Dessert Recipes

Rachel Jackson asked:


Baking is a popular past time enjoyed by many people around the world. The main benefit of baking is the enjoyment and satisfaction of creating your own desserts. Everybody has their favorite dessert, but it is important to eat these baked goods in moderation. To many, desserts seem unhealthy because they contain a lot of sugar. However, this is not always the case because there are several healthy sugar free alternatives available. When you decide to bake a treat for yourself, first consider what you would like to bake and add sugar-free ingredients. There are many possible choices when it comes to sugar free snacks such as cookies, muffins, cakes and pies. You can eat much healthier while enjoying the same great tasting snacks. These delicious sugar-free desserts can be created in the comfort of your home or purchased at your favorite local bakery.

 

 

Sugar free desserts offer several benefits. The main benefit of choosing sugar-free snacks is the fact that most contain either low calories or zero calories, depending the on the chosen sweetener. Low calories can help prevent obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Switching to artificial sweeteners provides many benefits and all of your favorite snacks can still be created.

 

 

Finding sugar-free desserts at your local bakery

 

 

 

A bakery is an excellent location to satisfy your craving for a delicious snack. Most bakeries have several options available for you to choose from and you can either order your food made fresh or purchase something pre-made. This is a great place to find cakes, pies, cookies and muffins, and, depending on the bakery, may come sugar-free. These are all great desserts, but are healthier if made with sugar-free ingredients. A bakery can also help you find the perfect goodies to fulfill your craving because of the many sugar alternatives available on the market. If your favorite sugar substitute is Splenda, the bakery should have cakes available that use that product, and if they do not you should be able to request a custom baked treat. 

 

 

 

Sugar-free Baking Products

 

 

 

Muffins, cookies and pies are an excellent dessert to choose when beginning to learn how to bake sugar free. Muffins provide a tasty snack, which requires less than an hour to prepare and bake. Muffins also require minimal preparation due to the simplicity of the resulting product. Cookies are very similar to muffins as they are easy to bake and do not take long to create. Holidays are an excellent time to bake because there are many delicious seasonal snacks available. The fall holidays of Halloween and Thanksgiving are a time of year when pies are popular desserts. You may also want to consider baking a healthy pumpkin pie with Splenda.

 

 

 

Once you get used to baking some simpler products such as pies, muffins and cookies it is time to take a step further and begin baking a cake. Cakes are also easy and should not take very long to master. You may want to consider baking a sugar free cheesecake because sugar substitutes like Splenda work best when the main purpose of sugar is to sweetness to the finished product.

 

 

 

Splenda as a Sugar Substitute

 

 

 

The recommended alternative to using sucrose is a product called Splenda. Splenda, also known as Sucralose, is 600 times sweeter than your standard table sugar. This granulated sugar alternative scales perfectly with the amount of sugar requested in the recipe. One tip to remember when cooking with Splenda is that it causes your snacks to bake faster. Keep an eye on your snacks to help prevent it from burning. Another important tip to consider is not to replace ingredients such as brown sugar, honey, molasses and fructose as these are necessary in their natural form. Splenda has a brown sugar substitute, which serves as an excellent substitute to brown sugar but remember not to substitute brown sugar with Splenda.

 

 

Enjoy Baking while Eating Healthy

 

 

 

Baking is an enjoyable process, and you can bake while eating healthy at the same time. There are many excellent treats to be made which fulfill your sweat tooth while helping you stay healthy in the process. Several options are cakes, pies, muffins and puddings. These sugar-free products can be purchased at your local bakery or created in your own kitchen. The sugar substitutes replace table sugar, which is also known as sucrose. This helps prevent several major diseases, which can be caused consuming too much sugar. A few tips to remember when starting to bake sugar free are to discover the substitute you like best and stick with that until you perfect your recipe. Splenda is best when added to a recipe as a sweetener.

