Archive for the ‘Latest Dessert News’ Category
Teasing Your Craving Can Make You Eat More!
Learn Easy Tips On How To Reduce Your Cravings!
When it comes to cravings, I know all about them. I crave sweets almost every single day! Occasionally I crave salt and must have potato chips too, but mostly it’s sugar. And it’s not always about chocolate for me. Sometimes my cravings are very specific, like one day I really needed a coffee cake, and that’s when I found the recipe for Easy Sour Cream Coffee Cake, which I posted on this site. Well, today I found a great article on RealAge.com that talks about why teasing your craving with just a little taste can actually cause you to develop even more cravings! The article is awesome because it gives you tips on how to reduce your food cravings. Here’s the explanation:
GOT A CRAVING? FORGET MODERATION
Just a tiny taste of a treat and you’ll be able to put the craving out of your head for good, right?
Nope. Leave the ice cream carton in the freezer. Put the bag of mini chocolates down. Don’t even look at them. In a study, just one taste of a treat triggered more indulgences a mere 25 minutes later.
Once people had a taste of an indulgence — such as a chocolate truffle — it awakened a need for more goodies. And things snowballed. They started craving things like ice cream, pizza, and potato chips. And only once the urge to indulge had been satisfied did the study participants focus once again on healthy foods like carrots, whole-wheat bread, low-fat yogurt, and pears.
For Raging Cravings . . .
Everyone craves comfort foods now and then. Just don’t act on those urges every time. Try these strategies for nipping a case of the munchies in the bud:
Eat an egg breakfast. Not only are eggs a good protein source, but they may help you pass up junk food later in the day, too.
Eat your three squares. When you skip meals, your taste buds will have a yen for the sweet and salty.
Grab a bit of whole-wheat bread and olive oil. The fats in olive oil turn off your hunger.
This is just an excerpt from the awesome article…you can indulge in the entire thing by clicking here.
Quick Tiramisu with Less Fat
It Only Takes 15 Minutes to Prepare this Lower Fat Tiramisu!
Being from an Italian family, I had Tiramisu a lot when I was growing up and I always loved it! The sweet coffee and cheese taste that just melts in your mouth…who couldn’t love Tiramisu?! But I was always under the impression that it was difficult to make…and also high in fat with all that mascarpone cheese. Well, I just found this recipe on Eatingwell.com for an easy and quick version that’s also lower in fat! It doesn’t make a huge cake like the kind I’m used to seeing at my family gatherings…actually the recipe says it makes 6 servings. For me that would mean 3 for me and 3 for my boyfriend…over 3 days of course! Whichever way you want to eat it, please enjoy and let me know how you like the easy and quick version of Tiramisu!
BABY TIRAMISU
1/2 cup nonfat ricotta cheese (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar (or one of our recommended natural sweeteners)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 ladyfingers (about 1 3/4 ounces)
4 tablespoons brewed espresso or strong coffee, divided
2 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate chips, melted (see Tip)
Combine ricotta, sweetener, vanilla and cinnamon in a medium bowl.
Place 6 ladyfingers in a 9-by-5-inch (or similar size) loaf pan. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons espresso (or coffee). Spread the ricotta mixture over the ladyfingers. Place another layer of ladyfingers over the ricotta and drizzle with the remaining 2 tablespoons espresso (or coffee). Drizzle with melted chocolate. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set, about 30 minutes.
Tip: To melt chocolate: Microwave on Medium for 1 minute. Stir, then continue microwaving on Medium in 20-second intervals until melted, stirring after each interval. Or place in the top of a double boiler over hot, but not boiling, water. Stir until melted.
Recipe Nutrition, a recipe yields six servings: Per serving: 107 calories; 2 g fat (1 g saturated fat, 0 g mono unsaturated fat); 3 mg cholesterol; 18 g carbohydrates; 3 g protein; 0 g fiber; 125 mg sodium; 29 mg potassium.
Easy Slow Cooker Desserts
Make Cheesecakes, Cakes, Rice Puddings & More in Your Slow Cooker!
