Desperation Desserts

[maggiethecat]

I love to bake, and I'm good at it, but it's mostly something for a special occasion or because I'm itching to try out a new recipe. If I had a cookie jar, it would be empty 200 days of the year. Important point: although I'm not a chocolate lady, I always have some decent chocolate in the house.

Twice a month, after eleven pm, I have a desperate desire for dessert. Trust me, that melted choc /shredded wheat concoction was a bad idea. The microwaved Brownie in a mug is only so-so unless you own a lot of whipped cream, which suggests you are phyched for desserts, not desperate.

A couple of desperate days ago I threw a small handful of frozen TJ's blueberries, topped with some brown sugar into a cocotte in the microwave and nuked it until it was warm and juicy. I topped it with Greek Yog, and to me it was ambrosia. (Yeah with some nuts or coconut it would be better, but I was in desperation mode, not recipe writing mode.)

In my teens, a mixture of walnuts and raisins was my idea of an anytime go-to dessert. Oh, I loved it, and I'll buy some walnuts and see if it still satisfies.

Long preamble to my question: What's your Desperation Dessert?

[maggiethecat]

Oh, just typing this post gave me an idea: late night French Toast.

[Chris Hennes]

I randomly get cravings for brownies sometimes. Only late at night. Alcohol is usually involved. Janet Zimmerman (JAZ) gave me a pretty awesome brownie recipe a while ago that I printed out and stuffed in a corner: that's my go-to.

[FrogPrincesse]

For me it's this soft chocolate cake recipe. It hits the mark every time and is pretty much foolproof.

[Mjx]

I toss some konjaku powder into hot coffee/chocolate/mocha (occasionally, lemonade or tea), then shove it in the fridge for half an hour. Love the stuff, and it sets up much more quickly than gelatine.

[Tri2Cook]

My desperation dessert is cooking some jasmine rice and stirring in a little butter, sugar and milk. I guess not really a dessert but I like it.

[Shalmanese]

Some kind of custard is generally quick and easy. A smear of jam at the bottom of a ramekin, some custard, then in a water bath in an oven makes an excellent creme caramel like dessert.

[JeanneCake]

I

In my teens, a mixture of walnuts and raisins was my idea of an anytime go-to dessert. Oh, I loved it, and I'll buy some walnuts and see if it still satisfies.

I like pecans, dried cranberries and milk choc chips....and I started eating that when I was using that combo when I first started making coconut macaroons. It's the only time I eat milk chocolate or even like it (I usually prefer dark choc)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

For me, it's the custard/pudding that goes in citrus meringue pies. I don't need the crust or the meringue, but hot dang when I need something tasty and sweet I want that filling!

[kayb]

Depends on how desperate I am and how much work I want to do. If I don't mind a little assembling and baking, it's coconut macaroons -- dried bakers coconut, a little sugar, an egg, some almond extract, a little almond meal to bind it...shape spoonsful onto a baking sheet and it's 20 minutes at 350.

If I don't want to work -- some fruit drizzled with a little condensed milk, which I am never without.

[JAZ]

Butter toffee nuts. I've used peanuts, almonds (blanched, slivered, or whole), and even pine nuts when I didn't have anything else. They cook fast and then you just have to wait a few minutes for them to cool and harden. They're good on their own or with chocolate chips, and great over ice cream.

[Snadra]

I quite like to heat up frozen berries and thicken their juices with cornstarch (I guess this is a sort of kissiel).

Very nice topped with a bit of cream.

Unthickened quickly cooked fruit (or pureed tropical fruit) is nice topped with warm seed tapioca (although that takes a bit longer).

Our quickest and easiest is to make a chocolate sauce by melting chocolate into cream then using it to top bananas or pears.

Failing all else I will make popcorn with salt and melted butter and sprinkle icing sugar over it.

[maggiethecat]

Depends on how desperate I am

I'm talkin' really desperate -- I should have made that clearer. I'm talkin'"If I don't get something in five minutes I'm going to drive to Dairy Queen in my nightie in February" desperate.

All your ideas are terrific, but I need something that fits my crazed window of time. Keep'em coming!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Toasted coconut sundae?

Spread out some flaked coconut on a baking sheet and broil for about half a minute. Move to a shallow bowl. Roll a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. (If you can wait that long, move it to a nice dessert dish. If not...) Drizzle with decent or even Hershey's chocolate sauce.

I mean, this is FAST.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Here is a really over-the-top instant dessert from David Lobovitz: Gruyere double cream on meringues. Only problem is sourcing the cream and having the meringues on hand. But once you find the one, it behooves one to stock the other.

[Tri2Cook]

If I'm desperate in that timeframe, I suppose I have nothing helpful to offer. I rarely eat dessert of any type but if I have an overwhelming desire for something late in the evening on really short notice, it's going to be a stroll to the nearest convenience store to check out the selection of Ben & Jerry's and Haagen Dazs. Sometimes the walk there and back kills the desire and I just toss it in the freezer until someone else eats it.

[Emily_R]

Do you keep ice cream in the house? We usually have vanilla ice cream, which on its own does nothing for me. However when I cover it in a heavy dusting of instant espresso powder... Also good to keep on hand is the Biscoff-cookie spread? A spoonful of that will serve as dessert, and it mixes well with vanilla ice cream too...

