Fabulous desserts for the holidays - Los Angeles Times

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Fabulous desserts for the holidays - Los Angeles Times

Fabulous desserts for the holidays - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 20 Dec 2020 05:00 AM PST

Remember how, as a kid, you would painstakingly eat every last carrot and pea on your dinner plate only to have your mom give you a slice of cantaloupe or a banana at the end of the meal and call it dessert? Don't get me wrong. I love fruit. But fruit is not dessert, even when eaten at the end of a meal. As I child, I had difficulty articulating the argument, but some years ago, my friend Zvi laid out his dessert rule for me. For something to qualify as dessert, at least two of three ingredients must be present: flour, sugar, chocolate. If it does not meet the criteria, it is a sweet treat, but it is not dessert.

That is not to say that all dessert has to be a chocolate cake or a chocolate tart or chocolate mousse pie. You only need two of the three. So, tiramisu and Linzer cookies, baklava and mandelbread also qualify. Flourless chocolate cake also qualifies because it has sugar and chocolate.

Fruit can be in dessert as with, say, a Meyer lemon trifle cake or a French-style quince tart, because each has both flour and sugar. Caramelized fig cake with lemon Anglaise; cranberry, caramel and almond tart; and pumpkin cheesecake all qualify as well.

Life being what it is, sometimes when I plan a big menu, I run out of time and something gets left out. This is why I make dessert first. So if my bittersweet chocolate Tartufo with olive oil gelato doesn't come out quite right, I can still whip together a bread pudding or some cookies or fudge to serve at meal's end. Neither I nor my guests should ever have to pretend that an apple is dessert.

35 minutes

Serves 8 to 10

30 minutes

Serves 4

1 hour 30 minutes

Makes 2 pies (6 to 8 servings each)

3 hours 30 minutes, largely unattended

Serves 8 to 12

1 hour 15 minutes

Serves 12

1 hour 45 minutes

Serves 8

2 hours

Serves 12 to 16

1 hour 30 minutes

Makes 2 dozen

2 hours

Makes about 4 dozen cookies

1 hour

Serves 8

1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 6

2 hours

Serves 8 to 10

30 minutes

Serves 12

1 hour

Serves 8

1 hour

Serves 12 to 14

1 hour

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies

1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 8

1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 12

1 hour 15 minutes

Serves 8

2 hours 10 minutes

Serves 10 to 12

1 hour

Serves 8 to 12

1 hour

Makes 32 cookies

2 hours

Serves 8 to 10

20 minutes

Serves 4

2 hours 45 minutes

Serves 16

1 hour

Serves 10 to 12

1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 16 to 20

15 minutes

Serves 2 to 4

1 hour 50 minutes

Serves 10 to 12

3 hours 30 minutes

Serves 8 to 10

1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 8 to 10

1 hour 10 minutes

Makes about 3 1/2 dozen cookies

1 hour 10 minutes

Makes 2 dozen

Active work time: 40 minutes Total preparation time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Serves 10 to 12

1 hour 20 minutes

Serves 10

50 minutes

Serves 6

2 hours

Makes 2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size

2 hours

Serves 10 to 12

20 minutes

Makes 117 pieces

1 hour

Makes 6 to 12 tarts, depending on size

1 hour 30 minutes

Makes 2 to 3 dozen bars, depending on size

25 minutes

Serves 4

2 hours

Serves 8

45 minutes

Makes 20 cookies

1 hour 20 minutes

Serves 12 to 14

1 hour

Makes 2 dozen cookies

1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 8

40 minutes

Makes one 17- by-12-inch tray (about 4 dozen)

2 hours

Serves 20 to 24

45 minutes

Makes about 2 dozen sandwich cookies

2 hours

Serves 8 to 12

1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 12 to 16

2 hours 50 minutes

Serves 8 to 12

50 minutes

Serves 6 to 8

1 hour 20 minutes, plus 1 1/2 hours unattended

Serves 8 to 12

40 minutes

Serves 6

1 hour

Serves 4 to 6

40 minutes

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

1 hour 10 minutes

Serves 8 to 10

1 hour 30 minutes

Serves 10 to 12

15 minutes

Makes 24 pieces

2 hours

Makes about 5 dozen (3 1/2-inch) bars

45 minutes

Serves 8

Active work time: 30 minutes Total preparation time: 1 hour, plus 1 hour chilling

Serves 8 to 10

40 minutes

Makes about 3 ½ dozen cookies

1 hour 15 minutes

Serves 4

Active work time: 20 minutes Total preparation time: 1 hour

Serves 14 to 16

45 minutes

Makes about 1 1/2 dozen cookies

1 hour

This makes about 1½ dozen (2½ inch) cookies

1 hour 50 minutes

Serves 12

Nigel Slater’s recipes for Christmas desserts - The Guardian

Posted: 20 Dec 2020 02:30 AM PST

There's a cake in the oven. Not the traditional raisin and nut-laden Christmas cake (which is already wrapped, somewhat untidily in almond paste, like a baby in a blanket) but a second, plainer one, for those unmoved by the idea of a rich fruit cake. I have baked this second cake in a hollow Gugelhupf tin that makes anything you put in it resemble a Christmas wreath.

