beach to enjoy your purchase. As you do so, turn to admire the view of Marine Drive, also known as the Queen’s Necklace because of the many lamps that shine like jewels in the night.

Paan Pulling Power

Across the road from Chowpatty Beach, a stream of sports cars and chauffeur-driven limousines lines up outside an inconspicuous stall off Marine Drive selling paan-edible betel leaves folded into samosa-like triangles around a filling. The stall has no name and does not need one because the ice-cold paan it offers has a huge following among Mumbai’s wealthy executives, producers, and members of the Bollywood glitterati.

Traditionally chewed as a palate cleanser or mouth-freshener, paan can have a variety of fillings, including slivers of areca nut, cardamom, lime paste, and date. Sometimes tobacco is added, or even tiny fragments of silver and gold. The skilled paan-maker, known as a paanwala is considered an artist.

HUNGARY

DELICIOUS BUDAPEST

After a day’s sightseeing, take it elegantly easy at Gerbeaud’s coffeehouse.

Sit back to enjoy coffee and cakes in the Hungarian capital’s cafés, lavishly restored after years of communist neglect.

Standing on Budapest’s Vörösmarty Square, the 150-year-old Gerbeaud is the stately doyen of the city’s kávéházak (coffeehouses). Here, Hungarian old-timers mingle with tourists to sample cakes and pastries that include Gerbeaud torta (chocolate cake spiked with fruit brandy), chocolate-and-caramel Dobos torta, and Gerbeaud szelet—apricot jam and ground walnuts layered with dough and topped with chocolate. Farther north, the modishly fusty Centrál Kávéház has regained its one-time bohemian atmosphere. Treat yourself to inspired desserts, such as somlói galuska—a sponge cake fusing chocolate, vanilla, walnut biscuits, chocolate sauce, and vanilla cream—and Grand Marnier walnut pie. A 20-minute walk from the Centrál, the arcaded interior of the New York Kávéház drips with chandeliers, gilt, and marble, beneath frescoed ceilings. Anyone who still associates Hungarian food with stodgy, unhealthy fare should head to the elegant Lukács Cukrászda, whose owners source the finest artisan ingredients: Quench your thirst with their lemonade, made with freshly squeezed lemons and organic honey. For some of Budapest’s best views and finest globetrotting cuisine, dine at the Hilton Castle District’s Icon restaurant, overlooking the Danube. Its scrumptious pastries, miniature works of art, valiantly compete for visual attention.

A szelet from Gerbeaud

Budapest’s Restaurants

■ Oozing belle epoque luxury, Gundel restaurant, founded in 1894, remains one of Budapest’s essential eating stops. The best time to sample its desserts is the Sunday buffet brunch. Not to be missed is the Gundel pancake, filled with rum, raisins, walnuts, and lemon rind, and topped with chocolate sauce.

■ The elegant contemporary Onyx restaurant, originally Gerbeaud’s takeout, is a winning place to observe how far Hungarian food and wine have evolved since the 1990s. Try its aptly named Hungarian Evolution five-course meal.

The Ortaköy Mosque stands on the Bosporus’s European shore.

TURKEY

SWEET TREATS IN ISTANBUL

Scooping sweets at Kadiköy’s Haci Bekir

Spoil yourself with mouthwatering confectionery in the sweet shops, teahouses, and cafés of Istanbul’s Kadiköy district.

Situated on Istanbul’s Asian shore, across the Bosporus from such fabled sights as the Topkapı Palace and the Golden Horn, Kadıköy has an almost tangibly different atmosphere from the city’s European neighborhoods. For hundreds of years, the port of Kadıköy has been a gateway to Anatolia for people and goods from west, north, and south, and as your ferry from the European shore glides into Kadıköy İskelesi (quay) you immediately sense the difference. The coastline here is marred by modern development and franchise coffee shops, but just a block beyond this unprepossessing facade you enter a district dominated by a vibrant and colorful bazaar. This is where you will find Kadıköy’s celebrated patisseries and sweet shops, whose dizzying assortment of confections, pastries, and candies mirrors the variety available in the bazaar. Any time between early morning and 8 p.m., fuel yourself, as Kadıköy’s shoppers and vendors do, with coffee, çay (tea), cookies, cakes, and lokum (Turkish delight) from establishments such as Baylan, Beyaz Fırın, Hacı Bekir, and Şekerci Cafer Erol—all of which have been feeding Istanbul’s sweet tooth for generations. Thus fortified, wander around the bazaar, where fishmongers peddle catch so fresh that it still seems to be gasping for breath and stalls brimming with seasonal produce stand intermingled with shops selling irresistible arrays of olives, cheeses, dried fruits, herbs, and nuts.

