Could the Legislature dish up a "state dessert" in 2025

As the State legislature gets to work on its 90-day session, it's time to consider whether the Unicameral should resolve an important, and regularly overlooked matter - designating a state dessert.

Face it, we all love dessert and naming an official state dessert is long overdue. It has to rank higher than designating an official state reptile or state fossil, which we already have (the box turtle and mammoth, respectively.)

Eight states, our research indicates, have state desserts including, gulp, neighboring South Dakota.

We obviously don't want to trail South Dakota in anything other than presidential faces on mountains and the number of billboards for Reptile Gardens along interstate highways.

This matter came up during a visit to one of my favorite small-town grocery stores. Nelson's Food Pride, which specializes in Swedish delicacies from its home in Oakland, the state's Swedish Capital.

Those delicacies include ostkaka, a eggy, custard-like, soft cheesecake fashioned out of raw milk, often served with a topping of lingonberries or raspberries.

It was a family holiday favorite. My dad (and later me) had to hustle out to a local dairy in hopes that a farmer would sell us a gallon or two of unpasteurized milk (you know, the stuff that some people now think is not health-threatening to drink). The milk was curdled into a sweet cottage cheese. Yummy.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a "state dessert" until driving through northern South Dakota a while back. We passed a town that proudly proclaimed itself as the "Home of the State Dessert: Kuchen."

Kuchen is kind of a blander version of ostkaka, baked into a pie crust and, as we found out, fairly accessible across northern South Dakota.

Other state desserts tend to promote a local product or tradition, such as blueberry pie in Maine, the ice cream cone in Missouri (which debuted at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis) or the Massachusetts honoree, Boston Creme Pie.

(Why strawberry shortcake is the state dessert of Florida is beyond me. Maybe they should rename the "Orange Bowl" in Miami the "Strawberry Bowl.")

Anyway, one day I mentioned this shameful omission in Nebraska to a state senator who represented several Czech communities. Why not introduce a bill to make kolaches the state dessert? I offered (after all, they could use a few more bills to ponder down in Lincoln and you can find kolaches from Wilber to Verdigre, with Clarkson and Prague in between).

Well, no one listens to a reporter (probably a wise thing) and the issue died for the lack of a motion. The senator also pointed out that kolaches are probably more of a pastry than a dessert.

Nebraska has a lot to offer in the dessert category, and an official designation might draw tourists seeking a tasty treat.

How about cinnamon rolls? They pair great with chili - as Runza has found out - and there's more than one bakery/cafe across the state that claims to have the "world's best."

How about Tin Roof sundaes? The ice cream parlor at the Potter Sundry is famous for its towering sundaes of vanilla and chocolate ice cream, topped with marshmallow sauce and peanuts. Potter is a popular stop along Interstate 80 out in the Panhandle due to its sundaes.

If we act quickly, maybe we could steal the Eskimo pie from Iowa, where it was invented in Onawa, just across the river from Decatur. That would teach them for all those last-second football victories they snatch from us.

Popcorn balls was suggested by one website as Nebraska's state dessert because the state leads the nation in producing popcorn.

That has some ring to it, but I'd say that popcorn balls are more of a snack than a dessert. Come to think of it, cinnamon rolls are probably out, too, since they're more of a breakfast pastry than a dessert.

It gets complicated, this drive for a designated dessert.

Maybe we should refocus our aim on something simpler, like designating a state steak?

We still lay claim as "The Beef State," and no one can mistake a ribeye for a pastry or a breakfast roll.

Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. He retired in April as senior contributor with the Nebraska Examiner. He was previously with the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star and Omaha Sun. A native of Ralston, he loves traveling and writing about the state.