When I think of slow cookers I think of my sister’s sweet and sour tender ribs or my friend’s delicious savory chicken, but I never think about desserts…until now. I just found a cool article written by Natalie Haughton, who is also the author of Slow & Easy: Fast-Fix Recipes for Your Electric Slow Cooker. In the article she shares cake, cheesecake, rice pudding, strata and fudge sauce recipes which all sound easy and delicious! I love all of the tips she gives to making desserts in the slow cooker, like watching the time carefully in order to prevent over baking, which she admits to doing. Unlike cooking dinner, desserts need less time to bake and should be monitored throughout. All in all the article is very informative and the desserts sound easy and quick! Please let me know if you try one…I’ve included the Chocolate Fudge cake recipe here.
CHOCOLATE FUDGE CAKE WITH PEANUT BUTTER GANACHE
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
Dash salt
1 stick (4 ounces) butter, melted
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Butter bottom and sides of a 4-quart round electric slow cooker. Line bottom with a round of nonstick foil cut to fit bottom of pot. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk gently to blend dry ingredients. Add melted butter, vinegar, vanilla and 11/2 cups cold water. Whisk vigorously until batter is well-blended and smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.
Turn batter into lined pot, spreading out evenly. Cover and cook on the low heat setting 4 1/2 to 5 hours, or until a cake tester inserted in center comes out clean. (Do not cook on the high heat setting as the cake will burn around the sides.)
Uncover and remove insert from cooker. Carefully run a knife all around edges to loosen cake. Let cool in pot 15 to 20 minutes. Then run knife around sides again before gently turning cake out of pot. You may have to coax it a bit with a spatula. Peel off foil and carefully turn cake right side up on a serving plate. Let cool completely.
Spread warm Peanut Butter Ganache over top and sides of cake. Use a small offset spatula or a dinner knife to draw swirls or a patterned design on top of cake. Let cool until set. Refrigerate until serving time. Makes 10 to 12 servings.
PEANUT BUTTER GANACHE
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/3 cup chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
In a glass bowl or a 2-cup glass measuring cup, combine all 3 ingredients. Heat in a microwave oven on high power for about 1 1/2 minutes or until chocolate is melted when stirred. Mix until ganache is smooth and well-blended. Let stand or refrigerate briefly until frosting is of spreading consistency. Makes about 1 cup.
Spring Break Desserts Kids Can Make!
Edible Dirt Is Only One of Many Easy Desserts For Kids!
It’s Spring Break time again! Oh how I used to love having a week off this time of year. My family never went on vacation during the break (we waited until July to drive to Florida) so I used to keep myself busy around the house. There was always lots to do like playing with barbie, watching tv and skipping outside but by the end of the week I got pretty bored, so I wanted to give parents and kids some ideas…easy dessert ideas, that is! I found some great ideas for easy dessert recipes on Suite101.com that kids and parents can make together. Recipes include Cat’s Eyes which requires crackers, peanut butter, banana and raisins; Microwave Carmelcorn with popcorn, sugar, butter and syrup; and Dirt Cups which I included below. I always thought it was a neat idea to make a dessert that resembles dirt…it might not look appetizing to an adult, but just one bite of the sweet chocolate pudding and oreo cookie crumbs and I’m sure I’d forget all about that! So have a fun spring break and let me know if you try any of these cool easy treats!
DIRT CUPS
2 cups milk
1 package chocolate pudding, instant
3-1/2 cup Cool Whip
16 oz Oreos
8 gummy worms
8 plastic flowers
Crush Oreos in a zip-lock bag and set aside. Pour milk into medium bowl, add pudding mix. Beat until well blended for about 1 -2 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in cool whip and half of cookies.
To Assemble: Place 1 tablespoon of crushed cookies in bottom of 8 oz cup. Fill cups about 3/4 full with pudding mixture. Top with remaining crumbs. Garnish with a plastic flower in middle and put a gummy worm halfway out of the “dirt”.
Angel Food Cake…Fat Free!
Homemade Angel Food Cake Tastes Better & Easy to Make!