Kadiköy Highlights

■ Founded in 1934, the Greek-owned Baylan tea and pastry shop was a favorite haunt of Istanbul’s writers, poets, painters, and actors during the 1960s and 1970s. Here, you can join Istanbullus reliving one of the city’s intellectual heydays as they sip their çay and savor sweet delights, including cup griye—ice cream, crème chantilly, caramel sauce, pistachios, and almonds.

■ George Stoyanof, a baker from Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), opened Beyaz Fırın more than 170 years ago, in 1836, and it has been in the same family ever since. Specialties at Beyaz Fırın—literally “White Oven”—include delicious dense breads, marzipan, decadent cakes, and macaroons.

■ Large glass candy jars fill the counter at Şekerci Cafer Erol, crammed with an assortment of sweetmeats, including akide şekeri (hard candies), handmade chocolates, baklava, sesame-seed halva, and syrup-soaked cookies.

DENMARK

DANISH PASTRIES

One of Copenhagen’s best-known bakeries, Reinh van Hauen, has several shops in the city.

An abundance of melt-in-the-mouth pastry treats make the Danish capital an irresistible draw for the sweet-toothed traveler.

Take an early morning stroll through Copenhagen’s narrow, winding streets and your olfactory senses will be rewarded with the delicious aromas of freshly made pastries and breads wafting out of the many street-corner bakeries. Step inside and you will be welcomed with a smile and a dazzling array of baked goods. The origin of the Danish pastry can be traced back to the mid-1800s, when a strike by Danish bakers forced bakery owners to hire workers from Vienna, who used their own light, buttery dough recipes. Eventually, the Danish bakers returned to work, but they continued to use the Viennese recipes and the Danish pastry—called Wienerbrød or Viennese bread—was born. Today, Copenhagen’s bakeries produce a tantalizing array of cream-filled delights, chocolate-glazed buns, tarts, and other luscious desserts. Try a chokoladebolle, a puff pastry with cream filling and chocolate icing, or Cinnamon Snails (kanelsnegle), which entice with their heady scent of cinnamon and vanilla. Napoleon’s Hats (Napoleonshatte) resemble the triangular headgear worn by the eponymous emperor—one bite reveals bursts of flavor from the rich, sweet marzipan filling. A Spandauer is so-named because the filling of jam or custard is “imprisoned” within the pastry.

A traditional kransekage, or ring cake

Celebration Cakes

Shrovetide buns, known as fastelavnsboller, are traditionally served during Fastelavn, Scandinavia’s carnival holiday. The buns can be filled with whipped cream or almond paste and decorated. On the island of Ærø, it is a custom for children to wake up around 5 a.m. to sing about all the fastelavnsboller they will be eating.

Kransekage (ring cake) consists of baked marzipan rings of decreasing size placed on top of each other to form a cone. The cake, which can be decorated with anything from flags to crackers, is served on special occasions, such as Christmas, weddings, and baptisms.

GERMANY

MASTER BAKERS OF BAVARIA

Sit outside Tambosi, at the top of Munich’s premier shopping street and just outside the gates of the English Garden, and watch the world go by.

Join Munich’s fashionably dressed denizens for Kaffee und Kuchen (coffee and cake), but don’t tell your cardiologist.

Rich and delicious cakes and pastries line the windows of bakeries and coffee shops tempting you to grab one to go or to step inside, where you can savor your coffee break in a more leisurely fashion. Sample the Apfelstrudel, thin sheets of flaky butter-brushed pastry wrapped around an apple filling. Don’t like apples? Have plum, poppy seed, or cheese. And to make it extra-unctuous, order it with vanilla sauce: a thin, vanilla-flavored custard. Munich’s sweet treats are not for those with dainty appetites. Try the delicious Dampfnudel, a sweet dumpling in a pool of vanilla sauce; or the incredible Kaiserschmarnn, literally the Emperor’s Omelet, thick yet fluffy pancakes ripped into chunks, fried in butter and caramelized sugar, then served hot topped with apple or plum sauce. If you become exhausted by the calorie-fest, refresh yourself with the view. From a table in Rischart, opposite the town hall, you can sit high above the Marienplatz admiring Munich’s lovely central square; in summer, listen to the chimes from the famous moving clock through the open windows. At Conditorei Münchner Freiheit’s Schwabing branch, snag a table outside on a tree-lined street in this trendy university district. Year-round on sunny days, well-heeled ladies sit outside in cafés throughout the city spooning up the whipped cream smothering their coffees. Blankets are provided to keep off the winter chill.

