The Microwave: Real and Easy Butterscotch Sauce
Butterscotch sauce is something you make when you want to impress guests. Authentic (not artificially flavored) butterscotch sauce isn’t like the thick stuff you buy in the jar; it is silky and pourable, not cloyingly sweet. And positively addicting as far as a sweet attack goes. Part of the nostalgic soda fountain ice cream sundaes, the retro sauce is now the rage. Since it is one of my favorite flavors, I couldn’t be more pleased.
Doctor Up Your Ice Cream
I love ice cream. And considering the rash of ice cream books these days, everyone else feels the same way I do. You can play ice cream on any level–your favorite flavor at the supermarket or make your own. It really doesn’t matter. If you love the flavor, you are satisfied.
5 Easy Shortcut Desserts
Everyone thinks that just because I was trained as a professional pastry baker, worked in a host of bakeries, was a caterer for close to 20 years, and write about baking, that when I want to make a little something…
Champagne Pink Grapefruit Sorbet
Lou’s Raspberry Amaretto Bombe
The art of frozen desserts has fascinated bakers for a multitude of centuries. Reliable refrigeration made this type of dessert, first created for royalty, a delight of the masses. The bombe, a sophisticated-looking classic French dessert, is composed of two layers: a sorbet, then an ice cream mixture, in a pretty mold. What is great is that a simple bowl, which will be turned upside down, looks incredible, so no special mold is needed. There are so many excellent commercial ice creams and sorbets on the market today that the connoisseur doesn’t have to rely on the laborious task of making it at home anymore. Not only do they look fantastic all smooth and round, but what a lovely surprise everybody gets when you cut it open to reveal layer upon layer of different ice cream. This version is a favorite, a creation of my friend Lou Pappas in her book, Sorbets and Ice Cream (Chronicle Books, 2005). A bombe can conveniently wait up to a week in the freezer before serving. Serve in wedges Nobel style, with Champagne.
For The Cool Dessert Enthusiast
There isn’t a home cook around who doesn’t like to have a few tricks in his/her kitchen for an interesting tasty dessert that will appeal to those who have to watch their calories. The secret is to have desserts that fill this need, but don’t taste like it. Dessert making is the culinary genre with a dash of the alchemy of befoolery. You want to have the appeal be richly irresistible, but have the element of ease of preparation, too. If you can throw in the element of not-so-fat-laden that cannot be detected by the tongue, you are a kitchen wizard to be sure.
Frozen Lime Pie
The Frozen Lime Pie will keep in the freezer for up to 3 days and came from my mother’s neighbors for 30 years, Bob and Margie Beardsley, who are incredible cooks. There is always something new cookin’ at the Beardsleys. I almost passed by this recipe since it uses Cool Whip.