 

 

 

Next time you decide to bake yourself a delicious snack, remember that you artificial sweeteners like Splenda are a perfect substitute to your standard table sugar. Splenda provides the same sweetness as sucrose with added health benefits. When you begin baking sugar free, these tips should help you learn the basics of sugar free baking along with some desserts you may want to consider baking.

 

 



Salvatore

Abdrew Krause asked:


Lurking beneath the surface of many recipes, however, is disaster more ferocious and inevitable than a hurricane over warm Gulf of Mexico waters. Poorly written or shakily tested recipes can turn a counter full of expensive, high-quality ingredients into a bowl full of meaningless goo unfit for human consumption.

But how can you tell the difference between a great recipe that will earn a spot among your most favorite creations and one that is fit only for the trash heap of culinary failure? How can you justify sinking premium bucks into high quality ingredients when you don’t know if the result will be edible? If you have just a little cooking savvy, it’s not all that hard to do.

First off, what are you trying to make? Is your search for free recipes for Italian desserts after cheesecake? Cannoli? Gelato even? It helps a lot if you’ve eaten what you’re trying to make at least a few times, so you know what the finished product should look like.

The next thing to look at is the list of ingredients. Are you familiar with all of them? If there are any you don’t know, do you have research sources available that will give you sufficient knowledge to let you continue? Then take each ingredient and make sure it appears in the text of the recipe. This is one of the most common failures in recipe writing and editing, especially with free recipe content. Sometimes, your own cooking savvy will tell you where and when to add in a missing ingredient, but don’t proceed unless you are dead sure.

Finally, go over the directions. If it is a baking recipe, does it start with preheating the oven? That should be your first step unless the dough or batters need to be refrigerated. Is there equipment mentioned in the direction the ions, such as an ice cream maker, that you do not own? Are you familiar with all the cooking terms used? If you’ve never made a reduction, for example, you might want to do some additional research.

Once you’ve done your research, you’re ready to set off into the world of free recipes for Italian desserts!



Hung

Abdrew Krause asked:


There are few desserts in the world of sweets more alluring that cheesecake. A good baked cheesecake recipe can provide a dessert that will make a bad meal into a good memory, and make a good meal into an event that will be talked about for years. A slice of baked cheesecake, especially New York style, is perfection itself. The creamy texture, the subtle flavors and the richness combine on the palate to make dessert truly the great finish to the meal.

You might be tempted at some point, however, to explore a simpler way to make your cheesecake. The baked cheesecake recipe, while simple, can be unforgiving at times, and it only takes a couple of failures to send even the most intrepid of home cooks looking for alternatives. What they soon find, however, is that there really is no adequate substitute for the creamy richness of the baked version.

There are no-bake cheesecake recipes in great supply on the Internet, and you are more than welcome to be adventurous and try one. Before you serve one to your dinner guests, however, you would be well advised to make one just for in-home consumption. Why?

The answer is quite simple: There is not a single no-bake cheesecake recipe in existence that will give you anything approaching what you get when you go through the effort of producing a baked cheesecake. Most of the no-bake recipes rely on some sort of gelatin to thicken the mix, or they mix in whipped cream to try to mimic the texture of the baked product. While both options produce a generally edible end product, in the immortal words of Snoopy there are like “giving a starving dog a rubber bone.”

If you are going to cook a great meal, and put a lot of effort into it, why go cheap on your dessert? Putting forth the effort to follow a baked cheesecake recipe is worth it every time.



Gibson

Arturo asked:


This is a light and creamy dessert that is perfect for summer.

Ingredients:

1/3 ounce pack raspberry gelatin

1/2 cup boiling water

1 8-ounce block fat-free cream cheese, softened

1 cup low-fat cottage cheese

2 cups fat-free cool whip

1 15-ounce canned peaches in light syrup, drained and chopped

Raspberries for garnish

Directions:

Add the raspberry gelatin to the boiling water in a small bowl. Stir for two minutes till the gelatin melts.

