Easy Desserts

I'm not a dessert kind of guy.

In fact for me, the perfect dessert is a cheese plate.

Once in awhile I am called on to do a quickie sweet for She-who-must-be-obeyed's little friends.

One I did awhile ago was simply beating some sour cream until smooth, then tossing some ripe raspberries in it, and mixing in some cinnamon or nutmeg, or dusting on top with gratedbitter chocolate. Worked just great and fooled them into thinking it had been planned ahead.

Anyone else got any really simple meal endings you can fake on short notice?

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I love desserts, so planning the ending to the meal is almost as important as the main course. I have two chocolate bread pudding recipes (one is white chocolate with raspberry sauce, and the other is dark chocolate with vanilla ice cream) that are probably the most-often appreciated. I usually judge this by the moans and groans, and how many "cleaned" plates come back to the kitchen.

If I'm faced with unexpected company, I've been known to roughly chop a thick, bittersweet chocolate bar and just pass it so everyone gets a little sweet with their coffee.

I picked up a sinfully easy, and sinfully delicious dessert out of a Sunset Magazine awhile ago that I have been working overtime. It's a chocolate molten mousse cake that is made ahead, put into (6-12, depending on recipe size) 4.5oz ramekins and frozen. Then popped right out of the freezer into a preheated oven for 25 minutes while your guests are eating dinner. By the time dinner is over the dessert is ready to be dusted with powdered sugar or dolloped with whipped cream and eaten warm. I've played around with it and find that it is particularly sinful when you add a splash of Grande Marnier to the melted chocolate and prepare the ramekins with butter and a dusting of orange zest infused sugar (the rest of the zest and sugar go into the batter. YUM! I'm trying to figure out a raspberry enhanced version of this, but I haven't figured out the raspberry sugar trick yet. If you have a technique, let me know. Thx.

[Jenise]

Like you, not a dessert kind of person. And I don't have a single go-to dessert I can whip up on a moment's notice other than cheese and fruit. If I put more stock in the need to serve dessert, I'd probably be like Jeff and keep ice cream or sorbet on hand and make a quick brittle out of sliced almonds and sugar to top it with.

Bill
In a similar vein Eton Mess is a simple fall back dessert.
Just whipped cream, strawberries and crumbled meringues.
Make it as sweet as you like, macerate the berries in a little liqueur, different berries, I have even used Kiwi fruits, sour cream. Infinite variations, the meringues give it crunch. But amaretti cookies crumbled would be good.
Served in something pretty, martini glasses are nice. piled up. looks great.
cheers

keep ice cream or sorbet on hand and make a quick brittle out of sliced almonds and sugar to top it with.

IMHO, the best topping for ice cream is any variation on Irish cream, expecially w/ chocolate. Choco Vine also works very well over ice cream in a goblet. About as simple as it gets.

Brownies.

rwj