Do you make a bracha on dessert?
Bread is the primary sustenance of a person and is the basis of the meal. Therefore, the bracha on the bread includes all the other components of the meal that are eaten “because of the meal,” as accompaniments to the bread or for sustenance.
Foods commonly eaten throughout the day as snacks and not primarily as part of the meal are not considered supplementary to the bread and require their own before-bracha, though they are still exempted with birchas hamazon. An example of this would be fruits eaten during the meal for pleasure. They are not considered part of the meal, even if eaten to aid digestion or to lighten up from the heaviness of the meal.
Cooked fruit eaten for satiation might be considered part of the meal, and one should therefore make a bracha on a bit of it (less than a kezayis) before the meal.
Cakes and pastries generally fall under the rubric of “Pas Haba’ah B’kisnin,” which has three approaches of interpretation (see issue 579). Two of the approaches are debated, with some holding they are regular bread with the bracha of hamotzi.
When pastries are served for dessert at a meal with bread, a mezonos should not be said if there is any opinion that they are hamotzi. (Though if you also eat a shehakol dessert, you can intend to cover the pastry with that bracha.) This would apply if the pastries are cake-like due to the majority of their liquid being non-water or due to their strong flavoring. But if they contain a sweet filling and are definitely mezonos, a mezonos should be said on them.
Rabbi Chaim Hillel Raskin Rov of Anash - Petach Tikva