Put the softened cream cheese, the cottage cheese in a blender as well as the molten gelatin. Blend until you obtain a smooth mixture. Then pour the mixture into a large bowl.

Fold in beaten topping followed by chopped peaches. Then garnish with the raspberries. Place the bowl into the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Crumbles:

This is about crusty fruit cakes and cereals. This recipe makes use of apples and pineapples. You are free to prepare it with other fruits. The following mixtures are delicious too: apples- pears, apples-peaches�

Ingredients:

250 grams of apple

250 grams of pieces of pineapple or same quantity of other fruits to your own way.

50 grams of standard cereal �All-Bran�

50 grams of cereal standard �Cornflakes�

15 almonds or hazel nuts

A piece of peeled citron

3 spoons of sugar soup

1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon or a piece (2-3 cm) of ginger.

Directions:

Add the fruits and some water in a pan. Cook like you are making compote. Then add the piece of peeled citron and some citron oil drops), the cinnamon (or the ginger) and then mix well.

If you use very sweet fruits, you can add some more citron juice. Then grind the almonds and leave aside. Then grind the �All-Bran� and the other cereals, to obtain average petals (not powders).

Pour the mixture of fruits, and cover with cereals, and the pieces of almonds in a cake pan.

Place in an oven, thermostat 7 for 20 minutes.



Pasquale

Chef Shelley R. Pogue asked:


Article ID: 1022917

Article Submitted: March 03, 2008

Category: Food and Drink :: Desserts

Article Word Count: 549

Low Fate Key Lime Cheesecake Recipe

This is a low fat key lime cheesecake recipe. If you are a cheesecake fan, I would strongly recommend this recipe. If you are a diabetic then this would be a good recipe to try as well. You can substitute the sugar with Splenda and it is still a great recipe. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Ingredients to make to the crust:

1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/3 cup of fat free margarine, or butter if you must

Ingredients to make the cheesecake filling:

16 ounces fat free sour cream

3 packages of 8 ounces of room temperature fat free cream cheese

1/4 Cup of fat free milk

1 cup sugar or sugar substitute

2 teaspoons of a good vanilla bean paste

1/3 cup of key lime juice

1 9″ spring cheesecake pan

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9 inch spring form pan with cooking spray. You will mix your graham crackers and margarine, or butter. Mix until incorporated. You will then want to add your graham cracker crumb mixture very evenly over bottom or your spring pan. In a large stainless steel mixing bowl you will mix together the fat free cream cheese, sugar or sugar substitute, and vanilla bean paste. I will start out on a low speed, until blended. I will then increase the speed and whip the mixture until it is very creamy, and smooth. After the first set if ingredients are incorporated, I will add my key lime juice and continue to mix thoroughly. Then you will add the milk, and finish mixing all items together until it is very smooth in texture. If your mixture is too runny, you may want to add more cream cheese.

**Helpful tips**You can use a food processor if you like, if you do not have a hand held mixer. I prefer a hand held because it is easier on the clean-up.

Ready to bake off your Key Lime Cheesecake: After you have your spring pan ready, and your filling made it is time to put them together. You will need to get a spatula to scrape the bowl after you pour the creamy filling into prepared pan. You will scrape any extra filling into the pan, unless you want to sample your filling. This is not a bad idea. You can adjust for any flavorings you would like to add at this time. Some prefer a sweeter taste, or maybe more vanilla or Key lime juice. So, you can add at this time to suit your needs.

You will then need to add your cheesecake filling into the spring pan. After the filling is in the spring pan you will transfer the spring pan, to larger pan and add a water bath. The water will need to be about 1-2 inches up the side of the spring pan to prevent burning. You will need to check after about 30 minutes, and bake until center puffs and is almost set. Remove from oven, and the water bath. If you have a cooling rack let cool until cool to the touch, and then put into the refrigerator and chill completely. You can add fruit to your dish if you like for garnish. It makes a beautiful presentation if you decide to do so. I hope that you enjoy this dessert recipe.

