Let them eat local

McDonald’s knows marketing. The empire of mass-market burgers has returned its fried apple pie to the menu for a limited summer run, the first time the dessert has been available in 34 years. By all means, eat one. You may be too old, too sensible or too diabetic the next time the chain needs a flashy idea to overcome the summer revenue doldrums.

But Baton Rouge has more delicious and interesting desserts. Here are four worth considering. We want to make it five. If you have an unusual local dessert you love, share it with us through this form.

Modesto churros: If McDonald’s wishes to discuss fried desserts, Modesto has entered a contest it would win. Its churros are the finest fried sweets we have eaten in Baton Rouge: warm, soft and dusted with cinnamon and sugar, a combination that becomes mildly dangerous when dragged through dark-chocolate sauce. Ozzie Fernandez, the restaurateur behind Modesto, should consider building a churro empire.

Sweet Society’s Bingsu: Baton Rouge knows the summer snowball well. People have their loyalties to a type and a stand. But we have heard something closer to consensus on one frozen dessert: the bingsu at Sweet Society. It starts by shaving milk as delicate as new snow, adds rich condensed milk and tops it with fresh fruit. Order the watermelon bingsu if it's available. 

Em’s Japanese cheesecake: Michelle Huynh describes her Japanese cheesecakes as a cross between New York cheesecake and angel food cake. They are light, not too sweet and, Huynh says, sometimes eaten for breakfast. The pandan version available now has a bit of coconut. You can find them at local restaurants, including Teatery on Jefferson Highway.

Cheesecake Lab: Cheesecake is easy to love and hard to make memorable. At Cheesecake Lab, on Jefferson Highway near Bocage, Mitchell Moore has been proving the point for eight months, though his apprenticeship began much earlier. He has spent more than two decades baking cheesecakes, including time as a pastry chef and as the owner of cheesecake shops and a restaurant in Jackson, Mississippi.

“Everyone loves cheesecake,” he says. Mostly true. But cheesecake can be heavy, watery or merely sweet. Mr Moore’s are none of those things. The Lab turns out seasonal cakes with the confidence of someone who has spent years studying the difference between indulgence and excess. The mango tres leches was so good that restraint became our strategy: leave enough behind to enjoy it twice.