1012 Corridor

Who needs a meal when you can have dessert? Here are a few executive favorites along the corridor that are worth savoring as a main course:

Creole Turtle Cheesecake

Palace Café, New Orleans

The Brennan dynasty serves up this creamy cheesecake made with old-fashioned Creole cream cheese, then topped with caramel, chocolate and pecans.

Low-Fat Fudge Brownies

Coffee Rani, Covington & New Orleans

Yes, they really are low fat.

Pecan Pralines

Emma Famous Pralines, Slidell

Ms. Emma Giron is known throughout the South for her Creole treats whipped up in large copper pots from an old family recipe. Pecan is the favorite, but the truly adventurous sweet tooth can also try coconut, rum pecan, chocolate or raisin.

Crème Brûlée

Annadele’s Plantation, Covington

This fairly classic crème brûlée is made with cream, sugar, egg yolks and true vanilla beans. Executive Chef Ronald Bonnette tops it with carmelized turbinado sugar, and usually garnishes it with whipped cream and a strawberry. Like all of Annadele’s desserts, this one is created in house.

White Chocolate French Bread Pudding

Tope’La, Hammond

Owner Tommy Masaracchia and Chef Matt Hauck wanted a little something different in a bread pudding the last time they changed their menu. So they mixed their love of white chocolate and a previously popular mousse, and topped it with a Banana’s Foster sauce to come up with this creation. Says Hauck: “It was so good, we got sick from eating it all the time.” The secret: Spices that shall remain nameless, rum found only in the kitchen and bananas that never feel the heat of a skillet.

Chocolate Tiramisu

Pinetta’s European Restaurant, Baton Rouge

Owner Diane Baringer dubbed this dessert the “Mousseamisu” when former Chef Dustin Wells [now at the Palace Café in New Orleans] created it just for her. It’s a chocolate mousse done tiramisu style, with ladyfingers dipped in espresso and liqueur. Says Baringer: “It’s a chocoholic’s delight.” Don’t look for it on the menu, though. Chef John Badie whips it up only upon request.

Tsinful Tsunami

Tsunami, Baton Rouge & Lafayette

What’s in that wooden box? Only the tastiest flourless chocolate cake served with blackberries, blueberries, strawberries and a scoop of vanilla ice cream you’ll ever put in your mouth.

Banana’s Foster Bread Pudding

Bonnie Bell’s Bistro, Lafayette

It’s made from scratch in house and served piping hot on top of a light rum sauce accented with powdered sugar. One reviewer calls this “the single best dessert item I’ve eaten anywhere. Worth the trip alone and a meal by itself.”

Chocolate Dobash

Poupart’s Bakery, Lafayette

A Swiss cake whose thin layers are separated by pudding and covered with fudge? Just try prying the fork from our fingers.

Cannoli

Nash’s Restaurant, Broussard

What makes these Sicilian pastries made in the heart of Cajun country taste so good? Within those little tubes of fried dough lies rich cream doused in chocolate chip shavings, with a pistachio on the end. Executive Chef Nash Barreca just started making them two months ago, and it’s the only kind he serves.

Old-Fashioned Root Beer Float

People’s Ice Cream Parlor, Amite

David and Allison Schilling bought the old Rexall Pharmacy building, which dates back to the 1930s, nearly two years ago. They restored the original soda fountain that’s been there since just after World War II, and opened it last June. They still do everything the old-fashioned way, mixing the soda by hand and topping it off with Borden’s ice cream, which has been scooped there since 1937.

Chocolate Soufflé with Cream

Mazen’s, Lake Charles & Lafayette

Mazen Hijazi wanted a soufflé recipe that would make 50 servings at a time but still emerge from the 425-degree oven perfect every time. This is it. Made with Ghirardelli chocolate and topped with homemade whipped cream, Mazen sometimes adds a bit of liqueur or Kahlúa to give it that little something extra.