Chef Shelley Pogue, a *** Laude, Le Cordon Blue graduate and Executive Research and Development Chef, for Vertical Sales and Marketing, San Ramon, CA.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shelley_Pogue



Jose

Shana Shane asked:


In today’s world, it seems that almost any topic is open for debate. While I was gathering facts for this article, I was quite surprised to find some of the issues I thought were settled are actually still being openly discussed.

You may not consider everything you just read to be crucial information about chocolate. But don’t be surprised if you find yourself recalling and using this very information in the next few days.

CHOCOLATE ICE-CREAM Recipe

For about two quarts and a half of cream use a pint and a half of

milk, a quart of thin cream, two cupfuls of sugar, two ounces of

Walter Baker & Co.’s Premium No. 1 Chocolate, two eggs, and

two heaping tablespoonfuls of flour.

Put the milk on to boil in a double-boiler. Put the flour and one cupful of the sugar

in a bowl; add the eggs, and beat the mixture until light.

Stir this into the boiling milk, and cook for twenty minutes, stirring often.

Scrape the chocolate, and put it in a small saucepan. Add four tablespoonfuls of

sugar (which should be taken from the second cupful) and two tablespoonfuls of

hot water. Stir over a hot fire until smooth and glossy. Add this to the cooking mixture.

When the preparation has cooked for twenty minutes, take it from the fire and add

the remainder of the sugar and the cream, which should be gradually beaten into the

hot mixture. Set away to cool, and when cold, freeze.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.



Mcintosh

Rick Sarouk asked:


Death By Chocolate, Chocolate Truffle Loaf with Berry Coulis is easy to make but will elicit comments like, “Are you trying to kill me or what?” I’ll share this favorite recipe with you only if you promise not to yell at me.

Some die by the sword, some of a broken heart. The French call the moment of supreme pleasure “le petit mort” — the little death.

I prefer my death in stages, served up in a nice portion of artery-clogging cocoa-flavored fat, garnished with even more butterfat, sugar, and fruit. This is the kind of dessert you eat the day before you decide to go on an abstemious diet.

Be warned. If you make this dessert, people will eat it, but they’ll abuse you first. I’ve given up on bringing it to parties. Each time I do, I get grief.

“Carol, you made THAT? Why’d you go and do that for?”

“No one’s forcing you to eat it,” I reply.

“Whadaya, crazy? Of course I’m eating it. Curse you,” they add, while inhaling the stuff.

This is a variation on an old recipe given me by my friend Erika. I have no idea of its origin. Concoct at your own risk:

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE

2 cups heavy cream

3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

1 8 oz. package semi-sweet baking chocolate

1 8 oz. package unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup margarine (or butter, if you’re a glutton for punishment)

1/4 cup confectioner’s suger

1 tspn. vanilla

Cocoa powder to garnish

BERRY COULIS

1 10-oz. package frozen fruit (I prefer raspberries; cherries and strawberries work well too)

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 cup of your favorite hootch (optional but it’s considered a criminal offense in 40 states and most countries to leave it out)

For the Death:

Line a loaf pan with plastic wrap; sprinkle some cocoa powder in the bottom, and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, blend 1/2 cup cream with the egg yolks.

Stir chocolate, corn syrup, and margerine over medium heat in a 3-quart saucepan until melted. Add egg and cream mixture. Stirring constantly, cook 3 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Warning: don’t let this mixture get too hot or the eggs cook, and you get something resembling chocolate scrambled eggs — not a bad thing, but not what you want.

Now: beat remaining cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form. Fold into the cooled-down chocolate glop until no streaks remain. Pour into the loaf pan. Chill. I mean it, chill; it’s not done yet, so calm down. Lick the spoon for now. As for the dessert, it must stay in the fridge overnight or in the freezer for 3 hours to harden. Upturn, remove plastic wrap, sprinkle with more cocoa powder. Serve in 1/2-inch thick slices with Berry Coulis and (optional) unsweetened whipped cream on the side. Serves 12, if you’re sharing.

