With so many great bakers, confectioners and pastry chefs in Los Angeles, it’s impossible to resist that nagging sweet tooth for very long. And who would want to? But given that we’re on the verge of summer, and yeah, we’re putting on the shorts, tees and sundresses, we wanted to find out what desserts our EAT LA team thought were worth the calories. Really worth the calories. It appears we EAT LA’ers have a weakness for anything involving caramelized sugar and butter, be it in butterscotch or caramel form. And puddings. Lots of creamy, dreamy puddings.

Butterscotch pot de crème with salted caramel, Gjelina

Dive a spoon through the soft layer of salted caramel topping, and you hit gold: that impossibly rich butterscotch pudding. Pot de crème is a French baked custard, essentially a thicker version of a crème brulée (think of it as the flourless chocolate cake of the pudding world). Whatever you call it, we think the double hit of buttery caramel in the butterscotch pudding and the fleur de sel caramel topping is good. Really good.

Butterscotch budino, Mozza

After you hit Gjelina in Venice, you owe it to yourself to drive across town to Mozza and try the butterscotch budino (think of it as a pastry chef’s primer course in caramel custards). This is the Italian version of that pot de crème, only here the egg-rich custard is thickened in a saucepan, rather than baked, before being chilled. Pastry chef Dahlia Narvaez goes for a creamy caramel sauce topping sprinkled with fleur de sel (notice a theme?) and adds a dollop of crème fraiche-enriched whipped cream. Yes, please.

Chocolate peanut butter layer cake with potato chips, Nickel Diner

Okay, maybe it’s not the caramel but salt that we’re obsessed with in desserts — hey, if you’re gonna splurge, why not push the limits on several major health issues at the same time? Enter this creation, a towering dark chocolate layer cake with creamy peanut butter frosting studded with crushed potato chips. And if you’re worried because the cake’s creator, Sharlena Fong (a former Per Se pastry chef who came to L.A. by way of Thomas Keller’s Bouchon), recently departed Nickel Diner, don’t: The cake will remain in house, and it’s as good as ever.

Chocolate pot de crème with chocolate lace crisp, Dish Bistro & Bar

Back to those pot de crèmes for one sec. The version at Dish Bistro & Bar isn’t the classic petite custard-filled pot, but more of a layered creation in a broad, flat dish. You get a dark chocolate layer on the bottom and a lighter chocolate cream layer on top. We love it because it’s not too heavy, yet gives you that pure chocolate rush— and the soft-whipped cream and crispy chocolate lace cookie on top are pretty hard to beat, too.