President Harry Truman's Favorite Dessert Hails From His Home State Of Missouri

U.S. Presidents may have a lot on their plate, but they always have room for dessert. It may not be the first thing you think of, but Presidents have favorite foods and sweet tooths, too. Ronald Reagan was partial to ice cream; George Washington enjoyed a slice of cherry pie; and Harry Truman's favorite sweet treat hailed from his home state of Missouri. Truman's go-to dessert was Ozark pudding — however, before you start getting visions of a smooth, creamy dessert, just know that calling this sweet a "pudding" is a little misleading.

Ozark pudding is a sort of cobbler-meets-pecan-pie with hints of fruitcake and a touch of sticky custard. It has a crispy top and a gooey, chewy custard interior that's chock-full of apples, cinnamon, and walnuts. It's served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and it has a subtle caramel flavor. Overall, it's simply rich and delicious. It's also no White House kitchen secret that Bess Truman frequently made Ozark pudding for President Truman.

While some presidents have had eccentric food habits (check out our round-up), President Truman enjoying his favorite dessert wasn't that peculiar. However, the sweet's origins are interesting. Ozark pudding, while rustic in name, may have some French influence in the form of the gâteau aux noisettes, which is a hazelnut cake that the French who settled in Charleston, South Carolina, brought with them. When those settlers and their progeny made their way to Missouri, walnuts became the go-to nut, and somewhere along the line, it officially transformed into Ozark pudding.

This regional pudding also found its way onto Bess Truman's dinner menu when she and President Truman dined with Winston Churchill at the White House in 1946. Mrs. Truman was criticized for indulging in a dessert that required the use of ingredients considered expensive at the time. The National Archives Catalog says the dessert's recipe "was published in various newspapers in the days leading up to the 1949 [inauguration], as part of the human interest stories about the Trumans. A number of newspapers made mistakes with the recipe, misprinting quantities or leaving ingredients out entirely," which created a bit of backlash for the First Lady.