Preparing the Berry Coulis:

Thaw fruit. In a blender, puree 1/2 the fruit and strain if desired. Over very low flame, add corn syrup, remaining fruit, and booze (I’ve used plain brandy, Grand Marnier, wine; up to you) until flavors nicely meld. Spoon a little coulis onto dessert plates before putting Death slice on top, then drizzle more on top, warm or cold.

visit www.Cooks4Life.com for more information and secret recipes.



Barney

Ted Goldberg asked:


My family simply must have dessert, even if it’s nothing more than a bowl of fruit with whipped cream on top. I have noticed that some families don’t have dessert. Actually, many families today don’t even make time to sit down for dinner together. I just believe that eating together is important.

I’m as pressed for time as anyone else, so I’ve had to come up with some impromptu meals and very simple desserts over the years. But, I have always managed to pull something together.

For special occasions, I go all out and try to make an “impact” with the presentation. On ordinary days, we usually serve ourselves in the kitchen and then gather back around the table. Have you tried strawberries and cream?

You simply take fresh strawberries, sprinkle lightly with sugar and pore in a little cream or skim milk, if you prefer. That was one of my mother’s favorites. She would sometimes have it as a midday snack.

No matter what the occasion, if you want to be a success and leave your family and friends filling satisfied, but not bloated, the end of the meal should complement the other dishes served, as well as the beverages. Remember, red wine and chocolate don’t mix. You might end up with a sick guest or two, if you try that combination.

A sweet fruity wine is a nice accompaniment for chocolate slivers, but fruit and cheese are a better choice when alcohol is being served. Try slicing an Anjou pear; sprinkle the slices with grated sharp cheddar and some chocolate shavings. Bake just long enough for the cheese to melt slightly, not brown. Serve it up warm, along with your favorite glass of wine.

When the main dishes are heavy, serve simple desserts that are light and airy. Italian Ice, for example. To follow-up seafood and salad, you can serve a “heavier” chocolaty dish. Cheesecake follows most any meal nicely, but there are other choices that you can order on line. Try truffles as an ending sometime. They literally melt in your mouth.

You can try some of the simple desserts that I’ve mentioned here, but you might also want to check out the cheesecake-delivery option. The cakes available from Cheesecake Delivered.Com stay fresh in the fridge for five days and can be stored in the freezer for four months, a handy thing for those unexpected visitors.

They offer next day delivery and they have something for everyone, whether you’re a nut for nuts or a fan of fruit. Their Samplers are great for those that are undecided, which often includes me. I’ve come up with a lot of ideas over the years, but for truly simple desserts, it’s nice to let someone else do the work for a change.



Guthrie

Sandee Lembke asked:


Hosting an Easy Fondue Party is easy. First you have to decide what type of fondue party to have. You can either do a sit down party where everyone gathers around a table or you can do a buffet party where fondue pots are set up in various locations around the house.

If you decide to host a sit down fondue party, limit the number of guests to 8 or 10 as everyone needs to be able to reach the fondue pots. If you want to host more people, choose the buffet party and set up pots around the house.

Once you determine the type of party and the number of people you will invite, it is time to organize your fondue equipment and select your recipes.

Fondue Pots

There are many styles to choose from but basically it comes down to the heating source and the size of the pot.

Electric Pot — Rival Fondue Pots are reliable and work well for any kind of fondue party. They are convenient and easy to use because you do not have to worry about the heating source and their non-stick interior makes clean up a breeze.

Sterno Pot — You will find several sterno fondue pots on the market. Rachel Ray, the Food Network host, has a series of sterno pots in various colors which work especially well when you do not want to worry about people tripping over electric cords. The sterno units last for several hours too.

