Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Easy Dessert Recipes - 3 Simple Tips

Always finding ourselves short of time in today's world, easy dessert recipes are more important than ever. Have you ever wanted to make a wonderful and delicious dessert to magnificently top off a gathering meal but found yourself short on time? Or maybe you are new to making desserts and need some help? I'm sure it happens to all of us now and then.

As a dessert lover myself, I always try to make sure that the dessert I make will at least result in some words of praise from my guests. One of the best things about having great dessert is not just that it gives you that wonderful feeling, but it also makes you happy when you see how much your guests or family members are enjoying it. But how do you do that if you are new and find dessert-making difficult, or if you're constantly busy and making dessert is too time-consuming?

This article gives you some simple tips for making life simpler by choosing the right easy dessert recipes, and some advice for making almost any dessert recipe easier.

1. Recipe Size

Often we overlook the fact that the dessert recipes we make can be downsized to fit our needs. This can be as simple as taking a normal dessert recipe and dividing all the ingredient portions in half or in quarter, but not every recipe may be so appropriately scaled down. When searching for easy dessert recipes, be on the look out for the serving sizes listed for each recipe. Some recipes are specially designed for a small number of guests and these will save you a lot of hassle and worry.

Small dessert recipes are easier to make and they bake faster too. This is especially so if your kitchen isn't as big as you want it to be, or you don't have enough large bowls. Also, keep in mind that desserts are normally eaten after a large, full meal, and smaller easy dessert recipes will go well with the guests. If you have any guests who are trying to keep control of their weight, they will thank you for this too.

2. Ingredients Required

The best easy dessert recipes to choose are preferably those with convenient ingredients that you can easily find in your local store. If you are in a rush, then you might want to opt for an easy dessert recipe that can be made with the ingredients you already have on hand in your pantry or refrigerator. Recipes that require fewer ingredients will generally be easier to make. Try searching for recipes with three to five ingredients for maximum easiness in making.

3. Component Substitution

Many long-winding recipes can be made easier to some extent by simple component substitution. If certain components of a particular easy dessert recipe can be store-bought, it will save you a lot of time and effort. For example, when making a tiramisu, instead of having to make the ladyfingers and cheesecake filling from scratch according to the recipe, it would also be possible for you to buy pre-made packages of ladyfingers from the store, and ready-to-eat cheesecake filling too. Then just add coffee syrup or other flavoring according to your tastes, and assemble it for a quick tiramisu dessert.

Some people may frown upon this saying that those ready-made components do not make a dessert that tastes as good as the ones you make yourself. Well for me, I feel that this in itself is an art. It takes a certain amount of knowledge and experience to know which brand of ingredients is of the best quality and go well together. Of course easy dessert recipes that are made from scratch will often taste better, if done right, due to the effort and thought put into them. But the difference is not always that large, and there are times when we don't always get things done right. If you're just a beginner who is just starting out, then this is a good place to start too.

Try these three simple tips for making easy dessert recipes even easier, and they will save you a lot of effort. You will even find that you have more time to enjoy yourself in the kitchen.




Art Young is a mysterious pastry chef and baker extraordinaire who has a special passion for home cooking. He is currently traveling the world in search of the secret ingredients for making the ultimate dessert...

Visit http://www.easydessertrecipesblog.com/ for more.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Desserts Are an Important Part of the Baby Shower Food Menu

Baby showers are not complete without sweets! Desserts, fruit, and pastries add sweetness and charm to special events. Sweets are an important part of a baby shower, so do not forget to include them in your menu. If you have reservations in a restaurant, the restaurant will probably offer a dessert menu from which you can choose your selection of sweets and post-meal indulgences.

If you are hosting the baby shower at a banquet hall or at someone's home, the dessert menu is completely up to you to decide on. You can make desserts fun, sweet, and baby themed to match your event. If there is a specific theme that you are focusing on, like "Pink Tea," design your dessert menu around your theme. Popular sweets for baby showers are pastries, eclairs, truffles, fruits, chocolates, and the ever-classic cake.

Pastries and éclairs can be bought or baked. Visit your local bakery to find out about any special deals and offers that they can offer for a large quantity of pastries purchased. You can also find some good recipes online or in a cookbook, and bake the pastries yourself. A great alternative to this is to buy frozen pastries at your local grocery store, or better yet, at a wholesale grocery store. These are affordable and scrumptiously delicious. B.J.'s and Costco supermarkets have amazing éclairs that nobody will ever know were bought frozen.

