6 Great Cheese Desserts that Aren’t Cheesecake

When it comes to cheese desserts, cheesecake comes to mind first. With its smooth and creamy texture and crunchy graham cracker crust, cheesecake never disappoints. Cannoli filled with sweetened ricotta or tiramisu with layers of mascarpone are also popular. However, they are not the only cheese desserts out there.

Chefs have been using cheese in many other creative and sometimes surprising ways to provide sweet offerings to guests beyond the traditional cheese-based desserts we’re used to. Here are some the most exciting and enticing desserts using cheese.

Cinnamon Buns with Buttery Cream Cheese Frosting

If you thought cinnamon buns couldn’t be more delicious, you haven’t had them with cream cheese frosting. A classic frosting for carrot cakes, it also enhances cinnamon buns. Susan Palmer, Founder & Head Baker at Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop in Brooklyn, NYC, tops their best-selling cinnamon buns with a buttery cream cheese frosting to elevate the flavor and texture. “The tangy, silky cream cheese glaze is subtle and soaks into each layer, balancing out the sweetness and softness of the cinnamon bun.”

The bakeshop uses equal parts cream cheese and butter and multiplies by 1.5 for the powdered sugar to make its sought-after cream cheese frosting. “The tanginess of the cream cheese helps tone down the sweetness from the sugar,” says Palmer. “The added butter gives your frosting the stability it needs to hold up as you pipe cupcakes or frost a cake."

Looking for even more richness? Palmer says try adding unsweetened peanut butter or a combination of melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder “for some of the best peanut butter or chocolate buttercream you have ever tasted.”

Sweet Pecorino Romano Dumplings

Pecorino Romano PDO may seem like a unique ingredient to add to a dessert, but Italians have been using it for many years, and New York City-based Chef Owen L’Aquila is following their lead.

Chef L’Aquila (Morimoto, Daniel, Marea, and Carbone) is a devotee of Pecorino Romano PDO and uses it to create his Sweet Pecorino Romano Dumplings, inspired by Seadas, a traditional dessert from Sardinia. The dumplings are made of deep-fried pastry dough filled with melted Pecorino Romano, tossed with crumbled pine nuts, and served with honey.

“I intended to showcase a premier ingredient such as Pecorino Romano that everyone is familiar with and introduce people to the old world snacks we all tell stories about when we return from vacation,” says L’Aquila. Rather than the traditional semolina-based dough, his version uses premade Chinese dumpling wraps to make this recipe come together even quicker without sacrificing flavor or appearance. “It’s an easy conversation starter and easy crowd pleaser for savory cheese lovers and sweet cheese lovers.”

Pistachio Bougatsa

If you want to use Philadelphia cream cheese for more than your bagel or cheesecake, Corporate Executive Chef Juah Oh at Mykonos in Fort Lauderdale has you covered. She uses Philadelphia cream cheese to create the made-to-order Pistachio Bougatsa assembled with sheets of baked filo dough layered with house-made pistachio cream, and finished with powdered sugar and chopped pistachios. Chef Oh says the result is a “smooth, rich consistency and a subtle tang that works beautifully with sweet elements like pistachio.”

While the bougatsa is a Greek breakfast pastry, often filled with a custard, Chef Oh shares that the nostalgia of the classic flavor of cream cheese lures guests. “Then the dish surprises them with its unique form and texture."

Ricotta Bomboloni

When making desserts, Carelys Vazquez, Executive Pastry Chef at FORTH says it's fun to incorporate cheese in various ways. “During my career, I have been able to work with different kinds of cheese to challenge my skills to not only see cheese as a savory ingredient but work with its components to be a great accompaniment to any properly balanced, created dessert.

One dessert is the Ricotta Bomboloni for FORTH Atlanta’s modern steakhouse, Il Premio. Made of vanilla bean chantilly, seasonal preserves, salted caramel, and ricotta, this tasty treat is popular with guests for good reason.

“I wanted to use ingredients that were traditional for both savory and dessert applications,” says Vazquez. “The bomboloni is a play on Italian donuts with dipping sides and is always a comfort dessert after a great meal.”

S’mores Milkshake

Jennifer L. Luttrell, Culinary Director and Executive Chef at Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company, takes everything we thought we knew about milkshakes and s’mores and tosses it out the window with this unique indulgence that uses gouda cheese.

"With its natural butterscotch notes, our gouda brings an unexpected and delightful twist to dessert,” says Luttrell. “It pairs beautifully with milk chocolate and shines when shaved or microplaned over apple crisp or vanilla bean ice cream.”

The chef’s team also found this cheese complements graham crackers, which led them to play around with s'mores. A simple vanilla milkshake gets a serious upgrade with roasted marshmallow, graham cracker crumble, a chocolate-dipped rim, and generous shaving of gouda. Chef Luttrell calls it "salty, sweet, and utterly addictive.”

Chocolate KYU

Farshid Arshid, Co-Owner of the Japanese restaurant Umi in Atlanta, worked with his pastry team to create this decadent, one-of-a-kind dessert inspired by a treat he had in Paris years ago.

“My hotel's welcome gift was this chocolate sphere that you broke open to reveal more chocolate bits inside,” says Arshid. “I thought it was fun and super brilliant, so upon return, I worked with our pastry team to make a version with a Japanese twist.” The result is Chocolate KYU (pronounced “cue"), a Valrhona chocolate sphere filled with fresh berries, red bean pastry cream, and mascarpone cream infused with Yamazaki 18-year whiskey sauce. Guests use a mallet to shatter the sphere to get to all the deliciousness hidden inside.

“We love how it is interactive and exciting, not to mention delicious,” says Arshid. “We make 12 a night, and almost every night for over 10 years, they've all been pre-sold."