Some people call dessert a guilty pleasure, but let’s face it: There’s no shame in enjoying what you choose to eat — in moderation, or not. Below, 25 women including Ina Garten, Kim Kardashian West, and Christina Tosi share their favorite treats and recommend where to buy them. Read on for Nancy Meyers–approved gourmet chocolate bars, the best scoop of gelato in Milan, and so many tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice cream.
Phillipa Soo
“My fiancé and I love our healthy weekly routine, but our favorite day is cheat day! That involves croissants with a sunny egg for breakfast, big lunches of gorgeous salads and sandwiches, a bowl of fresh homemade pasta with loads of cheese for dinner, and dessert involving peanut butter in the form of cake, cookie, or ice cream.” — The New Potato, May 2016
Kim Kardashian West
On Disneyland: “They have churros that are to die for, I am obsessed with churros.” — The Daily Telegraph, March 2015
Karlie Kloss
“I currently have an obsession with Halo Top ice cream. There’s nothing like indulging in a chocolate craving, and the almond milk ice cream and dark chocolate are my kryptonite. That said, I try to manage my sweet tooth since I don’t always feel my best when I eat too much sugar.” — Adidas, February 2017
Lindsey Vonn
“There is a dessert dish in Austria called Kaiserschmarrn — it’s kind of like a sweet raisin pancake with eggs and sugar. It’s definitely not something I can eat often, but if I’ve done well at a race, sometimes that’s my celebration treat!” — Women’s Health
Nancy Meyers
“Chocolate, 100%. It’s an addiction. I worked with a supervisor on a film once who had to be hypnotized so she wouldn’t eat chocolate. I said, ‘Why would you deprive yourself of that?’ I’d never train myself not to eat chocolate. I do not want to not eat chocolate. When we were filming The Intern in Brooklyn, there were so many fantastic shops with gourmet chocolate. I couldn’t get enough … I like the one called Salty Dog. It’s by B.T. McElrath. It has crunchy toffee inside … The director’s chair has pockets where you’re supposed to keep your script, but I always stash dark chocolate in there.” — Bon Appetit, August 2015
Ina Garten
On dessert with her husband, Jeffrey: “While we watch TV, we always have granola for dessert. A little strawberry or plain yogurt, fruit that’s in season, and Bola granola. I buy granola because unless you can make something that’s better than what you’d buy, there’s no point in spending the time!” — Bon Appetit, May 2017
Eva Green
“Traditional British desserts with lots of custard are my biggest weakness — I particularly love the puds at St John restaurant in East London.” — The Daily Mail, July 2010
Taylor Swift
On items she always keeps in her refrigerator: “There’s always some sort of binge food — like a tube of cinnamon rolls or a giant tub of cookie dough. Because I’m that girl.” — Bon Appetit, October 2012
Margherita Maccapani Missoni
“Sometimes I have ice cream for lunch. Gelateria Sempione in Milan is the best in the world, hands down. The chocolate sorbetto is amazing.” — Food & Wine, August 2016
Ellie Kemper
“I haven’t had to go to a clinic or anything, but I have a problem not finishing a pint of ice cream. It’s so comforting. I can cut it off, but it requires discipline. I love Häagen-Dazs’ Vanilla Chocolate Chip. And of course, I love Ben & Jerry’s. My favorite is called Milk and Cookies.” — Bon Appetit, February 2015
Nora Ephron
“Well, you know, a basic hot fudge sundae.” — Newsweek, August 2009
Mindy Kaling
On her favorite cupcake flavor: “Vanilla with chocolate frosting. I don’t do the whole pistachio with bubble gum flavored icing or any of that. It makes me want to barf. I’d rather just have those be their own thing.” — Allure, November 2011
Madonna
“A lemon tart or the rose lycee macaroon cake from La Duree” — her Reddit AMA, September 2013
Kiernan Shipka
On her ideal food day: “For dessert, I love donuts. Plain beignets are my favorite, but honestly, I like any kind of donut.” — The New Potato, April 2014
Jenna Lyons
