Italian desserts can be a mind-boggling adventure of unusual ingredients and hard-to-say words. But at their best, they’re simple sweets with just a few fresh ingredients.

 

Italian Wafers are a sweet snack that consists of two or more piled sheets, held together by a layer of cream (vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut, others). The wafers are cooked in molds that give them the characteristic criss-cross pattern. The famous and delicious cube-shaped pleasures from Loacker combine crispiness and creaminess, making any situation a pleasure. Four layers of the delicate cream filling are held by five crispy wafers.

 

Italians are responsible for the invention of many chocolate dishes, among them chocolate dessert soup, chocolate custard, and even chocolate sorbet. Most of us think of chocolate as something only for dessert, but Italians have been adding it to pasta, risotto, polenta, and meat dishes for centuries.

 

Another famous Italian sweet is delicious crispy cookies. An Italian biscuit or cookie is said to have been invented in the mid-1850s in Prato, just north of Florence. The cookies were instant hits at international fairs in Florence, Paris, and London.