Dessert

For a deeply fruity granita with a light, crystalline texture, we blended fresh or frozen berries with enough water to form a silky puree and enough sugar for modest sweetness and to give the puree the proper consistency when frozen. When scraped, this granita yielded light, flaky ice crystals that lingered briefly on the palate for a chilling pause before melting in the mouth in a flood of fruity goodness. Lemon juice contributed acidity that brightened the fruit flavor.

Love the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bar? Here's how to re-create your own Bliss.

Peppermint white chocolate mochas and eggnog lattes are certainly top sellers this time of year at the 13,000-plus Starbucks outlets nationwide.

But what lures many devotees into the nation’s largest coffee chain during November and December is the company’s seasonal baked-good behemoth, the Cranberry Bliss Bar.

Did you know you can make a decadent whipped cream by using a can of coconut milk? Not only is it simple to make, but it’s easily the best-tasting whipped cream I’ve tried.

I know whipped coconut cream isn’t new to many of you – people have been making coconut whipped cream for years and years. I first read about it a couple years ago on Vegan Joy’s website and have seen it popping up everywhere.

To devise a properly chewy brownie recipe, we first had to discover the perfect ratio of oil to butter. We then combated greasiness by replacing some of the oil with egg yolks, whose emulsifiers prevent fat from separating and leaking out during baking. We found that unsweetened chocolate provides the strongest chocolate flavor. Finally, folding in bittersweet chocolate chunks just before baking gave our chewy brownies gooey pockets of melted chocolate and rounded out their complex flavor. 

While this would make a fab breakfast or maybe a dessert for some, it’s an ideal afternoon snack for me. It gives me that little bit of chocolate that I crave but it holds me over through yoga, also giving me enough energy until dinnertime.

I just love this little flavor burst and the best part… obviously… is that you can add whatever you like. I’ve done blueberries and coconut, warm strawberries and those honey roasted almonds from Trader Joes that I lose my mind over and even just bananas and cinnamon.

This is a simple recipe: a few tablespoons of pre-made yogurt gives the necessary base while the milk makes up the bulk of the yogurt. I have listed whole milk as the starting point but you may use nonfat, low-fat, (unsweetened) soy milk, etc., and the formula remains the same.

Instead of a double boiler, we kept things simple for our Easy Chocolate Ice Cream and used the microwave to melt the chocolate and combine the ingredients. We used sweetened condensed milk in place of cream because it maintains its velvety texture in the freezer. For a fluffy, light texture similar to churned ice cream, we took a cue from the Italian dessert semifreddo and folded in whipped cream. Bittersweet chocolate also worked well in maintaining the texture. To heighten chocolate flavor even more, we turned to instant coffee powder.

Julia Child describes this mousse as one of the best. It uses eggs, sugar, and butter instead of cream. Note that the eggs are not fully cooked so take care whom you serve this to (no one very young, old, or pregnant) or use a pasteurized egg product. The recipe can be divided among 10 small ramekins or custard cups or 6 larger ones. The mousse will use every bowl in your kitchen. It’s worth it. 

When it comes to dessert, my husband is a man of simple tastes, perfectly content as long as chocolate features prominently, and preferably in the form of chewy, dark brownies.

This works out well for both of us since I’d rather make brownies than go to the trouble of baking a torte or frosting a cake. And brownies pack more flavor into a tiny square than most chocolate desserts do in their entirety, making them very gratifying to bake.

 With just 10 minutes of work, make creamy chocolate ice cream without an ice cream machine. Yes, we're serious!