Desserts Around the World – Explore One Sweet Treat at a Time!

Title image for Desserts Around the World

Everyone loves a sweet (or savory) treat!

In fact, desserts often play a central role in many of life’s sweetest moments, whether it’s a slice of cake for one’s birthday or a traditional treat to celebrate a religious holiday. Desserts are rooted in tradition and have the power to bring people together, create memories, and, most importantly, taste good!

Image from a bilingual book Arabic English with a boy helping out his mum at the bakery.
Be Kind By Livia Lemgruber – Bilingual book English-Arabic version

Come explore some popular mouth-watering desserts from around the world in this article and the companion video below. Do they share any similarities with your favorite sweet treat?

Cannoli (Italy)

A Cannoli is a tube-shaped shell of fried pastry dough filled with a sweet, creamy filling containing ricotta cheese, sugar, and things like nuts, fruits, chocolate chips, and more! They are originally from Sicily and have become quite popular around the world.

Malabi (Israel)

This Israeli dessert is a milk-based pudding made with rosewater, giving it a unique taste. It is served cold with a special sweet syrup and can be topped with fruit, coconut, cinnamon, and more! Versions of Malabi are widespread in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and other Middle Eastern countries.

Chebakia (Morocco)

This beautiful pastry is made of dough rolled to resemble a rose. It is then deep-fried, coated with a syrup usually made of honey and orange blossom water, and finished off with sesame. This dessert is typically consumed during Ramadan.

Shakoy (Philippines)

Also known as “lubid-lubid” since it looks like a rope, this dessert is a Filipino version of a donut that is twisted, fried, and then coated in sugar. 

Dasik (Korea)

These Korean tea cookies are made with finely ground all-natural ingredients like grains, sesame seeds, and even green tea! The ingredients are mixed with honey and pressed into small cookies engraved with images that symbolize wishes for good luck, long life, beauty, happiness, or health. They are significant in Korean culture and are often served to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Grandmother in her kitchen baking cakes.
With Flying Colors: English Color Idioms by Anneke Forzani and illustrated by Dmitry Fedorov- Bilingual book English-Burmese version

Learn about these desserts and more with “Desserts Around the World”, a fun companion video to Language Lizard’s Living in Harmony Book Series which celebrates diversity, kindness, and friendship with its three titles Be Kind, We Can All Be Friends, and Who Are We? 

Try your hand at baking some of these desserts with your kids this summer! See the “Desserts Around the World” video for even more ideas!

 

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Anneke Forzani founded Language Lizard (www.LanguageLizard.com) to provide educators, librarians, and parents with resources that develop literacy skills among English Language Learners, build inclusive classrooms, and celebrate cultural diversity. Language Lizard offers bilingual books in over 50 languages, multilingual audio resources, multicultural posters, and free lesson plans to support multicultural classrooms. The company also runs a blog (blog.languagelizard.com) for parents and teachers working with language learners and culturally diverse students. Anneke is the author of Building Bridges with Bilingual Books and Multicultural Resources (a manual to support culturally responsive teaching) and With Flying Colors: Color Idioms (a multicultural idiom book).
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