Hold the pumpkin pie. With the holidays coming up, it’s time to get creative with your dessert options, and Jan Rose, co-owner of Four Roses Café in Plainwell, offered to share with Encore readers the restaurant’s most popular desserts. That’s a big order when you consider that each day, the restaurant has nearly 30 options to choose from, whipped up by pastry chef Kris Newland. Here, Rose describes the restaurant’s five most popular desserts:
Chocolate Lovers’ Cake with Dulce de Leche
This is the one that everyone comes in and asks for. It’s our six-layer Chocolate Lovers’ Cake with a caramel filling in it. You can’t go wrong with it, and because it’s so big, it’s great for sharing. Kris created this one to help satisfy people’s caramel cravings, and it does this in a big way. Literally.
Blacktop Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
This is probably my favorite dessert, because I love cheesecake and I love chocolate, and it’s just the perfect combination. It’s a New York-style cheesecake with chocolate chips on an Oreo cookie crust and with a hard chocolate topping. It’s rich but not too chocolaty.
Black Bottom Pie
This one starts with a graham cracker crust topped with a thin layer of semi-sweet chocolate. There’s a chocolate Kahlua mousse on top that Kris makes with a little bit of rum. People like the chocolate easiness of it and its subtle coffee flavor. It’s also light and fluffy, so they don’t feel like they’re being as “bad” as if they get the Blacktop Chocolate Chip Cheesecake.
Peanut Butter Pie
What’s not to love? It starts with a fluffy peanut butter mousse that Kris whips real whipped cream into and then puts on a graham cracker crust. A little bit of chocolate is drizzled over the top. Every bite is rich and fluffy, and you always want another one — at least I do.
Amaretto Coconut Cream Pie
This is our best seller. It’s made with amaretto liqueur and toasted coconut, with a creme patissiere (pastry cream) and a whipped topping. People really like the coconut and amaretto together, and it has a really fresh flavor.
