Top  DESSERT  Trend

Cupcakes, chocolate pudding, cookies and milk, whoopie pies, Hostess-like confections — some of today’s most-popular desserts sound more like a play date on the plate than the edgy molecular creations of the recent past.

No surprise, really. Today, operators and customers alike hark back to the time of our lives when the next sweet, gooey treat was our biggest worry. Then, too, many of these popular and appealing desserts are often simple enough to make in-house without a pastry chef and use straightforward ingredients that are already part of the inventory. What’s not to love?

“We always find ourselves using dessert ideas that remind people of their childhoods,” says Corey Comeau, executive chef of Stephi’s on Tremont in Boston. Stephi’s specializes in comfort-food classics like meatloaf, braised short ribs and slow-roasted chicken, so it stands to reason that Comeau would also feature comforting desserts that evoke home while showcasing extra touches most people wouldn’t attempt at home.

His hit list: “Things that are sticky, gooey, irresistible and easy to share. And anything hot that you can stick ice cream on top of.”

Desserts take inspiration from British kid favorites like Sticky Toffee Pudding with toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream, and all-American treats like Fudgy Brownie Bread Pudding with hot fudge, crème anglaise and ice cream. Priced at $10 each, Stephi’s desserts are oversized for sharing, part of a successful strategy that has boosted dessert sales even at a time when customers are cutting back.

“People may think they’re too full for dessert, but if you can offer something delicious that they can split among two or even four people, they’ll order dessert,” says the chef. “And part of our homestyle appeal is desserts that invite everyone to grab a fork and dig in.”

The popular sticky-toffee pudding is “right where we need to be with our concept,” notes Comeau. Based on a homemade date cake with a 50-50 ratio of Medjool dates and a ginger-and-butter-lashed batter, the “puddings” are baked in individual molds, then heated and unmolded to order, served on a pool of classic toffee sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar so they look like the sturdy soufflés they are. The coup de grace, naturally, is a scoop of ice cream that melts all over the dessert. Small wonder it’s second only in popularity to the brownie pudding, the de rigueur chocolate offering interpreted as a mix of crumbled house-made brownies and brioche for structure, served warm with two different sauces and ice cream.

Klime Kovaceski, executive chef of Mez in Charlotte, N.C., may be from the former Yugoslavia, but he’s all over classic-American-kid desserts. Take the Old-Fashioned Homemade Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Sandwich — many people certainly do.

“People respond to desserts in an emotional way,” he says. “We wanted something that every American kid had growing up, familiar and easy to relate to, but from scratch and done right.”

Pastry chef Mary Jayne Burris starts with an oversized cookie that balances crunchy and chewy in just the right ratio. Baked fresh daily, the cookies are layered with high-quality chocolate sandwiched with house-made vanilla ice cream into an eye-popping, shareable dessert that’s garnished with berries and a trio of sauces.