Beyond Baked Goods

■ The Viktualienmarkt, Munich’s central food market, is a grazer’s paradise. Try a cool, salty, smoked-fish sandwich or a hot Bavarian specialty, such as weisswurst (a white-veal and pork sausage eaten with sweet mustard). Eat at the kiosk or take your snack to the Viktualienmarkt’s beer garden, where you can order a foaming tankard of Bavaria’s best.

■ Famed throughout Germany for its coffee, Dallmayr is an old-world shrine to fine food and drink. There is a department for every foodstuff, including one devoted solely to honey and jam. Enjoy oysters and champagne at the Gourmet Bar, or head upstairs to the restaurant or café. Don’t miss the hand-painted ceramic urns from Nymphemburg in the coffee department: The aroma alone will draw you there.

AUSTRIA

THE CAFÉS OF VIENNA

A large and tempting display of mouthwatering cakes lures customers into Vienna’s Café Demel.

Join the locals and linger over coffee and cake in the world capital of traditional and elegant coffeehouses.

For centuries the Kaffeehaus has been at the hub of Vienna’s culture, a place where people from all walks of life have gathered to chat, to exchange ideas, to play chess, to read the newspaper, and above all to linger over their coffee. Stepping into one of the capital’s many cafés today is like returning to an earlier age, when everything ran at a slower pace. Opulent decor and high-vaulted ceilings distinguish the most venerable establishments, some dating back to the late 19th century. Parquet flooring and bentwood furniture, or velvet-clad banquettes and marble-topped tables, charming (if sometimes grumpy) waiters in tuxedos, and the clickety-clack of spoons hitting metal trays enhance the timeless atmosphere. Age-old traditions are conserved perfectly here: Apfelstrudel (apple strudel) and the famous type of chocolate cake known as sachertorte grace the menu, while Einspänner and Melange are among the coffees of choice. Along with the ubiquitous newspaper, traditional coffeehouse distractions include billiards, musical performances, literary readings, and even political rallies in a back room. The best-known cafés are mostly located in and around the city’s historic center (the 1st district), many along the Ringstrasse. The most famous include Griensteidl, Central, Landtmann, Diglas, Prückel, Sperl, and Imperial. For fine patisserie head to Sacher or Demel, and for quirkiness visit Hawelka. Whichever you choose, savor the experience the Viennese way—slowly.

Coffee Compendium

■ Half coffee, half steamed milk, and sometimes served with whipped cream, Melange is one of the most popular coffees. Einspänne is a long coffee topped with whipped cream.

■ Eiskaffee consists of cold mokka (similar to espresso) served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and whipped cream. Gerührter eiskaffee is vanilla ice cream blended with a cold mokka.

■ For something stronger, ask for an Obermayer, espresso with cream poured onto it over a spoon, or an Überstürzter Neumann, an espresso cup filled with whipped cream with espresso slowly poured over it.

■ For an extra kick, try a Fiaker-a single-shot espresso laced with hot rum- or a Maria Theresia-a double espresso with orange liqueur, generously topped with whipped cream.

ITALY

ICE CREAM IN ROME

The Spanish Steps, dominated by the church of Trinitá dei Monti, buzz with groups of visitors to Rome.

What better way to cool off in the Eternal City than with a smooth, throat-soothing scoop of delicious gelato?

Romans hold their ice cream, known as gelato, in high regard. Besides the quality of the ice cream itself, three factors influence the perfect gelato experience: the waffle cone, which should be crunchy; the whipped cream served on top of the gelato, which should be slightly sweet and firm to the right point; and the skill of the gelataio, who should use a traditional spatula (never a round spoon) to massage and scoop up the gelato before placing a neat, almond-shaped portion on your cone. The capital’s two best gelaterias are in the historic center. At San Crispino, near the Trevi Fountain, the emphasis is on serving gelato in its purest form, so there are no edible cones, only paper cups, and no chocolate sauce or toppings to detract from the flavor. The pistachio ice cream tastes entirely like the nut itself. At the other end of the scale is the sheer exuberance of Gelateria Giolitti, next to the Pantheon, where you can indulge in a mesmerizing selection of flavors—with toppings to your heart’s content. Gelato devotees also head to Lanzallotto in the Parioli neighborhood to sample marron glacé and nocciola (hazelnut) ice creams, and sorbetti made from the freshest fruit. Or you can venture into the elegant Prati neighborhood, near the Vatican, and visit Al Settimo Gelo, which is renowned for adventurous flavors, including hot chili-spiced chocolate, honey, and myrtle.