Every year my sister asks our mother to make her an angel food cake for her birthday. I’m a vanilla cake person myself, but I have to admit the angel food cake is quite delicious. My mom adds a layer of chocolate pudding to the store bought cake which adds some depth and flavor since the cake alone is so light and simple. Well, after doing some reading about angel food cakes I learned that the homemade kind has a much nicer, sweeter taste than store bought, and can stand alone without puddings and icings and such. I came across an article at GadsdenTimes.com that gives great tips on making homemade angel food cake and it even claims that it’s easy to make! One simple tip is to use room-temperature egg whites because they will beat to a greater volume. Even better, the article claims that angel food cake is fat-free! That sounds good to me! The best part is that the article includes a recipe for Vanilla Butter Nut Angel Food Cake…doesn’t that sound delicious? I’m excited to make this because the recipe sounds easy and delicious, plus I’m curious to find out if angel food cake really does taste great on its own! Let me know what you think if you try this out!
VANILLA BUTTERNUT ANGEL FOOD CAKE
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups egg whites (12 to 14 egg whites)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon vanilla butternut flavoring
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In small bowl, stir together the confectioners’ sugar and flour; set aside.
In a large bowl, combine egg whites, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, vanilla butternut flavoring and salt. With mixer at high speed, beat until well mixed. Beating at high speed, sprinkle in granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons at a time; beat just until sugar dissolves and whites form stiff peaks. Do NOT scrape bowl during beating. With rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture, about 1/4 cup at a time, just until flour disappears. Pour mixture into ungreased 10-inch angel food pan and with spatula, cut through batter to break any large air bubbles.
Bake 35 minutes or until top of cake springs back when lightly touched with finger. Any cracks on surface should look dry. Invert cake in pan on funnel; cool completely. With spatula, loosen cake from pan and remove to plate. Makes 12 servings.
Baking Tips for Brownies
How to Bake the Perfect Brownie for You!
For the most part, brownie desserts are so easy and quick to make. They require only a few simple ingredients and they bake in one pan for a short period of time. But I find that with brownies you never know what kind you’re going to get! I mean, will it be fudgy, chewy, or cake-like? Well, I recently got a great email from Bakespace.com that explained the tricks to getting the type of brownie texture you’re looking for. Check it out!
WHAT MAKES A BROWNIE A BROWNIE?
While the classic brownie recipe includes just a few ingredients (butter, sugar, chocolate, eggs, and flour), brownies can come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. Here are a few popular varieties:
FUDGE BROWNIES are made with less flour and no leavening (baking powder). Melting the butter rather than creaming it with sugar yields denser, fudgier brownies.
CAKE-LIKE BROWNIES contain less butter and more flour than fudge brownies, as well as a bit of baking powder, to make them softer and lighter. Often the softened butter is creamed with the sugar rather than melted with the chocolate. Many cake-like recipes call for a splash of milk, which also gives brownies a light texture.
CHEWY BROWNIES get their texture by modifying two ingredients: an extra egg (or two) and a combination of different types of chocolate, such as unsweetened and semisweet. Combining these ingredients with a few tablespoons of cocoa powder helps round out the flavor and thicken the texture for a rich, satisfyingly chewy result.
BLONDIES are really butterscotch bars made with brown sugar, butter, and eggs (and usually nuts as well), but no chocolate. Blondies typically have a cake-like texture.
A Healthy Ice Cream Sandwich?
Simple ingredients and only minutes to assemble!
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, I’ve found a sweet treat recipe that claims to be healthy! Actually, it’s from The Canadian Press, which makes it sound so much more official, doesn’t it? Anyway, it’s hard not to eat sweets on this day…whether you receive candy from your special friend or you devour a box of chocolates in misery, Valentine’s Day can cause an overindulgence of sugar. This recipe is for Chocolate-Walnut Lace Cookie Ice-cream Sandwiches. How delicious does that sound?! The best part is that this dessert is easy, with just a handful of common ingredients to make the cookies; and it’s quick to assemble too! Just don’t forget to buy the ice cream, or frozen yogurt (choosing non-fat frozen yogurt or ice cream will make this even healthier)! You can assemble the sandwiches earlier in the day and store them in the freezer. I think a dusting of icing sugar on top just before serving looks nice, and you can even add some fruit for a pretty presentation. That should give you some ‘health’ points too! Have a SWEET V-day!
