Know Your Latin American Desserts

While everyone is serving pumpkin and apple pies, consider giving your Thanksgiving dessert an ethnic twist with some of these Latin American dessert classics. (Several can be ordered online. See below.)

In Latin America, sweets are a scared and necessary part of the meal. As Hispanic immigrants continue to populate not only large cities, but more suburban and rural areas, and Nuevo Latino cuisine (which mixes Latin ingredients with European cooking techniques) conquers the culinary world, diners have begun to embrace the rich custards, sweet cakes and fried breads from Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

There are many different types of Latin American desserts—breads, milk- and egg-based sweets, and fruit-filled pastries to name a few. Latin American desserts have great flavors and can be incredibly delicious, but at their core, they are pretty basic. Milk is an essential ingredient in the region’s best-known and most-beloved sweets—flan, dulce de leche, pastel de tres leches and arroz con leche.

Flan is the Latin America version of crème brûlée and panna cotta. Almost all Latin American countries now have a version of the dessert. Varieties available in U.S. retail outlets and online include coconut and cheese, cappuccino, cornbread, coconut lime and pomegranate. Dulce de leche is produced throughout Latin America under a variety of names. About ten years ago, Häagen Dazs introduced a dulce de leche ice cream, and now the caramel spread is one of the hottest flavors in the U.S. as well as throughout Latin America. This year the Girl Scouts incorporated a Dulce de Leche cookie into the mix of its annual sale.

Pastel de tres leches has become a staple of dessert menus at Latino and non-Latino restaurants. It is a simple but extremely rich dessert made by pouring a mixture of three milks—evaporated, condensed and cream, over a vanilla sponge cake. Many Latin American countries also create their own version of arroz con leche, or rice pudding. Versions vary between condensed milk and cinnamon, milk and sugar, as well as coconut milk. Often called a Spanish doughnut, churros (fired dough that’s been dipped in sugar) can be found throughout Latin America.

Guava and quince are two of the most popular fruits to turn into pastes and eat on their own with cheese, or stuffed into empanada-style pastries. Ice cream, or helado, is popular throughout Latin America and a favorite base for unusual flavors. Avocado, pineapple, mango and coconut are also flavors found in heladerias, or ice cream shops. Some Latin American desserts like sapotes dulces are drinkable. Sapotes are a type of fruit that are orange and taste like a mix of coconut and vanilla.

Popular Latin American Desserts and Ingredients

ALFAJOR: Cookie sandwich from Argentina made of crispy wafers and dulce de leche. Often dipped in coconut or chocolate.

AREQUIPE: The Columbian version of dulce de leche. A caramel spread made with milk and sugar.

ARROZ CON LECHE: Latin American version of rice pudding. Also known as arroz con dulce in Puerto Rico and arroz doce in Brazil.

BATIDOS: Panama’s tropical fruit smoothie-type shakes made with papaya, strawberry, pineapple and milk.

BIMBUNUELOS: Mexican fried wheel-shaped pastry, dipped in sugar.

CAJETA: Mexican caramel spread made with goat’s milk and sugar. Similar to dulce de leche.

CHURROS: Often called a Spanish doughnut. Dough that’s been fried and dipped in sugar. Long and thin with ridges like a star. Can be filled with fruit, caramel or chocolate.

DULCE DE LECHE: A popular caramel spread from Argentina, made by boiling milk and sugar.

DULCES: Sweets or candies.

ENVUELTOS: Colombian sweet tamales cooked with milk, raisins and cinnamon.

FLAN: Latin American custard made of milk, eggs and sugar. It is baked and covered with a caramel sauce. Available in many different flavors.

GUAVA: Tropical fruit. The pink flesh is used to make a paste that fills empanada-type pastries.

MANJAR BLANCO: The Peruvian and Ecuadorian name for dulce de leche.

PAN DE BATATA: A Dominican sweet potato pudding.

PAN DULCE: Sweet breads that are commonly eaten in Mexico for breakfast.

PASTEL DE GLORIA: Central-American pastry made with guava paste.

PASTEL DE TRES LECHES: Sponge cake soaked in three types of milk (condensed, evaporated and cream) frosted with whipped cream or meringue and then topped with fruits, chocolate or nuts.

PASTILLES: A Cuban dessert of different shaped puffed pastries filled with guava, cream cheese or coconut.

RASPADOS: Panamanian snow cones.

SAPOTES DULCES: Mexican dessert, popular in the Yucatan. Sapotes, a type of fruit that is orange and has a coconut/vanilla taste, is mixed with rum, sugar and orange juice and served chilled.

Online Sources

• Juanita’s Homemade Flan, more than 30 flavors of flan including Cappuccino, Cornbread and Pomegranate; juanitashomemadeflan.com

• Lourdes Gourmet, dulce de leche and Ecuadorian coconut spread; lourdesgorumet.com

• Palapa Azul, ice creams, sorbets and frozen fruit bars in traditional Mexican flavors such as flan, sweet corn and cajeta; palapaazul.com

—Leslie Koren and Vanessa Facenda

1 comment

JR Dulce de Leche is the best! Alfajores are a close second. I buy them online at amigofoods.com and have it delivered to my home. http://www.amigofoods.com/dulce-de-leche.html