Resolutioners, I hope our list of the best salad shops in Dallas-Fort Worth gave you some clean-eating ideas for 2016. Everyone else, it's time we talk about dessert. Here is a list of five interesting desserts you might want to try in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Chocolate kettlebell at HG Sply Co.
in Dallas
The guys behind HG Sply Co. are serious about health. They own a gym next-door to HG on Greenville Avenue, and they've committed most of HG's menu to be good-for-you Paleo food. But everybody could use a treat now and then, right? The $25 chocolate-encased kettlebell feels like just the right way to tell the gym to shove it, if only for a day. Each kettlebell, made off-site by Haute Sweets Patisserie, is filled with cheesecake that changes three or four times a year. (In early January, it was pumpkin cheesecake in there, with almond milk ice cream on the side.) To crack open this majorly shareable dessert, the server pours house-made coconut milk caramel overtop. The result is an ooey, gooey mess your trainer surely won't approve of.
- $25, feeds many. 2008 Greenville Ave., Dallas. hgsplyco.com.
LadyBird dessert pizza at Cane Rosso
in Dallas, Fort Worth, Fairview and Carrollton
Shh: This one's a secret. You won't find the LadyBird on Cane Rosso's menu, but you can order it at any of the Dallas-Fort Worth locations as long you know what you're asking for, which is: a 14-inch pizza baked with vanilla bean mascarpone, then topped with drizzles of warm Nutella and Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. After that comes powdered sugar and crumbled Speculoos cookies (the kind of cookies that are smashed up to make that incredible TJ's Cookie Butter).
Want to get really crazy? Order the Dirty Bird. It's all the makings of a LadyBird but it also has toasted mini marshmallows on top. Both pizzas are available anytime.
- $13. Available at all Cane Rosso pizza joints in Dallas-Fort Worth: Deep Ellum, Lakewood, Fort Worth, Fairview and Carrollton. Addresses here. canerosso.com.
Cotton candy at Nick & Sam's Steakhouse
in Dallas
Whoever said cotton candy is for kids probably hasn't been to Nick & Sam's steakhouse. At the glitzy Uptown restaurant, chefs serve it bursting out of a wine bottle, aglow from a light stick inside. Nick & Sam's tends to be a low-lit place, so the spectacle of a dessert fit for a nightclub will have your neighbors silently jealous they didn't get it first. The flavor changes weekly; recently, it was apple flavored and served with macarons, chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon marshmallows.
- $14. 3008 Maple Ave., Dallas. nick-sams.com.
Cheesecake at the Mansion Restaurant
in Dallas
Dallas Morning News Editor Mike Wilson wondered as he dove into this beautiful cheesecake at the Mansion Restaurant: "Should I eat this or have my dog chase it and bring it back to me?" It doesn't look like the cheesecake most of us know and love. No, this is pastry chef Nicolas Blouin's creative take on cheesecake, each of which are encased in colorful dulcey chocolate. In January, Blouin debuted a new flavor, coffee cheesecake with chocolate brownie and pearl chocolate sorbet. In the past, he's served lemon cheesecake with blueberry sorbet, cinnamon cheesecake with apple sorbet and strawberry cheesecake with basil sorbet. You've likely never seen anything like it.
- $14. 2821 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas. rosewoodhotels.com/en/mansion-on-turtle-creek-dallas/dining/mansion-restaurant.
Chocolate piñata at Uncle Julio's
in Dallas, Fort Worth, Grapevine and Allen
It is not OK to hit your brother, but it's totally cool to take a whack at your dessert while you're dining at Uncle Julio's. Their new chocolate piñata comes dangling from a metal contraption, like some chocolate form of hangman, and you crack it open with a small wooden hammer. Inside, the piñata is stuffed with churros and fruit -- way better than the odd assortment of Smarties and jelly beans you find in a regular piñata. Uncle Julio's serves theirs with chocolate and caramel sauces for dipping.
- $20, feeds four to eight people. Restaurants in Dallas, Fort Worth, Grapevine and Allen. Addresses here. unclejulios.com.
