Dessert Recipes

chefspencil asked:


It’s quite natural in everyone’s life for a little bit of better, healthier eating. Choosing a healthy diet may begin with changing our eating habits when we eat out, but that is only one facet of a large endeavor. Healthier eating habits can also easily begin at home, simply by some of the ways that food is prepared. Healthy food does not ever have to mean that your meals will be boring, either because there are many healthy cooking techniques which will actually enhance the flavors while improving your health!

Our Healthy cooking can improve your overall health by reducing fat in the arteries which could lead to blockage. Reducing this fat will help keep arteries clean and will keep the blood flowing at a high rate. Reducing fat also helps to promote a lean body physique instead of a fat one. People who are lean will generally feel better, look better, and have more energy than people who are carrying excess pounds.

Never think about giving dessert up, simply by choosing to eat healthily! There are many wonderful things that you can do with fruit, such as mixing a bowl of berries and low fat or fat free vanilla yogurt for a sweet treat at your home. Another favorite involves sautéed bananas which are sprinkled with a little bit of vanilla extract and cinnamon. There are so many things that you can do with healthy, fresh fruit that you will not even have to think about sugar-packed treats like candies and ice cream to make your life healthy.

In today’s society there is a lot more emphasis placed on health than in many years past. People are well educated about what is, and what is not, good for their everyday health. Healthy recipes is one way to provide optimum health for you and those family and friends you love. Knowing what foods are good for you is only the first step. You must also know how to prepare those foods in the healthiest way possible.



Elroy

Abdrew Krause asked:


The baked New York style cheesecake recipe, on its surface, looks like one of the more simple dessert recipes. It’s a fairly simple set of ingredients, and the mixing and baking is fairly straightforward.

So why does it so often go wrong? Well, part of the problem is in the name: cheesecake. Right there, you expect it to act like a cake in the baking process. The problem is, it’s not really a cake at all. If you were to take a hundred cooking school graduates who had never heard of cheesecake and present each of them with a slice of baked New York style cheesecake, all of them would most likely identify it as a pie… or at best a custard.

Let’s start with the crust. Cakes don’t normally have a crust other than what bakes up when they cook, right? Well, your cheesecake needs a crust or you’re going to have containment issues. This is not usually a traditional piecrust, but rather a blind baked mashed-together construction made of graham crackers, cookies or other baked goods.

Then there’s the composition of the cheesecake itself. The baked New York style cheesecake begins life as a very thick batter that bears a vague resemblance to traditional cake batter, except for the fact that it contains little or no flour depending on your recipe.

The baking is different, also. One of the secrets to New York style cheesecake success is a fairly moist baking environment, which means using a water bath. Have you ever seen a cake recipe that called for the pan to be placed in a larger pan with water in it?

So, for cheesecake success, you might want to stop thinking about it as a cake. Think of it as a pie-cake hybrid, or better yet as custard that needs some extra care in the preparation, but will yield sweet rewards when it’s done. The baked New York style cheesecake recipe is simple, but can be unforgiving if you don’t treat it right.



Sanchez

Anand Upadhye asked:


Delicious Desserts

Cakes, sweets, or glazed fruit are, at the end of a meal a shared pleasure. The dessert has psychical and affective values more or less conscious, partly related to our childhood and in general when we enjoy a dessert we live a unique moment of pleasure. Desserts are certainly an important part of a satisfactory meal.

How to Choose and Prepare a Dessert

Since time immemorial people have enjoyed finishing their meal with a delicious dessert. Romans and later on Galician people used to cover with honey biscuits made of flour, decorated with fresh or dry fruit and then they sprinkled aromas on them.

Thanks to crusaders, who discovered in the East sugar cane, this delicate cane that is mentioned in the Bible, sugar trade started to develop, and it used to be considered a rare and expensive product sold in drug stores.

At the end of the middle Ages, the guild of the pastry cooks, experts in meat, fish and cheese pie-cooking were specialized in pear dough cooking, cream cakes, and French biscuits. The term dessert was not introduced yet. A disposition in 1563 defines three kinds of dishes: hors-d’oeuvre, meat or fish and then dessert. New types of cakes have appeared thanks to Catalina de Medici and her pastry men in Florence: cakes based on choux dough, macaroni and ice cream. People adored these desserts. Brillat-Savarin informed that since the 18th century the spirit of harmony and wellbeing spread to all the social categories.

A banquet always finished with a dessert made of fruit, cakes, jams or cheese. Chocolate was not used in France until the 19th century. Great confectioners of the time created delicious desserts that afterwards became classical.

About Sweets

Later on, more and more types of sweets have been created, and many of them can be prepared at home following instructions in recipes. These recipes are used as they are, or they are improved using personal creativity. Thus sweets texture and taste have become more and more diversified.

Some good confectioners have kept pastry secrets. One of them is Pierre Herme. For this master of desserts, sugar must not play the essential role, but it must be an ingredient just like the others, especially for aroma. Changed through heating and associated with other ingredients sugar offer consistence to tarts, makes ice creams buttery, it makes macaroni soft and waters crunchy. Besides, it can highlight the bitter taste of the chocolate, the acidity of fruit and the aroma of spices. Now it is important to know the ideal amount of sugar necessary, as too much sugar affects the aroma and less sugar makes the products tasteless.