Tea Light Pot — I especially like fondue pots that use a tea light for the heat source. You can buy a huge bag of tea lights very cheaply at any craft store and you can find the pots in varying sizes so they work well with savory and dessert fondues.

If you are going to host fondue parties regularly, it is a good idea to have several different pots available so that you are ready for any situation.

Next, you need to choose your recipes. For a party of 8, serve 2 or 3 savory fondue recipes and 1 dessert recipe.

Savory Recipe — Garlic Cream Cheese Fondue

1/3 cup onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons Canola oil

2-8oz. packages cream cheese, cubed

1/2 cup milk

8 oz. sour cream

1 teaspoon dry mustard

Dippers such as Italian bread, apples, broccoli, steamed potato chunks

In a heavy saucepan, saute onion and garlic in oil until translucent.

Add cream cheese, milk, sour cream and mustard and stir until melted.

Pour mixture into a fondue pot set to low and serve with dippers. This one is fantastic served with bread and potato chunks.

Dessert Recipe - Chocolate Caramel Fondue



12 Turtles or another chocolate caramel candy

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Dippers such as pound cake, strawberries, shortbread cookies

Coarsely chop Turtles and place in a microwavable bowl. Add whipping cream and cinnamon.

Microwave on medium heat for about 1 minute, stir and then cook another 30 seconds or until candy is completely melted.

Pour into a fondue pot and set to low. Serve warm with dippers.

The most important thing to remember about hosting an Easy Fondue Party is to keep it casual. That is what fondue parties are all about. It is what your guests expect. Good food, good company, casual environment.



Lindsey

Chef Shelley R. Pogue asked:


Ingredients you will need:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 Cups milk

6 Egg yolks, slightly beaten

2 Tablespoons butter

2 Teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 Baked 9-inch pie pastry shells or you can make and substitute graham cracker crusts if you like

10 ripe but firm bananas

2 Cups of Sweetened whipped cream

Sprig of Mint for final garnish if you prefer but is not necessary

Preparing you Banana Cream Pie:

First you will combine all of the milk, and the sugar, vanilla bean paste, cornstarch, and salt on top of a double boiler. A double boiler is a pot filled with water that is directly over the heat, with another pan without any water on top of the pan over the heat. This is a design created long ago to help you from burning delicate sauces, or cream fillings for pies etc., so you will not burn them. You will whisk this sugar, milk and starch mixture vigorously to get the sugar melted, and also to make sure that you do not burn the milk. You will cook over the double boiler until the mixture is well thickened, while you have stirred constantly, making sure there are not starch globs in the mixture. You should have to stir for about 10-20 minutes, or until it is thickened to a very thick like oatmeal consistency. You will then add a small amount of the beaten egg yolks to the hot milk mixture into the while stirring constantly. You will do this in small amounts, until all of the eggs are incorporated. You will then add back over the double boiler and cook for 2-3 minutes longer. You will remove the creamy mixture from heat, and add the butter and mix into the filling and then let cool thoroughly.

While the mixture is cooling I would bake the pie shells according to the instructions on the package. I would cook until done and let them cool totally, as you do not want to create a soggy bottom pie. You will then add to the bottom of the cooked and then cooled pie shells with about ½ of the amount of cooled filling in each pie shell. You will then peel eight of the bananas, and slice them into the pie shell. You will then cover the cut bananas with the remaining pie filling.

For garnish you will cut on a bias or slanted angle pieces for the two remaining bananas. You will add most of the remaining pieces around the edges, and then you will whip some heavy cream with some sugar to stiff peaks. If you do not want to go through the trouble of whipping heavy cream you can use miracle whip or your local brand. In the center of the pie you will add the whipped cream, and then some of the bananas on the top in a flower pattern, or something creative. Add the sprig of mint to the top of the dessert and voila, Banana Cream Pie. This is a really easy recipe, and it is a good tasting recipe. I hope that you enjoy it.



Dixon