“When I was pregnant, I was obsessed with Häagen-Dazs’s chocolate peanut butter and would literally drive to every deli in the city to find it. My son Beckett and I share a deep, deep, passionate affinity for that and Talenti’s sea salt caramel gelato. Our secret little breakfast ritual when no one is watching us is it to eat it out of the tub. We share. That’s our super-secret treat, being good but bad. I also love Morgenstern’s, but they took my favorite ice cream off their list — Coffee Crunch, coffee with crunchy coffee cookie on top of it — and that was very traumatic for me.” — Bon Appetit, September 2016
Cynthia Nixon
On her ideal food day: “Dessert would be all different kinds of creme brûlée and gelato from il laboratorio del gelato. Real mint, salted caramel … and I’m not above a chocolate chip cookie dough.” — The New Potato, October 2017
Zendaya
“If I’m having my favorite meal, I’ll just skip right to ice cream. In fact, I get in trouble with my assistant a lot — he says I shouldn’t do that.” — Harper’s Bazaar, January 2015
Martha Stewart
“If I had to pick just one cake recipe, it would be the Lemon Meringue cake. I love anything lemon and anything meringue and it works for so many different types of celebrations and parties.” — The Cake Blog, November 2013
Eva Chen
“[F]or dessert, probably Bubble Tea, or Sundaes and Cones. It’s so good because it’s a Chinese-owned place, and it is ice cream but it doesn’t taste too sweet; it tastes light and healthy. That would be my ideal food day.” — The New Potato, October 2013
Christina Tosi
“My favorite hands-down all-time dessert would be my grandma’s oatmeal cookie. There’s a recipe in one our cookbooks called Milk Bar Life. She makes it better than anyone else. I could stand next to her and literally make the recipe one for one, and she’d still make it better. I think that’s the beauty of food in general. I love going out to eat, I love having high-end desserts, but for me it’s about the memory and the nostalgia that food can bring.” — StyleCaster
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
“I have a huge sweet tooth, and I feel like I deserve a treat when I work hard. It’s important to give yourself a little of what you really want so you don’t feel like you’re in food prison. Eating in moderation keeps me sane … I have a chocolate drawer in my desk where I keep treats at all times. As long as I can have one or two pieces, I’m fine. But my biggest food vice is bacon. And no, I don’t have a bacon drawer. In fact, I don’t keep bacon in my house — that would be way too tempting.” — Shape
Jacquelyn Jablonski
“I love carrot cake — that’s probably my favorite — and I’m obsessed with peanut butter. I eat anything with peanut butter — maybe not carrot cake with peanut butter — but, I think I got this from The Parent Trap: Oreos and peanut butter, I like that. And peanut butter and apples, peanut butter and chocolate.” — W Magazine, April 2011
Blake Lively
“I’m passionate about anything I align myself with. You want to talk about chocolate chip cookies? I’m not going to open a chocolate chip cookie store, but I will talk your ear off about it.” — Vogue, May 2014
Adriana Lima
“I love chocolate and coconut cake. I’m crazy for coconut.” — ABC News, September 2013
Tracee Ellis Ross
“I splurge on a regular basis because I think it’s really important to give myself treats, and no one else is gonna give them to me … I’m obsessed with bread pudding, and I love a pancake and croissant. I stay away from dairy, sugar, and things like that, but that doesn’t mean I don’t eat them. There’s a ton of indulgent splurges, and I really do believe in that. I think you have to have a sense of discipline and a relationship with yourself. For me, personally, telling myself I could never eat something just doesn’t work. I learned that I could have a couple of bites of something and call it a day. Eating to the point where you feel sick doesn’t work for me. That sort of changes the balance of the whole thing, but eating in a way that you enjoy it, is great.” — Cooking Light, May 2016