Granita and Grattachecca

Classical granite—similar to sorbet but crunchier—originated in Sicily during the Middle Ages, when it was made by squeezing lemon juice into snow collected from Mount Etna. Today, it is made from flavored water and sugar, spun and lightly frozen until the mixture reaches a semisolid consistency.

On a scorching afternoon, cool off with scoops of coffee, strawberry, and almond granita topped with whipped cream, or sample more unusual flavors, such as mulberry or peanut. You can get good granita in many of Rome’s more upmarket coffee bars, such as Sant’Eustachio, Sicilian gelaterias, such as Gelarmony, and pastry shops, such as Pasticceria Mizzica.

Rome’s answer to granita is grattachecca. Crunchier than granita, it consists of shavings of pure ice infused with fruit syrup. In summer, grattachecca stands are usually open late into the night and draw large crowds of heat-exhausted Romans. One of the best-loved stands is Sora Maria in the Prati neighborhood. Try the majestic grattachecca mista with cherries and tamarind syrup, topped with chunks of lemon and coconut.

An ornate fountain and colonnaded facade welcome visitors to Kingston’s Devon House, which is famous for its ice cream.

Acicastello’s Norman castle is perched above the sea north of Catania.

ITALY

SICILIAN MARZIPAN

Marzipan fruits on display in Erice

All around the coast and in the rugged hinterland, marzipan sweets take center stage in the island’s pasticcerias.

Pastry-shop windows are filled with piles of figs and prickly pears and baskets of luscious strawberries and peaches. The detail is so perfect that they must surely be the real thing. But no—they are, in fact, crafted from sweetened almond paste, or pasta reale. The almond paste is said to be of Arabic origin and is one of many culinary legacies from two centuries of Arab influence. All the high days and holy days of the Sicilian calendar are celebrated with a marzipan specialty: Marzipan lambs (agnello pasquale) are part of the Easter tradition, while birthdays and other special fêtes are commemorated with frutta martorana (realistic fruits). Confectionery fruits are also left in children’s shoes by—it is said—their ancestors’ ghosts on All Saints’ Day in early November. The famous frutta martorana were first made in Palermo’s Martorana convent. Long ago, the nuns prepared a festive welcome for an archibishop’s visit by crafting marzipan fruits, probably oranges and lemons, which they hung from the branches of trees left bare after the harvest. In Palermo, the Alba and Caflish pastry shops offer finely crafted frutta martorana, and Taormina’s Pasticceria Etna is highly recommended, but aficionados travel all the way to Noto—a honey-toned Baroque city set into a hillside to the south of Syracuse—for marzipan creations by Carlo and Corrado Assenza at Caffé Sicilia.

A Tasting Tour

■ The evening passeggiata, a promenade with friends and family, on Catania’s Via Etna is best enjoyed with a glass of Castelmonte Frizzante and some arancine (fried balls of rice and vegetables) at a sidewalk café.

■ Situated north of Adrano on Mount Etna’s western slopes amid 10,000 terraced acres of pistachio trees, Bronte is known as Città del Pistacchio. The nuts are harvested every two years, an event that is celebrated with a festival in September. For Sicily’s best pistachio gelati, biscotti, and fiori di pistacchi cakes, this is the place to be. Trays groaning with dolci (confectionery), towers of torrone (an Italian nougat), and even pesto made with pistachios await eager tasters.

■ On Sicily’s west coast, a good place for a pastry-shopping stop is Erice, a medieval mountaintop town near Palermo, overlooking the sea. Also tucked into Erice’s labyrinth of lanes is Ristorante Monte San Giuliano, where you can lunch on seafood and aubergine involtini (seafood rolled in slices of eggplant).

