Posted in Desserts on April 14, 2026
Pizza operators looking for the secret sauce to gaining a higher check average should turn their attention to branded desserts.
A powerful, low-risk growth opportunity for pizza operators, branded desserts can deliver incremental sales without slowing down operations, complicating kitchen execution or compromising your core pizza-focused menu. In fact, among operators across categories, adding a new dessert is the top reason for increased dessert sales, with 44% citing it as the ultimate business booster.1
No wonder year over year, desserts have grown the most on menus.2 Compared to just a few years ago, more consumers’ last dessert has come from away from home outlets, up from 23% in January 2023 to 37% in January 2026.1 Gen Z is most likely to have gotten their last dessert away from home (50%), followed by millennials (44%).1
In particular, momentum in the fast-casual pizza segment reinforces the potential to grab a larger slice of the dessert pie. Brownies and pastries are up 9%, and cobblers and crisps have grown by 14% — clear indicators of the consumer appetite for recognizable, flavorful finishes.3
For pizza operators, dessert opens the door to a more diversified menu that can help feed business with classic branded ingredients customers know and love. Familiar names like OREO and CHIPS AHOY! bring built-in trust and perceived quality, making dessert an easy add-on for both guests and operators.
Maximize Your Dessert Menu With Pizza-Perfect Additions
Mondelēz Away From Home partners with top dessert manufacturers on a wide range of ready-made, branded dessert options. Custom crafted for versatility as upsells, limited-time offers and permanent menu additions, these items are an ideal fit for any pizza-based foodservice concept:
Chalet Desserts offers an OREO Cake Pop for an easy-to-execute, grab-and-go treat option.
Available from J&J Snack Foods, OREO Churros give customers the crunchy-outside, creamy-inside goodness of OREO in another snackable and shareable format.
Made in partnership with David’s Cookies, OREO Brownie and OREO Blondie hit the sweet spot with crushed OREO Cookie Pieces in a perennially popular format that makes a mouthwatering add-on to any order.
Sweet Street offers the OREO Dream Bar, a frozen treat made with six luscious layers of white and dark chocolate loaded with OREO, America’s favorite cookie.
Sweet Street also offers the OREO Cookie Pie, a treat layered with white ‘n milk chocolate cream, studded with OREO cookie pieces and complete with a dark chocolate drizzle.
Hungry for recipe ideas you can easily prepare onsite? The celebrated chefs at Mondelēz Away From Home have whipped up a feast of ideas, from a Dessert Pizza made with OREO Cookie Pieces to a Cannoli Cookie Swirl made with CHIPS AHOY! Cookie Pieces. For a unique frozen delight, try Loaded Monster Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches — a flavor-packed frozen fusion of OREO and CHIPS AHOY! Cookies.
For more dessert ideas to sweeten sales at your pizza operation, be sure to browse our Culinary Center and sign up for our emails.
- Datassential, Desserts, February 2026
- Patricia Cobe, Restaurant Chains Added a Lot of Sweets to Their Menus Last Year, Restaurant Business, August 13, 2025
- Datassential, State of the Menu, February 2025