Rules for Correct Baking

In order to prepare a high quality dessert you do not have to be an artist in the area. On the other hand, before deciding to start it is necessary to have imagination in order to harmonize colors and decorative elements. To continue with, you must know very well the preparation technique required for a specific dessert. Ingredients must be chosen carefully and temperature and baking time must be kept carefully.



Lowery

Sandee Lembke asked:


When you are thinking about serving dessert at your next party, consider offering your guests one of these delicious, homemade desserts. I have found that of all the desserts I have served, these are my “Top 3 Most Requested Delicious Desserts” (in no particular order). Enjoy!

Number One Most Requested Delicious Dessert–Raspberry White Chocolate Dream Bars

1 box white cake mix

1/3 cup evaporated milk

1-1/2 sticks melted butter

1 cup chopped nuts

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

12 oz. white chocolate chips

Combine cake mix, milk, butter and nuts. Makes a very gooey dough. Spray a 9 x 13 pan and spread half of the dough into the bottom of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Melt the jam in the microwave (about a minute) and spread on top of hot crust. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over jam. Crumble remaining dough on top and bake an additional 20-25 minutes. Cool completely before cutting.

For bigger parties, this recipe easily doubles and can be made in a 15 x 10 pan.

Once you get the hang of this technique, you can think of all sorts of combinations. How about using chocolate cake with mint chips? Or lemon cake with white chocolate?

Number Two Most Requested Delicious Dessert–Chocolate Amaretto Bundt Cake

1 pkg. chocolate devil’s food cake mix

1 small pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix

4 eggs

1 cup milk

1-1/2 oz. Amaretto liqueur

1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil

1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

1 cup fresh raspberries (optional)

1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam (optional)

Whipped cream (optional)

Glaze

1 stick butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup Amaretto

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Combine first 6 ingredients and blend well. Stir in chips. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until toothpick comes out clean.

Melt glaze ingredients in a saucepan or microwave. Pour 2/3 of glaze over top of cake while cake is hot from oven and still in pan. Allow cake to remain in pan for 25 minutes. Remove cake from pan and drizzle with remaining glaze.

When I make this cake dessert, I fill the middle with fresh raspberries and present it on my grandmother’s crystal pedestal cake stand which is very dramatic.

Just before serving, I make a raspberry sauce by melting the jam in the microwave.

Each lucky guest gets a plate with some of the sauce, a slice of cake, a few berries and some whipped cream. Yum!

Number Three Most Requested Delicious Dessert–Mystic Mint Cookies

These are melt-in-your-mouth heaven!

Dough

1 cup sugar

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix sugar, butter, vanilla, egg and unsweetened chocolate. Stir in flour and salt.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten each cookie with fingertips. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely.

Peppermint Frosting

2-1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, softened

3 tablespoons milk

1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract

Mix all frosting ingredients until smooth and of spreading consistency.

Chocolate Drizzle

1/2 stick (1/4 cup) butter, softened

2 tablespoons corn syrup

1-6 oz. package semisweet chocolate chips

Simmer all drizzle ingredients over low heat. Stir constantly until butter and chocolate are melted.

Spread peppermint frosting over cooled cookies then drizzle each with chocolate mixture. Leave on counter for 2-3 hours until frosting is set.

If you serve any of these homemade desserts, you can count on your guests being very happy. And I will bet that you will be handing out recipes, just like I do at my house.



Alvin

Jennifer Carter asked:


Jamaica has a unique island cuisine made colorful by the many tropical fruits that thrive here.

Visitors to Jamaica will find the simple country cooking of the island to be delicious, hearty and satisfying.

It’s food has a reputation for satisfying the soul, whilst their drinks are no disappointment!

These drinks found anywhere in Jamaica and are a cooling treat to complement any meal and the island’s year round summer temperatures.

Appleton Bird Cocktail

This creamy recipe comes from the Appleton Estate:-

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz. Appleton Special Jamaica Rum

1/4 oz. Tia Maria

1/2 oz. creme de banana

4 oz. orange juice

Directions:



Pour ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake well.

Pour into a tall glass over ice.

Garnish with a cherry or orange wedge.

An island adage, “One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak!”

Traditional Recipe for Rum Punch

Ingredients:

4 Cups water

1 Cup lime or lemon juice

3 cups strawberry-flavored syrup

2 cups Jamaican white rum

Directions:

Stir all ingredients together in a punch bowl.

Add slices of lemon or lime.

Serve with ice cubes.

For a traditional Jamaican dessert, try this recipe for

Papaya Cream

Papayas are fragrant and add vitamins to this creamy and delicious dessert that is quick and easy to make.

Ingredients:



2 fresh Papayas (papaws)

Rum raisin ice cream

warm caramel

3 tbsp. grated nutmeg

Directions:



Peel papayas and blend with ice cream and nutmeg.

Pour into dessert dishes and top with warm caramel.

Enjoy this tasty dessert and these traditional Jamaican drinks whilst relaxing and enjoying time with friends.

For further ideas for Jamaican cooking and Christmas Recipes , visit Worldwide Recipes.



William