■ At Marsala, south of Erice, sample some of the dozens of wines that this coastal city has to offer. Many small firms offer fine sweet as well as dry wines, made from Sicilian Zibibbo grapes (a Q seal on a Marsala label assures quality). Sweet Marsala Vergine, aged for five to seven years, complements rich desserts.

BELGIUM

CHOCOLATE IN BRUSSELS

Many Belgian chocolates contain fresh-cream fillings and have a shelf life of about four weeks if they are kept cool.

There are hundreds of chocolate emporia dotted throughout the city selling the finest, purest chocolate in the world.

The promise of pure, unadulterated pleasure greets the visitor to Pierre Marcolini’s chic boutique on the pretty Place du Grand Sablon. Neatly spaced on trays behind glass cabinets, the jaw-droppingly handsome chocolates are displayed with all the reverence afforded to gems in an expensive jewelry shop. Above all, it is the cool, clean, elegant aroma of the top-notch chocolate that arouses the taste buds. Pierre Marcolini is one of Belgium’s most celebrated chocolatiers, and his shop is a showcase for the luxury brand that is now sold worldwide. But he is not alone. Across the square is Wittamer, one of the city’s most famous establishments, which opened in 1910 and is still run by members of the Wittamer family. Sample a slice of their divinely light chocolate cake with one of the specialty teas or coffees in the elegant tearoom. Along the Rue Royale is the charming little shop of Mary, chocolate supplier to Belgian royalty. Then there are the larger “chains,” selling top-quality chocolates in boutiques dotted around the city and beyond: Leonidas (with 30 boutiques in Brussels alone), Corné Port-Royal, Godiva, and Neuhaus—whose Jean Neuhaus is credited with the invention of the praline in 1912. White-gloved staff fill special boxes known as ballotins with liqueur-filled chocolates, white chocolate with fresh-cream fillings, chocolate truffles, almond marzipan, and strips of crystallized orange peel dunked in dark chocolate, to name but a few.

Pots au chocolat

These puddings can be served in ovenproof pots or ramekins.

Preheat the oven to 275°F/40°C/Gas Mark 2. Place milk and cream in a pan and heat gently until almost boiling. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and stir until it has melted into the mixture.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until pale and frothy. Slowly whisk in the chocolate mixture.

Pour mixture into 6 ovenproof pots. Place them in a roasting pan filled with boiling water to halfway up the sides of the pots. Bake for 30 minutes, until just set. Let the pots cool, then chill until needed.

FRANCE

PARIS PASTRY HUNT

Crowds gather outside the glass pyramid of the Louvre, an ideal place for a patisserie-based picnic.

A patisserie pilgrimage around Paris’s quartiers (neighborhoods) will reward with the most scrumptious pastries on Earth.

For the connoisseur of pastry, the treasures of the City of Light lie not in the Louvre or on the Champs-Élysées, but in the many pâtisseries that are dotted throughout each one of the city’s 20 arrondissements. It is to these shops—many of which have been in the same family for generations—that Parisians return day in and day out to buy cakes and tarts with names that hint at the sweet pleasures to come: tarte tatin, charlotte aux framboises, Richelieu, mille-feuilles, St.-Honoré, and madeleines to name just a few. Charming paintings on glass dating from the 19th century grace the outside of many of the traditional patisseries. And when you step inside, chandeliers, beautiful tiles, and molded ceilings enhance the feeling of timeless elegance. Here you will find delights such as a charlenoit—a hazelnut-almond meringue base spread with a smooth chocolate cream and layered with an inch-thick praline custard cream, decorated on top with a large hazelnut; a tarte princesse aux poires—puff pastry layered with fresh stewed pears, covered with meringue cream, and topped with caramelized rosettes; or an opéra—fine slices of almond-flavored cake with layers of coffee and chocolate-truffle cream.

Coffee etiquette

All coffee in France is espresso coffee. Order a café, café express, or café noir. If you would like it diluted with hot water, order café allongé. If you want coffee with milk, ask for a café crème, petit or grand, which is made with steamed milk, not cream.

The French never drink coffee with food. As you are eating your morning pain aux raisins—a melt-in-the-mouth golden brioche dough slathered with a light custard-cream—savor it! Never wash it down with coffee, but wait until the pastry is safely in your stomach before having the first hit of strong, black coffee.

In a café, if you stand at the bar to drink your coffee it will cost half as much as it will if you sit at a table, and only a third as much as it would if you sit outside on the terrasse.

Chocolate, here in a suitably macabre shape, retains an important role in Mexico’s religious rituals, such as Oaxaca’s Day of the Dead.