[Jaymes]

What would I do for a Klondike Bar? Well, I'd keep a box of them stashed in the freezer, for sure.

And if you like that vanilla-ice-cream-with-chocolate-shell thing, and you usually keep vanilla ice cream around but want something more extravagant than just plain ice cream, try this wonderful recipe: Homemade Magic Shell

And if you've got about 45 minutes or so, you can always make "Panic."

Back in the days when I was doing what I called "Competitive Entertaining," and never knew when I might literally have a houseful of dinner guests, I ALWAYS kept in the pantry a box of cake mix and a can of pie filling. You take an 8x8 cake pan or Pyrex dish, dump in the can of pie filling, sprinkle the entire box of cake mix over, melt 1 stick of butter and pour that over all. Then bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes until it's hot and bubbly. It turns into quite a tasty cobbler/Brown Betty, whatever you want to call it. Serve it hot with vanilla ice cream, if you have some, or whipped cream, or just by itself.

You can use whatever combination cake & pie filling you'd like. Cherry or blueberry pie filling goes good with white cake. Apple pie filling is good with yellow cake or spice cake, especially with an extra dusting of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and a tot of rum. Honestly, you can just use whatever suits your mood or (often in my case) whatever you have on hand.

This sounds pretty ghastly - even "white trash trailer park," but it's really much better than it sounds. I've served it to some mighty distinguished dinner guests back in the old days and when you discover at 5pm that somebody is bringing an entire team of dignitaries to your place for dinner at 7, that box of cake mix and can of pie filling is a welcome sight in your pantry, indeed.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Jaymes (log)

[kayb]

Only rarely have I had distinguished guests, but I've done versions of this, for sure.

[Katie Meadow]

Okay, here's my totally sick confession. My go to is a piece of good chocolate, but like you say, sometimes you don't have that. However, I usually do have some quality chocolate sauce in the frig. My current favorite is Fran's dark chocolate or bittersweet sauce. I swirl this in about equal proportions with natural unsweetened chunky peanut butter and a teaspoon is usually all I need to satisfy. There is a thread somewhere about making peanut butter cups with high quality ingredients. I'm no fan of Reese's--they taste like what they are, very cheap sugary pb and cheap milk chocolate. But this is pretty yummy. No one is aware that I do this, so don't broadcast it.

If I don't have any chocolate sauce I probably will have caramel sauce. I'm a devotee of Recchiuti Burnt Caramel. I cut up an apple into thin slices, melt a little puddle of caramel sauce in a small bowl and then dip in the fruit. Would work with a pear too, I imagine, but I've never done that. You could skip the melting part, but it's kind of nice.

Neither of these extremely desperate measures takes more than 2 minutes. Nutella on toast also works, and that's under 5 minutes as well.

Edited February 19, 2012 by Katie Meadow (log)

[Darienne]

Heston Blumenthal's recipe for

is quick and simple. Rather amazing actually. Water and chocolate. Delicious.

[Kim Shook]

Ok, I am an animal . I don't do any of these elegant things that everyone else is mentioning. When I get really desperate, I gnaw on dark baking chocolate (and I am NOT a dark chocolate girl), roast marshmallows over a candle or put extra Splenda on my Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal. <slinks away in shame>

[Lindacakes]

I think the answer to this question depends entirely on what you usually have in the house. As you so aptly pointed out, if you knew you were going to want something sweet, you'd have it.

What works for me is yogurt with an ample amount of maple syrup and then some form of warmed fruit, not unlike what you've described above. I always have walnuts in the house because I buy them in five pound bags and freeze them -- small organic farmers only sell five pound bags . . .

So . . . really good and really sweet is fried banana and date goo with toasted walnuts and the overly mapley yogurt.

This also works with cooked apples and cinnamon.

Warmed pears with candied ginger (I can't live without a jar of candied ginger in the house).

If you have some sort of jam or preserve, warming a copious amount of that and mixing it in plain yogurt works well, too.

Sometimes I have peanut butter, not often, and I will take a spoon of that and stud it with chocolate chips.

Trader Joe's is carrying a molasses cookie that is unbaked dough on a little tray. It comes with a packet of sugar crystals, you take the dough and roll it in the sugar and bake it like a regular cookie. These actually taste pretty damn good and I fully intend to buy another package and freeze it so that I can bake them one at a time as needed. Or four at a time as needed . . .

I am a baker and I love baking, but I get the now thing.

[maggiethecat]

Ok, I am an animal .

Not compared to me, sister! (I'm buying a bag of marshmallows tomorrow.)What I've learned is that I'm under stocked with basic stuff, like, say, ice cream, let alone pie filling and cake mix. (Sounds good, Jaymes.)So, help me assemble the basic pantry/fridge stuff for Desperation Desserts. I often have in stock: that huge TJs bittersweet chocolate bar, some fresh or frozen fruit, almonds, raisins, craisins, milk, butter, and maybe some Greek yog or sour cream. What are your can't do without items at 11:00 pm? Hmmm, if I bought graham crackers and marshmallows, instant S'mores.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

When you come right down to it, you can make salted butter caramel sauce in under 5 minutes, assuming you have sugar, butter and cream or even canned milk in the house. Ice cream and you're in big business. Bananas and you're sinful.