Sweet Dominican

Carolina Libran’s shop Carolina’s Desserts (1562 Central  Ave, Yonkers, 914-779-4000) offers something a little different from the typical Westchester County bakery: gourmet Latin desserts, a nod to Libran’s Dominican ancestry. There’s creamy flan (coconut, vanilla, or seasonal pumpkin); Dominican cake (vanilla crumb cake topped with meringue and filled with, among other choices, guava, pineapple, or passion fruit preserves); Caribbean rum-raisin bread pudding; tres leches (three milk) cake with homemade prune preserves; and dulce de leche cortada (a Dominican caramel-flavored dessert made from cooked down milk). Libran, a Yonkers resident, has solid pastry-baking chops too: she worked as a pastry chef Osteria del Circo in Manhattan and before that Windows on the World.

New York style cheesecake with a tropical touch—a guava fruit topping.