FRANCE

EASTER EGGS IN PARIS

Come Easter, the windows of Paris’s chocolatiers and patisseries are decked with oeufs de Pâques of every conceivable kind.

Artistic displays of eggs and other chocolate sculptures herald the arrival of Easter in the French capital.

The shop assistant greets you with “Joyeux Pâques!” (Happy Easter) as you walk into the chic little boutique, ducking to avoid the exquisite hand-painted eggshells that are suspended from the rafters like fragile Fabergé creations. Each oeuf de Pâques (Easter egg) is a modern-day homage to a French Easter tradition stretching back centuries, when the aristocracy used to spend the last days of winter painstakingly decorating the eggs that were forbidden during Lent in order to present them to each other as Easter gifts. Since the 18th century, when empty eggshells were filled with molten chocolate for Easter, Parisian chocolatiers have been perfecting the art of Easter candy. Stroll down the boulevards and stop to admire the sugary Eastertide delights in the shop windows: a giant Easter egg made of macaroons at Gérard Mulot; pastel-colored eggs and Easter bells (cloches de Paques) filled with ganache at Ladurée; a huge egg covered in gold leaf at Pierre Marcolini; or chocolate hens filled with tiny traditional chocolate fish at Jean-Paul Hévin. The ultimate Parisian Easter treat for children is to be let loose in the art deco splendor of Galeries Lafayette on Boulevard Haussmann in search of chocolate eggs in the store’s annual Easter-egg hunt. Grown-ups can enjoy a coffee and a slice of gâteau de Pâques (a rich chocolate cake often topped with miniature sugar eggs or cherries) under the magnificent glass dome.

Crêpes and Galettes

Pancakes, or crepes, have long been associated with Mardi Gras, when perishable goods were traditionally used up before the 40-day-long fast of Lent. For the best examples, try the salted butter caramel crepes at Breizh Café and the savory buckwheat galettes at Crêperie Bretonne.

A galette is also the name of a large, flat cake or tart. Since the Middle Ages, the festival of the Epiphany in January has been celebrated with a Twelfth Night cake known as a galette des rois, “kings’ cake.” The modern cake, a delicious puff-pastry pie filled with frangipane, comes with a paper crown and a special charm or trinket baked into it. The person who gets the slice with the charm is crowned king or queen for the day.

FRANCE

MONTÉLIMAR NOUGAT

The taste of artisanal nougat is a world away from the synthetic nougat fillings in mass-produced candy bars.

Eating a slice of freshly made nougat, once a food of the gods, is still a divine experience.

The sound of cicadas and the heady scent of lavender, growing in natural profusion in this corner of Provence, signal your approach to Montélimar, south of Valence, known as the nougat capital of the world. Nougat shops and ateliers line Montélimar’s main street, where nougatiers like Pierre Bonnieu continue a tradition upheld for centuries. Nougat is an ancient confection based on a whisked mix of egg whites, sugar, and warmed honey enveloping chunks of almonds and pistachios. To be labelled Nougat de Montélimar, it must contain 28 percent local aromatic lavender honey, 30 percent almonds, and 2 percent Sicilian pistachios. The ancient Romans offered an early form of nut cake, known as nux gatum, to their gods, and the tradition of presenting nougat on special occasions continues to this day. In southern France, the traditional treize desserts (the number 13 signifying Jesus and his 12 apostles) eaten on Christmas Eve always include two nougats, one white, the other dark (made of caramelized sugar). On a hot summer’s afternoon, opt for a cooling, creamy glace au nougat with hints of honey and nuts—a sublime taste of Provence.

Sweet Provence

■ Created in 1454 for a royal wedding, calissons are a specialty of Aix-en-Provence. Each calissonier has his own secrets for making the lozenge-shaped sweet of almond paste and glazed fruit (most often Cavaillon melon from the town of Cavaillon in Provence) held intact with a sliver of host-wafer paper. On September 1 each year, a special Mass is held in Aix-en-Provence to celebrate the end of a plague in 1630, with calissons replacing host wafers in the Holy Communion. Shop for fine calissons at the Parli boutique in Aix.

■ In March, the hillsides surrounding Apt are covered with a profusion of cherry blossom, making this an ideal time to visit this center of crystallized fruit. Boutiques and pastry shops sell the finest glazed cherries, pears, melons, and citrus peel. For fresh fruit and divine homemade jams, visit Apt’s famous market, which has been held on Saturdays since the 12th century.