CHOCOLATE-WALNUT LACE COOKIE ICE-CREAM SANDWICHES
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
2 tbsp chopped walnuts
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg white
2 cups low-fat strawberry or chocolate ice cream or frozen yogurt
Heat oven to 325 F. Line a large baking sheet with foil and coat it with cooking spray or brush it with oil.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine sugar and butter. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is melted and bubbling, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Add oats, walnuts, cocoa, baking powder and vanilla, then stir to combine. Set aside.
In a small bowl, use a fork to beat egg white until it is slightly frothy. Measure out 1 tbsp of the beaten white and stir it into cookie batter; discard remaining egg white or reserve for another use.
Drop half tablespoonfuls of the batter about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet to make 12 cookies. Bake for 8 to 12 minutes or until cookies look dry and are just beginning to colour on top.
Slide sheet of foil and cookies off baking sheet and onto a flat surface. Let cookies cool completely then peel off foil.
To assemble sandwiches, set a cookie in the centre of a dessert plate. Top with 1/4 cup of the ice cream. Set a second cookie on top of the ice cream, then top that with another 1/4 cup of ice cream. Set a third cookie on top.
As you assemble the sandwiches, place them in the freezer until ready to serve. Makes 4 servings.
Nutrition information per serving (values are rounded to the nearest whole number): 232 calories, 82 calories from fat, 9 g fat (4 g saturated, 0 g trans fats), 16 mg cholesterol, 33 g carbohydrate, 5 g protein, 2 g fibre, 150 mg sodium.
Dessert Blog Reviews
I found some great blog posts about easy dessert recipes that I thought you might like to check out!
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Easy Desserts – Tags: almonds, arrowroot, dessert recipe, dessert recipes, easy dessert recipes, easy desserts, easy to make dessert recipes, free dessert recipes, pear, pear recipes, pears, poached pear recipe, poached pears, sherry, vanilla, …
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Super Easy Cheesecake « A Recipe A Day – Entry Filed under: Baking, Cheese, Cheesecake, Cherry, Comfort Food, Desserts, Easy, Kid Friendly, Kid Pleaser, Oven, Recipes. Tags: Recipes, Desserts, dessert, Cheese, Easy, Entertaining, Oven, Comfort Food, …
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3 Prize-Winning Berry Special Cranberry Desserts | Easy Dessert … – This post presents 3 easy cranberry desserts that won first, second, and third place for the Berry Special Cranberry Treats contest organized by the Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center…
Homemade Desserts…Easy and Economical!
Muffins are a good EASY dessert for novice bakers!
I have loved baking for years. It’s the excitement of finding a recipe that SOUNDS good, putting together some ingredients, following a few directions, then VOILA!…a sweet treat that you made yourself. Such a proud moment! Especially if it tastes good too! Well, it looks like homemade baking is growing in popularity due to the slow economy. According to an article on thestarpress.com, more and more people are baking their own treats to save money and it names some easy options. For example, it suggests baking your own muffins and quick breads, both of which are desserts easy and quick–you can make them in less than an hour! I also like how this article encourages you to experiment with ingredients and not be afraid of weird flavour combinations…like pumpkin and apple! Well, anything pumpkin is okay with me…I love it! As well, there are a few tricks listed to help you make the perfect muffins…check out the article here!
Easy Tips for Perfect Cookies
Make good cookies GREAT with these helpful hints!
Cookies are so versatile. There are many great recipes, you can experiment with numerous ingredients, and best of all they are a dessert that’s easy and quick to make. But I may have found a way to improve them! About.com has a list of the Top Ten Tips for the Best Cookies. Whether you’re an experienced baker or you want to learn how to bake cookies, I think this article has something for everyone. Many people know that too much flour will make your cookies dry, but this list suggests reducing the flour in many cookie recipes by one quarter to prevent that. I never considered that before! I also love the tip on how to soften butter quickly…grate it into a bowl and leave it on the counter! The article also mentioned baking with the freshest ingredients, which reminded me to buy more baking powder because mine expired last month. I hope you find this list helpful…check it out here!