Muffins: Flavor Ideas Great For Dessert

Muffins are baked treats somewhat similar to bread or cakes. They look like cupcakes because their base is cylindrical and the top is rounded and arched. Muffins are, typically, sweet and in modern cooking, they have fillings such as fruit jams and/or toppings like chocolate chips. Muffins make great desserts, especially when served with ice cream.

Muffins are made or baked in a muffin tin or pan, which is a baking pan with depressions shaped in a cup where the muffin batter is poured. The standard size of a muffin cup is about 2 and a half inches in diameter but there are muffin tins with larger cups about 3 ¼ inches in diameter to make jumbo muffins. There are also mini muffins and to make these, you would need a miniature muffin tin, which has cups about 2 inches or less in diameter.

Muffin Flavors

Fruits are common ingredients in muffins. Some popular fruits used in making muffins are apples, banana, blueberry, cherry, lemon, pineapple, rhubarb, raspberry, and strawberry. Other food items usually mixed in muffin recipes are nuts, chocolate, cinnamon, peanut butter, pumpkin, vanilla, and mint. Muffins also typically combine two or more flavors such as apple cinnamon, blueberry chocolate and walnut maple. The flavor combinations are practically limitless so feel free to experiment in making your dessert muffins.

There are also many ways to dress up your dessert muffins. You can simply sprinkle sugar, chopped nuts or grated cheese on top and your dessert muffins would be extra tasty.
Some other delicious muffin toppings are shredded coconut, crushed graham crackers, oats, poppy seeds, and orange glaze. You can also try these combinations for your muffin toppings: fruit and preserves, cinnamon hazelnut, cinnamon sugar, and oat almonds. To add some texture and flavor to your dessert muffins, sprinkle any of these topping combinations over your muffin batter before you bake them.

Here are some more muffin baking tips:

• Do not forget use non stick cooking spray in each muffin cup so you can easily remove your muffins without damaging it
• Place paper liners in the muffin cups so they will be easier to clean
• When pouring the batter onto the muffin cups, leave sufficient space for the muffins to expand so you will get a nice rounded top instead of a flat one. The cups should not be more than three fourths full.
• If after baking, the muffins stuck to the bottom of the cups, place the hot muffin pan down on a damp towel and after 2 minutes, you should be able to take your muffins out.

Muffins are always popular desserts. The perfect ones are moist on the inside with a brown thin crust on the outside. They are easy to make whether you want to use a muffin mix or mix your own ingredients. Try some of the flavor and topping ideas above and you will be sure to have mouth-watering muffins for dessert.

Petits Fours: Delectable And Dainty Desserts

Petits fours are small bite-sized cakes or pastries that are generally served as a dessert after or as part of a large buffet meal. Petits fours are also often served with afternoon tea.

The French term petits fours when literally translated means “small oven”, which came from the cooking method use to make these cakes. In the past, the French baked cakes in ovens fueled by coal, which reached high temperatures, and after large cakes are baked the ovens would still be hot enough to bake smaller cakes. These small cakes are what are known today as petits fourss.

Generally, petits fours are about an inch square and 2 inches high. They are made with layers of cake and frosting, usually, butter cream but you can also use other flavors such As chocolate, coffee, almond or vanilla extract, orange, or cream cheese. The layers then are coated with fondant, often in pastel colors. Because petits fours are basically small cakes, you can decorate them with candy embellishments much like you would regular sized cakes although sugar roses are typically used.

These dessert treats have two basic types, which are called sec and glacé. Sec means dry so petits fours sec are the ones that do not require any embellishments once baked. You can serve them for dessert as is and these confections include puff pastries, ladyfingers, baked meringues and macaroons.

Glacé, on the other hand, means iced so petits fours glace need icing, glaze or some other decoration after they are baked. Petits fours glacé may also be filled with jam, chocolate, cream or other sweet filling. A good base for petits fours glace is a mini sponge cake or angel food cake. Examples of petits fours glacé are tarts, eclairs and mini fondant or frosted cakes.

As an afternoon snack, petits fours are traditionally served with tea accompanies by ice cream or any sweet frozen dessert. As a dessert after a large meal, petits fours are served with a dessert beverage such as coffee, tea, dessert wine or liquor.

