Best-of-the-Burg: Harrisburg's High Calorie Desserts

Harrisburg’s Highest Calorie Desserts
A Truly Decadent Adventure

By Sue Barry, Dining Reviewer

Publisher’s Note: Before you read this feature, please understand that we never expected the level of sheer ecstasy attained by these desserts. To illustrate the richness of these delights (at the expense of a few friends), one of our taste testers broke out in total-body hives from all the chocolate, while another stood quietly in a corner shaking from the immense sugar rush. Our deepest thanks to all the participants.

Who really lives by those words, “everything in moderation?” Certainly not a group of MODE writers, staffers, and associates when faced with a search for Harrisburg’s Highest Calorie Desserts.

A multitude of scrumptious, dazzling, and opulent desserts shared one large table recently, as a number of passionate, perilous, and enthusiastic allies sampled those desserts over the course of several hours — attacking, disecting, and sensuously discerning each treat meticulously until the apparent top few reigned in supremacy — although beaten to a pulp! Our secret ballots and well-designed rating categories encouraged objectivity in the judging poll. Not unlike all aspects of life, subjectivity was only in our discriminating tastes.

The Ten-Thousand-Calorie Club
Pennsylvania Bakery's Chocolate Peanut Butter Diamond Market Street in Camp Hill appears to be enveloped in this cloak of chocolate and peanut butter mousse fever. The Pennsylvania Bakery on Market Street offered a real show stopper with their Chocolate Peanut Butter Diamond which featured a huge, chocolate-shelled dome filled with velvety chocolate and peanut butter mousse on a brownie base. Cafe on Market Peanut Butter Mousse Pie The luxurious mousse coated the palate with intense flavor. Garnished along the base with chopped nuts, this masterpiece was accented with icing-swirled, diamond-shaped cookies and hardened chocolate drizzles. Another exquisite peanut butter and chocolate presentation from Market Street, Camp Hill, was Café on Market’s Peanut Butter Mousse Pie. Extremely light with a mouth-coating creamy peanut butter allure, the chewy, chocolate-cookie-crumb base and topping of chocolate sprinkles took you back to your childhood. Luckily, we had milk!

Pennsylvania Cheesecake Co's Turtle Cheesecake One simply had to expect a cheesecake as a top contender in these sumptuous desserts, and from the Pennsylvania Cheesecake Company, Middletown, the Turtle Cheesecake took the cake. Dense chocolate cookie crumbs supported a swirl of buttery cheesecake, chocolate, and caramel, all infused with fresh pecans and topped with a lovely chocolate glaze. Cheesecake doesn’t get any richer than this!

Patisserie and Deli's Chocolate Truffle Tort A passion for chocolate, and nothing but chocolate, was all but necessary for two chocolate torts that scored highly. A standout dessert, the Chocolate Truffle Tort offered by the Patisserie and Deli at Hill Top, Hummelstown, was opulent through and through. Like slicing into butter, a beautiful cross-cut of the flourless chocolate tort exposed three deep and dense chocolate layers, balanced with a glamorous and irresistible chocolate mouse. Dingledein's Rum Balls Added to that was a slight layer of peanut butter under a mantle of succulent, dark chocolate glaze topped off with chocolate truffles. Dingeldein Bakery, New Cumberland, produced Decadent Chocolate Torts, individual slices of intensely rich pure chocolate flavor, finished with a fine chocolate glaze. A simple swirl of icing and a tiny, purple, candied dollop studded each wedge, adding just a hint of color and nothing else to sway the unsullied chocolate obsessions.

Close Contenders
Alfred’s Victorian Triple Chocolate Louise Hillside’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie These next desserts were certainly no slackers, as voting in this type of survey was quite the challenge. Middletown’s Alfred’s Victorian Triple Chocolate Louise was another intense chocolate slice of life refined with berries. Served on vanilla-flavored powdered sugar imported from Italy, topped with a dollop of whipped cream, and garnished with cranberries, this dessert was both elegant and captivating. The Hillside Café, Etters, was another reason to see why this area can’t get enough of that Carlise’s California Café’s Chocolate Mousse aforementioned chocolate and peanut butter Rum Balls from Dingeldein’s combination. The Hillside’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie was a massive, four-inch-high fluffy, rich peanut butter mousse on a chocolate cookie crumb base, wrapped in a chocolate glaze. Carlise’s California Café’s Chocolate Mousse offered a light and creamy but penetrating orange Grand Marnier-laced alternative that hit equal ends of the Walnut St Pastry & Deli's Raspberry Creamcheese Jelly Roll tasting spectrum passionately. Some of us could not get Matango's Cocoa-dusted Truffles enough of this blended and folded, cup-filled potent dessert. Likewise, Rum Balls from Dingeldein’s appealed to some discerning palates liking spirits in their sweets. Intense in both their rum and chocolate content, these two-inch rounds, speckled with chocolate sprinkles, packed a double punch even with their miniature size. The Walnut Street Bakery, Harrisburg, offered a Jelly Roll with Raspberry and Cream Cheese filling which was a great option for those non-chocoholics. The candied edible flowers provided a dramatic finish to this subtle and soothing dessert. A variety of expertly crafted chocolates, i.e., mint-flavored, white chocolate, and cocoa-dusted Truffles happen to be a specialty of Matango’s Candies in Harrisburg, as well as Athan’s Famous Cheesecake, plain or kiwi-flavored, each produced creamy bites to be slowly savored.

We may have only scratched the surface with these made-from-scratch sweets, but when it comes to hitting that ultimate calorie high, there seems to be no problem finding one to your liking in Harrisburg. The problem comes when you have to choose … remember, everything in moderation!