Cracker Barrel Desserts You Can't Get Enough Of
From the first spoonful to the last crumb, Cracker Barrel's desserts have been tantalizing and satisfying customers for decades. From the moment you see the rocking chairs on the porch and step in to smell all the aromas that remind you of your grandma's kitchen, you know comfort food is in store. Eating desserts is one of life's simple pleasures, and the ones Cracker Barrel offers are all crowd pleasers. Most have been on the menu for years, but the chain has brought out a few new ones that seem to be doing just as well as the classics.
While the options include classic Southern cakes, pies, and cobblers, there are also a few more adventurous options available from time to time. For example, the restaurant has tried turning a classic breakfast pastry into a pie and has added chocolate to a holiday classic. We especially like that the chain offers some smaller options for those who don't have a lot of room left over for a big dessert. Ultimately, you know any dessert you order off the menu at Cracker Barrel is going to be delicious.
Mini strawberry cheesecake
Even when you think you've had plenty to eat after a filling meal at Cracker Barrel, your dessert stomach kicks in once you see all the delicious-looking options on the menu. While it's not uncommon to find restaurant desserts big enough to turn into a meal or share, we like that Cracker Barrel has introduced a mini strawberry cheesecake to its lineup for a limited time. This personal-sized cheesecake is just big enough to satisfy your sweet tooth without making you feel overly full. Plus, it's only 290 calories, which isn't bad considering a slice of The Cheesecake Factory strawberry cheesecake comes in at 1,000 calories. It costs a little over $4, making it the cheapest dessert on the Cracker Barrel menu by more than a dollar.
Cracker Barrel's mini strawberry cheesecake looks like someone has cut into a hockey-puck shape from a larger cheesecake. Everything else about it looks like a traditional strawberry cheesecake, with a graham cracker crust, a fresh strawberry, and strawberry sauce topping. It also comes with just the right amount of whipped cream.
YouTuber The Southern Snack says that it's sweet and "almost like a homemade cheesecake" but didn't think it had enough strawberry sauce." YouTuber casualgamerreed considers it "better than Edwards [brand] cheesecakes."
Double chocolate fudge Coca-Cola cake
Cracker Barrel is where a lot of people try Coca-Cola cake for the first time. Nobody can seem to pinpoint when or where Coca-Cola cakes originated, but they seem to have gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, with the first-known published recipe for the cake coming in 1952 in The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia (about a six-hour drive from the restaurant's first location in Lebanon, Tennessee). For a while, the cake seemed to be a seasonal item that would come and go on Cracker Barrel's menu. However, this 790-calorie slice of cake now has a permanent place on the dessert menu.
The double chocolate fudge Coca-Cola cake is comprised of a rich and moist chocolate cake with a fudge-like chocolate frosting, both of which are infused with Coke. It's a one-layer sheet-pan-style cake, so it comes cut into squares rather than wedges. It also comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The cake is so popular that some restaurant locations often run out each day. Luckily, there are also a lot of copycat recipes available online if you'd like to try it at home. However, not all of them manage to duplicate the Cracker Barrel cake's moist, rich, fudgy texture, which makes it so popular.
Peach cobbler
Cobblers are synonymous with summer, but you can find them on the dessert menu at Cracker Barrel year-round. If you're wondering about the difference between a cobbler and a pie, it's that the crust goes on top of a cobbler rather than on the bottom — sometimes it's on both the bottom and top. You'll never get a nice, neat slice from a cobbler like you do from a pie. Instead, you end up with a dish of sweet, fruity cobbler filling mixed in with pieces of the cobbler crust topping. Cracker Barrel's peach cobbler is a popular dessert with a filling that's tasty enough for the restaurant to sell by the canful in its general store.
The peach cobbler contains a luscious peach filling and a flaky crust. It will arrive at your table fresh and piping hot, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
You shouldn't expect a huge amount of cobbler, as this dessert comes in the same-sized bowl as some side items, which is only slightly larger in circumference than the scoop of ice cream that comes with it.
Blackberry cobbler
Cracker Barrel bakes its cobblers fresh every day, choosing the fruit filling it offers based on availability. So, sometimes you'll find peach cobbler, while other times you'll find blackberry cobbler. Prime blackberry season is July through September, so if you haven't seen blackberry cobbler on the menu for a while, you might check back closer to blackberry season. Or you can make your own at home if you encounter a can of blackberry cobbler filling on the shelves of the restaurant's store.
The blackberry cobbler is built like the peach cobbler, so it comes with a flaky crust and blackberry cobbler filling. Since the crust starts on top of the cobbler, you're likely to find it mixed in with the filling in the bowl. This dessert also comes warm and gets a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
The descriptions on social media range from amazing to delicious to simply "the bomb." If that's not a high compliment, we don't know what is.