I could have used a plain, round cake tin, but I rather enjoy preparing special cake tins for such occasions. There is something relaxing about painstakingly brushing the inside with butter and dusting it with flour from a sieve, shaking off any excess, then filling the tin – in this case – with chocolate-freckled cake batter.

For those without baking tins or patience, I have also made some Christmas tarts, their snowy-white filling aglow with passion fruit and sugared roses. You don't even need an oven, just a packet of biscuits, thick yogurt and a bag of ripe and wrinkled fruits. You could knock them up in half an hour if needs be.

Despite the usual glittering tree and beribboned gifts, the burnished bird in the oven and the plum pudding steaming in its pot, this is far from the usual feast. But I like (and in truth need) the steadying familiarity that goes hand in hand with the season. Even more reason then to offer all comers a treat: a slice of cake and a glass of something sweet. A little gift of sweetness and light.

Chocolate hazelnut bundt cake

If you don't have a Gugelhupf or bundt cake tin, make this in a classic round, deep-sided 20cm cake tin. You may need to bake it for a little longer to cook the middle. Test occasionally by piercing the centre with a metal skewer – it should come out moist, but without raw cake mixture sticking to it.

For the cake:
butter 200g, plus a little for the tins
caster sugar 200g
skinned hazelnuts 100g
self-raising flour 120g, plus some for the tins
eggs 3
dark chocolate 100g

To finish:
dark chocolate 200g
edible food paint (optional)

You will also need a 22cm Gugelhupf or bundt cake tin

Set the oven at 180C/gas mark 4. Prepare the cake tin by melting a little extra butter, brushing the inside of the tin then dusting it lightly with flour. Turn the tin upside down and shake lightly to remove any excess flour.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a food mixer until pale and fluffy. Toast the hazelnuts in a shallow pan until pale golden brown, moving them round the pan so they colour evenly. Grind them to a coarse powder in a food processor then stir in the flour. Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat with a fork. Chop the chocolate into coarse crumbs – a matter of seconds in a food processor.

Add the flour and hazelnut mixture and the beaten eggs to the butter and sugar, alternately and a little at a time, beating continuously. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Mix lightly but thoroughly then spoon into the cake tin, smoothing the surface as you go.

Bake for 25-35 minutes until nicely risen. (It is unlikely to come to the top of the tin.) Test with a skewer. Remove from the oven and leave to settle for 10 minutes. Loosen the sides with a palette knife and turn out on to a cooling rack.

To decorate, break the chocolate into small squares and melt it in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Trickle it over the cake and leave to set. Decorate with food paints or icing sugar if you wish.

Passion fruit and cardamom yogurt tarts

'You don't even need an oven': passion fruit and cardamom yogurt tarts.
'You don't even need an oven': passion fruit and cardamom yogurt tarts. Photograph: The Observer

The sweet and crumbly biscuit crust acts as a contrast to the sourness of both yogurt and passion fruit in these easily-put-together tarts. For something sweeter, stir a couple of tbsp of icing sugar into the yogurt. The crispness is essential, but use a loose-textured, buttery biscuit rather than a hard gingernut. Makes 6

For the crust:
crumbly ginger biscuits 180g
cardamom pods 10
butter 80g

For the filling:
passion fruits 6
thick (strained) yogurt 500g

To finish:
crystallised rose petals 1 tbsp
passion fruits 2

You will also need 6 x 10cm metal rings or loose-bottomed tart cases.

Turn the biscuits to fine crumbs in a food processor or by putting them in a plastic bag and crushing with a rolling pin. Crack the cardamom pods, extract the seeds and grind them to a fine powder using a pestle and mortar or spice mill. Melt the butter in a small pan, add the cardamom then the crumbs and stir thoroughly. Set 4 tbsp of the crumbs aside.

Place the tart cases or metal rings on a baking sheet and divide the crumb mixture between them, packing them down lightly with the back of a spoon to form a thin disc. Refrigerate for 15 minutes until the butter has set.

Halve the 6 passion fruits and scoop out the filling with a teaspoon. Place a fine sieve over a small bowl, then push the juice and pulp through with a spoon. You should be left with an almost dry mound of seeds which you discard. Put the yogurt in a bowl, then stir in the juice. Fill the tart cases with the passion fruits and yogurt, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

To finish: crush the crystallised rose petals to a coarse powder. Squeeze the 2 passion fruits and scatter the juice and reserved crumbs over the top. Sprinkle over the crushed roses, and serve.

Follow Nigel on Twitter @NigelSlater

The Best Desserts to Serve on Christmas - msnNOW

Posted: 20 Dec 2020 05:05 AM PST

It's safe to say we're not all brilliant bakers who know the ins and outs of the kitchen. But that doesn't mean you don't get to indulge in the fun and deliciousness that is Christmastime baking! Even if you're no pro at whipping meringue or carefully laying phyllo dough, there is still an easy Christmas dessert recipe out there for you.

If you're looking for the easiest Christmas desserts—the fewer ingredients and the less work and effort, the better!—then you will love these dessert recipes so foolproof, even the most baking-averse person could make them. From cake made in the microwave or pressure cooker to cookies with five or fewer ingredients, you can be a mess in the kitchen but still impress your family with what comes out of the oven.

And for more, check out these 52 Life-Changing Kitchen Hacks That'll Make You Enjoy Cooking Again.

Read the original article on Eat This, Not That!


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