Trufas are a Latin American version of truffles. Truffles are not necessarily made out of chocolate in Hispanic countries, but can be made with coconut, vanilla, and other flavors. Two popular flavors in Latin America are coconut and cocoa-flavored truffles. An easy recipe for truffles calls for one can of sweetened condensed milk, a box of crushed vanilla wafer cookies, and a half of a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Cocoa, sweetened shredded coconut, and sprinkles are good add-ons.

Crush the cookies until you end up purely with cookie crumbs. Slowly add the sweetened condensed milk until you reach the desire consistency of tough clay. Add the vanilla flavoring along with the chosen flavor (cocoa, coconut, etc.). Use you own taste to decide how much cocoa or coconut to use. Roll into small, round truffles. As a finishing touch, roll the coconut truffles around in shredded coconut, and roll the cocoa truffles in cocoa. Sprinkles are optional.

Fruits and dip is a healthy and fresh option for a sweet treat. Serve apple slices, strawberries, pineapple, grapes, and melon alongside fruit dip, and you have got a fabulous and nutritious treat! Popular choices for fruit dip are caramel, chocolate, and yogurt dip.

Chocolate is a must-have for any baby shower. Small chocolates can be bought in bulk and served on tiny cupcake cups, for an elegant touch. You can also buy pastel-colored white chocolate (sold in bags in most craft stores), melt it, and pour the melted chocolate into small baby-themed molds (also can be found at a craft store). Refrigerate, and voila: delicate and adorable little chocolates!

Whichever sweets you decide to include in your menu, and whether or not you decide to make or buy them, do not forget about the cake! Whether you order it and have it made especially for your shower, or make it yourself, make sure that you are 100% satisfied with its outcome and that it ties into your baby shower theme.




Edie Mindell is Creative Content Writer for Simply Unique Baby Gifts Simply Unique Baby Gifts has a broad selection of baby shower gifts, with great customer service and free shipping (lower 48 states). To see a complete range of their products, for the unique gift, Baby and Mom will love, please visit their online catalog at: http://www.simplyuniquebabygifts.com

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Monday, August 29, 2011

Dirt Dessert Recipe

If you have never tried a dirt dessert before you are missing out! This dirt desert recipe is truly easy to make, delicious and you will not be able to stop eating it! Don't let the name fool you, this dessert is rich, tasty and full of flavor!

Ingredients for Dirt Dessert Recipe:
o 1 cup of cream cheese softened - or 1 package of 8 ounces
o 1/4 cup of margarine, softened
o 1 cup of confection sugar
o 3 1/2 cups of cold milk
o 2 packages of instant vanilla pudding mix
o 1 carton or 12 ounces of frozen whipped topping that is thawed out completely
o 1 package of cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies that are crushed up

Directions for making Dirt Dessert recipe:
o In a large mixing bowl, beat the margarine, cream cheese and the confection sugar together until it is smooth
o In a large bowl, whisk the milk and pudding mix for about two minutes
o Let it stand for about two minutes or until it is set soft
o Gradually stir it into the cream cheese mixture
o Fold in the whipped topping
o Spread the 1 1/3 cups of crushed cookies into an un-greased pan - 13 x 9.
o Layer the pan with half of the pudding mix on the cookies and then alternated and repeat layers
o Refrigerate for about one hour

There are a lot of fun things you can do with this dirt dessert recipe. You can put the dessert into a flower pot instead of a pan and layer it. You can put a fake flower or two into the pot of dirt dessert for a fun and festive way to bring a dessert to a party. You can also get the kids involved and let your imagination run wild with different options for making this fun dirt dessert.

You can come up with all kinds of ways to make this a fun dessert to serve at parties and children's parties. You can put gummy worms into the dessert to create a garden effect, or put little garden decorations into it to make it look like a festive garden. You can also put colorful flowers or icing on top of it and create the look of a beautiful flower bed. There are no limits as to what this fun and easy recipe can do.

You can also make the recipe a lighter and healthier version by using low-fat or fat-free cream cheese and even find lower fat or low calorie sandwich cookies to use. You can use low fat versions of the pudding mix and milk, and have yourself a tasty and healthy treat.




Katie Appleby is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

To learn more about dirt dessert recipe [http://tastydessertstoday.info/dirt-dessert-recipe], please visit Tasty Desserts Today [http://tastydessertstoday.info] for current articles and discussions.

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