Fried apples
Fried apples don't actually show up on the dessert menu. Instead, you'll dependably find them available as a side item with entrées. However, we often choose Cracker Barrel's fried apples as one of our side items or as an additional side to have for dessert. If you order it as an extra side, it costs about $3, which is less than any actual dessert on the menu. Plus, it has only 170 calories, making it a lower-calorie choice compared to anything you'll find on the main dessert menu.
The fried apples aren't fancy, but they are satisfying. The restaurant bakes these cinnamony apples in the oven rather than frying them as the name suggests.
They are one of the most-talked-about menu items at Cracker Barrel. It's easy enough to make fried apples at home with fresh apples and just a few other ingredients. However, if you want an even easier option, you can buy them canned in the restaurant's store.
Buttermilk pie
There are various stories about the origin of buttermilk pie. Some say English settlers brought the pie to the Southern part of the U.S., while others say it originated during the Great Depression when people were trying to make the most out of just a few ingredients. No matter where it came from, it's a tasty surprise for anyone new to the pie. Unfortunately, the restaurant tends to trot it out only occasionally as a limited-time dessert menu item. So, if you see it advertised and you're curious, you'll want to jump at the opportunity to order it while it's available.
The ingredients in the pie filling for buttermilk pie are ridiculously simple. Eggs give it a custard-like consistency, while buttermilk, vanilla, nutmeg, and perhaps cinnamon give this sweet pie its delicious flavor. The restaurant serves it with fresh strawberry slices and whipped cream.
Some compare the flavor to chess pie, though that one has cornmeal and uses milk instead of buttermilk. When buttermilk pie was last available in 2021, DeAnna Norman Salyers said on Facebook that it was her "favorite pie from Cracker Barrel!"
Chocolate pecan pie
Unfortunately, you couldn't order a chocolate pecan pie from Cracker Barrel on National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day (August 20). That's because the restaurant offers it only during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. The chocolate pecan pie is an exciting twist on the classic pecan pie. While you could order a regular pecan pie for the holidays, a whole chocolate pecan pie is the same price (around $12.50). So, you have to make some serious choices here.
The restaurant's chocolate pecan pie has the normal sweetness and nuttiness of a pecan pie with the added bonus of rich chocolate. The crust is especially crumbly, but it doesn't take away from the flavor experience.
OCFoodDiva says on TripAdvisor, "It is delectable, but the combination of pecans and chocolate reminded me of a good chocolate granola bar." If you've tried the classic pecan pie in the past and it seemed like it needed a little something more, chocolate is probably what you were missing. It might not be the prettiest pie in the world, but it's definitely tasty.
Cinnamon roll pie
Another pie that you're likely to see only around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays is the cinnamon roll pie. This perplexing pie was brand new in 2021. It looks exactly like someone baked a big cinnamon roll inside a pie shell and covered it with icing. When it's available, you can order a cinnamon roll pie breakfast, which also comes with eggs, your choice of breakfast meat, and either a side of the hash browns casserole or fried apples. However, you could also order a whole pie as a holiday dessert to give your guests something to talk about.
The dessert starts with a regular savory pie crust and literally has cinnamon rolls baked inside, just like it looks. Then it's topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting, providing it with an extra yum factor and moisture.
Redditor u/AEWFanboy010 says, "This pie is worth every calorie! It's delicious." It's especially good slightly warm.
Carrot cake
Cracker Barrel doesn't always have carrot cake on the menu, but when it does, it's a special treat. As you can probably imagine from its warm, cozy flavors like cinnamon, it's a menu item you should search for in the fall. The chain's carrot cake is a sheet-pan-style cake, so there's only one layer each of cake and frosting, but they're both delicious.
The version the restaurant makes includes pineapple, coconut, and walnuts, which contrasts beautifully with the warm cinnamon and vanilla flavorings in the cake. It also comes with a cream cheese frosting sprinkled with more walnuts.
The restaurant has provided a recipe for a springtime version of carrot cake on its blog, but it's missing all the pizzazz of the one the restaurant sells. You can occasionally find cooked carrots in the restaurant's store, which you can puree to use if you want to make your own copycat cake while waiting for it to return to the menu.
All-American apple pie
The experience of enjoying a classic apple pie can be both comforting and nostalgic. Associated memories can sometimes make dessert seem even more delicious. So, when apple pie is on the menu in the fall, you're going to want to order it not just because of the memories but also because you know it's going to be good. While the pie was on a two-year hiatus from the holiday menu starting in 2020, it made a comeback for the 2022 holiday season. If apple pie for dessert isn't enough for you, you may also be able to find Dionis brand all-American apple pie goat milk body lotion for sale in the restaurant's gift shop to get into the spirit of the season.
