Desserts and sweets | 100 best things we ate and drank in 2012

Cinnamon Crunch doughnut at Do-Rite Donuts
This puffy doughnut has a substantial tang of yeast—and a thick topping of sweet, crunchy cinnamon strudel to counter it.

Lydia’s cookies at Great Lake
Lydia is Lydia Esparza, one half of the couple who own this exemplary pizza restaurant in Andersonville. While her partner, Nick, handles the pies, Lydia is in control of these tiny, crumbly, flavor-forward cookies, which come in varieties such as rosemary and chocolate chip–sea salt. And all this time we thought there was only one genius in the kitchen.

Krapfen at Julius Meinl Patisserie
If Doughnut Vault’s glazed treats are the prom queens, these under-the-radar, puffy, yeasted doughnuts (with seasonal fillings like raspberry jam and apple butter) are the awkward indie girls in the corner who no one pays attention to. Guys, notice her, she is so beautiful when she takes off her glasses! (You get what we’re trying to say.)

Mango nieve at Maxwell Market
Before you shudder at the sight of marketgoers squeezing what appears to be ketchup onto ice cream in Styrofoam cups, know that this sweet treat from a nameless stand is actually nieve, snow-like sorbet produced in tropical flavors, and that the squeeze bottle contains a sweet and spicy tamarind-chili sauce.

Copy Kat at Urban Union
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But pastry chef Mitsu Nozaki’s homage to the Kit Kat candy bar—in the form of a hazelnut mousse cake layered with crispy-crunchy feuilletine—is more like a polite way of saying, “Anything you can do, I can do better.”