■ Made in the shape of a small boat, navettes are traditional little pastries, sometimes brushed with orange-flower water, which can be sampled in markets across Provence. In Marseilles, where they have been baked since 1781, they are a part of the Candlemas celebrations on February 2. Traditionally, navettes were bought by the dozen, one for each month of the year.

ENGLAND

TEA AT BETTYS

At Bettys, specialty teas and coffees and delicious cakes and breads are served with traditional Yorkshire hospitality.

One of the jewels in Yorkshire’s crown, this family-run business has perfected the tradition of afternoon tea.

The discovery of pungent sulfur-rich springs put Harrogate on the map, but today visitors flock to the genteel spa town in North Yorkshire for a much more palatable kind of refreshment. An ornate wrought-iron canopy bedecked with hanging baskets ushers you into a world that seems hardly to have moved on since the tearoom opened in 1919, the first of a handful of Bettys, all in Yorkshire. Its founder was Frederick Belmont, a Swiss confectioner, which explains why there is Swiss raclette and rösti on the menu, alongside the more traditional tarts and tea loaves. When a waitress in a pristine white apron comes to take your order, ask for the afternoon tea with a half-bottle of champagne. Then drift in nostalgic reverie as you nibble your finger sandwiches (fillings like smoked salmon and the local Yorkshire ham are typical) and drool at the exquisite patisseries piled on the cake stand. Other treats include fat rascals, a dense, plump, fruited scone with almonds, citrus peel, and cherries; hot buttered pikelets (small pancakes); sumptuously moist stem-ginger cake; and Bettys fruit cake served with Yorkshire’s signature cheese, Wensleydale. And who was Betty? Frederick Belmont never let anybody outside the family know, and nearly a hundred years later, her identity remains a secret.

Scones

Every Yorkshire housewife has a recipe for scones, often passed down from her mother. For fruit scones add ⅓ cup/2 oz/50 g golden raisins with the sugar.

Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C/Gas Mark 7.

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and gently rub in the butter. Stir in the sugar, then mix in enough milk to form a soft dough.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough to ¾ in (2 cm) thick and cut out 2 in (5 cm) rounds. Transfer these to a lightly greased baking sheet, and brush the tops with a little extra milk. Bake in the center of the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.

Serve warm with plenty of butter and jam.

ENGLAND

DEVONSHIRE CREAM TEA

Cows grazing on Devon’s lush pasture yield milk with a high enough fat content to produce clotted cream.

The West Country is the home of one of England’s best-loved afternoon indulgences.

In farms all over the counties of Devon and Cornwall, shallow pans of the finest, freshest unpasteurized milk are heated and carefully watched until a thick, rich cream floats to the top. It is a method that goes back centuries: In the 10th century, Benedictine monks in Tavistock, Devon, handed out the cream to pilgrims helping them to rebuild their abbey. Called clotted cream, this unctuous cream with the consistency of butter is the centerpiece of a Devon cream tea. The other key ingredients are freshly baked scones (two per person) made with butter and either fruited or plain according to your preference, and good homemade strawberry jam—both staples of the traditional farmhouse kitchen. The split scones are generously topped with the clotted cream and jam and the afternoon treat is served with a cup of good strong tea, taken either black or “white” (with milk), but ideally without sugar. These flavors and textures make an irresistible combination. The smooth cream takes the edge off the jam’s sweetness, while the scone—halfway between a cookie and a cake—makes a toothsome, crumbly contrast. Traditionally, the hearty scones would have been prepared by the farmer’s wife to sustain hungry workers throughout the afternoon, but today a cream tea—served in a farmhouse, tearoom, or pub—is the perfect accompaniment to a relaxing day out in the country.

Clotted Cream

If you are unable to get to Devon to sample a genuine cream tea, you can try making your own clotted cream at home. You will need access to very fresh, creamy milk. Pour 2 gallons (7.6 liters) of milk straight from the cow into a large, shallow pan and allow it to stand overnight in a cool place, so that the cream rises to the top.

The next day, heat the pan very, very slowly for an hour (the milk should not boil-just shudder very slightly). A thick, wavy layer of yellow cream will gradually appear on the surface. Carefully remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely before scooping the clotted cream from the top of the milk. If you don’t have any scones, smear the clotted cream over freshly baked bread.