Despite being "All-American," this pie doesn't have any sugar added to it. The crust is savory, and the apples are sweet enough on their own to not need any sugar. However, the pie slice does come with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
OCFoodDiva says on Tripadvisor that the apple pie is "all about the crust! The crust tastes homemade like my Dad's. The apples are just sweet and tart enough and work well with the sweet, creamy vanilla ice cream."
Apple streusel pie
While apple pecan streusel pie has shown up on holiday menus for years, 2022 marked the first time the restaurant's fall and holiday menu contained an apple streusel pie (minus the pecans). This choice makes sense since there have traditionally been two pecan pies on the holiday menu -– a classic one and a chocolate pecan pie. We think the apple streusel pie sans pecans had to have been a hit last year and are waiting to learn whether it will make its return.
This pie has a traditional apple filling and a bottom crust with a delicious streusel topping. Like the restaurant's other pies, it comes with a scoop of vanilla ice cream when you buy it by the slice.
The flavor and texture combination is just as nostalgic as the all-American apple pie, so it has comfort-food appeal. The warm spices are just right for a fall or holiday dessert.
Dirt cup dessert
What kid doesn't want a dirt cup for dessert? No, this isn't a dessert meant for naughty kids, like Santa giving out coal instead of presents. This kids' menu dessert is much more fun and much more yummy than you'd expect. We wouldn't blame adults for wanting one, too, especially since it comes with a price tag under $3.
Cracker Barrel's dirt cup comes in a Mason jar, so you can see all the stratified layers of this yummy treat. It alternates muddy layers of chocolate pudding with dirt layers of crumbled chocolate cookies. To make it even more fun, it comes with gummy worms crawling out of the top.
This whimsical dessert is a playful and imaginative sweet treat that's not soon to be forgotten. Not only is it a cute dessert guaranteed to bring a smile, but it's also filled with tasty ingredients that are sure to please.
Biscuit beignets
The dessert menu is the wrong place to look for Cracker Barrel's biscuit beignets. Instead, you'll find them on the restaurant's all-day breakfast menu. If you're not familiar with beignets, they're powdered, square, pillowy French donuts without holes. While their history goes back to the 1500s in France, the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans helped make them famous. Sometimes, they're just available during the fall at Cracker Barrel, but you might be lucky enough to find them at other times as well. You get six beignets (or possibly a few more) for around $5.50.
The restaurant uses the same dough for its buttermilk biscuits as it does for its beignets, except beignets come deep-fried instead of baked. After they come out of the hot oil, they immediately get coated with lots of cinnamon sugar. You can eat them alone or with the accompanying butter pecan dipping sauce.
YouTuber localjohn 1812 says they taste "like a deep-fried doughnut" with a sauce that is somewhere between butter pecan and caramel apple. Another YouTuber, Lukefoods, describes them as being "fluffy" and tasting like "super good Chinese donuts."
Homestyle chocolate chip cookies
If you see homestyle chocolate chip cookies on the Cracker Barrel dessert menu, you can't go wrong. Even if you don't see them on the menu, it wouldn't hurt to ask about them anyway since they're common on the catering menu. Interestingly, the restaurant's chocolate chip cookies are one of the most expensive dessert options available. At around $10, they cost about double the amount of an ordinary dessert. However, you do get five of them, and all five total 1,440 calories, so you'll likely want to share the plate of cookies around the table with friends or family. However, having an odd amount could be tricky to split among everyone.
These cookies look exactly as you'd expect chocolate chip cookies to look. And the restaurant doesn't skimp on the chocolate chips.
When Mashed polled customers to discover the worst dessert at Cracker Barrel, the chocolate chip cookies led the way as the least disliked among the four options in the poll. The cookies finished more favorably in the poll than the restaurant's fruit cobblers or its signature double chocolate fudge Coca-Cola cake. Only 15.9% of respondents disliked the chocolate chip cookies, so they seem to be one of the safest bets when you see them on the menu.
Ice cream
Ice cream both is and isn't on the menu at Cracker Barrel. It's one of those desserts that you know exists because it's included with so many other desserts on the menu, like pies and cake. Pie a la mode is good, but sometimes you just have a hankering for a scoop of ice cream all by itself. It also occasionally appears on the kids' menu as a sundae with your choice of toppings, so you could try asking for a plain scoop of ice cream or even a sundae for dessert.
Some customers have discovered another secret dessert menu item at Cracker Barrel: a Cracker Barrel milkshake. With the kitchen having milk, ice cream, and flavored syrups at its disposal, a milkshake is certainly something you could ask for if you prefer it over other available dessert menu items. As with most secret menu items, getting a milkshake is more of a gamble than just getting a scoop of ice cream.
Another hack is to have a dining companion order an a-la-mode dessert with the intention of splitting it into two desserts. One of you will get the pie or cake, while the other will eat the ice cream.