Some excellent flavor combinations for petits fours are vanilla with marzipan and raspberry filling, orange chocolate petits fours, and fudge mint petits fours. Of course, the variety of flavors that you can use as well as the shapes and decoration are practically endless. That is why you can petits fours make delightful desserts in any occasion from baby or bridal showers to a formal business dinner or luncheon or a wedding reception.

Pies: Everybody Wants A Slice

Pies are baked foods consisting of a baked pastry shell that completely covers a filling. Pies for desserts contain sweet fillings such as fruits, creams, and chocolates and other food items that add flavor or texture such as cheeses and nuts. There are also pies that have only a top crust covering a filling, usually fruits, placed on a dish. These pie versions are known as cobbler, crumble or crisps. Pies with a crust only at the bottom have sweet fillings that often do not have to be cooked. These are better known as tarts.

Popular pies for dessert include apple pies, apricot pies, blueberry pies, cherry pies, cream pies, peach pies, strawberry pies and, of course, pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving dessert. It is also common for pie desserts to combine more than one fruit. Some examples are cherry lemon pies and cranberry apple pies. Aside from fruit pies, pies that also make wonderful desserts make use of other sweet and savory ingredients such as peanut butter, meringue, sour cream, flavored creams, coconut, and ice cream.

Ice cream pies are delightful and easy-to-make frozen desserts. Simply spread ice cream and sherbet into the pie crust, freeze, and top with whipped cream and then freeze again. Remove the ice cream pie from your freezer about 30 minutes before you serve it. Lastly, top with fruit slices and coconut flakes. You can use vanilla ice cream and orange sherbet and orange slices for toppings or choose your flavors. Fruit pies that are served with a scoop or scoops of ice cream are known in the United States as “à la mode”, the most popular kind is apple pie à la mode.

Here are some tips in making fruit pies:

Make two-crust pies on the night before you will use them. Refrigerate them overnight and you will have perfect crusts to bake with in the morning. Brush some milk over a two-crust pie to get a pleasant browned look.

Make pumpkin pie topping sweeter by layering marshmallows in the bottom of the pie. When baked, the marshmallows will expand to the top. Prevent fruit juice from oozing from the pie into the oven by inserting short drinking straws into the openings in the crust to let steam out when baking.

With the thousands of pie recipes available from classic fruit pies to modern cream pies and gourmet pies, you will surely the find the perfect pie dessert to make for simple family gatherings to special occasions.

Puddings: Europe’s Surprisingly Magical Treat

Enticing and deliciously sweet, puddings are the household dessert in every European home. With just one look at it, one can expect a tempting treat for the sweet tooth but more surprises are actually in store once you put it into your mouth and taste the hidden treats inside. Born in one of the kitchens in Europe, puddings also have traditional preparation beliefs that could give the awaited surprise in your life.

Majority of the countries in Europe actually used the word pudding to refer to a dessert. The word pudding evolved from the French word boudin through the Latin word botellus, which means small sausage that are used in the original or first puddings during the medieval era.

Puddings are usually defined as any of the various mixes of soft sweet desserts or meat, sausage as mentioned earlier, thickened with flour or any binder encasing or hiding the mixes of indulging ingredients that were baked, steamed, or boiled. In fact, culinary experts class the dessert as those served with meat and those served with fruits. Dessert writers, on the other hand, say that puddings were originally boiled in a bag or cloth then was later steamed where a cloth covered buttered bowl is used and lastly a baked and chilled pudding came in with the procedures.

Culinary innovations were later made in preparing puddings such as the use of instant mixes of sugar or milk and eggs or other thickening agents that resulted to custard or mousse-like smooth and creamy dessert, which is more popular for the Americans. Traditional puddings, on the other hand, are also topped with whipped cream and fresh fruits as another innovation.

Puddings also have an amusing and enchanting practice on how it is originally served. The Christmas holiday plum pudding, for instance, is traditionally served with tiny silver charms either topped or baked in the pudding. The charms could be a silver coin, which is believed to attract wealth or a silver miniature anchor for safe harbor. A wishbone is also used to bring good luck in the family. Another tradition in preparing the pudding is for every household member to simultaneously stir the pudding batter using the wooden spoon and later make a wish.

Europe is known for its dream-like royalties, which are often related to enchanting fairy tales of our childhood. Puddings are just another magical treat of the continent for the rest of the world.