Desperation Desserts

[Alex]

I'm with Beebs. A spoonful of Nutella, even if I'm not desperate. If I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'll take another spoonful of homemade peanut butter. Nutella. PB. Rinse (with milk). Repeat.

EDA: This is my 2,000th post!

Edited February 23, 2012 by Alex (log)

[maggiethecat]

I'm with Beebs. A spoonful of Nutella, even if I'm not desperate. If I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'll take another spoonful of homemade peanut butter. Nutella. PB. Rinse (with milk). Repeat.

EDA: This is my 2,000th post!

Congrats, Alex, I've enjoyed every one of them. I've never really liked peanut butter but I agree that with a Nutella chaser I might be persuaded.

[Alex]

I'm with Beebs. A spoonful of Nutella, even if I'm not desperate. If I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'll take another spoonful of homemade peanut butter. Nutella. PB. Rinse (with milk). Repeat.

EDA: This is my 2,000th post!

Congrats, Alex, I've enjoyed every one of them. I've never really liked peanut butter but I agree that with a Nutella chaser I might be persuaded.

Thank you so much. I'm a lifelong pb fan. I graduated from Skippy Crunchy to bulk food store fresh ground to my own food processor-ground Planters unsalted. Just made some more today, in fact. Sometimes a piece of toast with pb and Nutella (or American Spoon Foods or Food for Thought preserves) will be dessert.

Oh--I almost forgot--a spoonful of homemade dulce de leche can be a dessert, as it was about a minute ago. This thread is such a conditioned stimulus.

[andiesenji]

Meanwhile, back in the jam post, I have learned about Trader Joe's cherry preserves, which I found a bit too sweet and not unlike candied cherries and I can't wait to try them with chocolate. I think it will make a very passable chocolate-covered-cherry-not.

I bought a big, beautiful, cheap bag of imported foil covered chocolate eggs at Costco. Said eggs are hollow.

I'm thinking: small hole. Insert cherries.

Or: bite chocolate, spoon cherries into mouth, chew.

You can saw them in half and fill each "cup" with a cherry and brandied cream. Sadly, I can't eat chocolate but one of the (more elderly than me) ladies in my book club does this trick.

[tikidoc]

I keep bananas frozen at all times. Take a couple frozen bananas, break into chunks, put in the food processor. Turn it on. It will initially become sort of a sandy texture with some chunks in it. Let it run. After a bit, it magically turns into the texture of good quality ice cream. Eat as is, or pour in a little chocolate sauce and run the processor a couple more seconds. Or add in a couple frozen strawberries or a handful or frozen raspberries or blueberries at the beginning. Or top with caramel sauce or homemade magic shell. It is amazing how good this is. It really tastes bad for you.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Know what? I just peeked into my bakery fridge and found one of my favourite desparation desserts - Nanaimo Bars. They're sweet, chocolatey, oaty, and since they last more than 3 months, I generally have at least one little tray in stock... In terms of whipping up a batch if I'm really desperate, it takes about 20 minutes, and I always have the ingredients on hand.

[Jaymes]

Know what? I just peeked into my bakery fridge and found one of my favourite desparation desserts - Nanaimo Bars. They're sweet, chocolatey, oaty, and since they last more than 3 months, I generally have at least one little tray in stock... In terms of whipping up a batch if I'm really desperate, it takes about 20 minutes, and I always have the ingredients on hand.

"Nanaimo" Bars? Are they something you invented and decided to name after the town on Vancouver Island? Or are they something fairly common there and everybody makes them and has a personal recipe? Or do they have nothing to do with Nanaimo BC at all?

Regardless, I would very very much love that recipe, if you wouldn't mind sharing.

Golly, they look good. And "sweet, chocolatey and oaty" are three of my favorite words!

[Darienne]

Nanaimo Bars are truly Canadian and go back to the 50s. I've always found them too sweet but DH loves them. They are a big hit in Canada!

[Jaymes]

Nanaimo Bars are truly Canadian and go back to the 50s. I've always found them too sweet but DH loves them. They are a big hit in Canada!

Now I'm really intrigued. I also don't like things that are too sweet, but find that I can just reduce the sugar in most recipes.

Hope PC doesn't mind sharing. Or you, Darienne?

But in the meantime, I plan to do some crazy-mad googling.

[kayb]

Maggie - this is my number one "I can't stand it any more diet be damned I have to have something decadent right now" dish. I've seen lots of similar versions, but usually come back to this one:

Chocolate Mousse

1 6-oz pkg good quality 100% chocolate semi-sweet chips

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 T Creme de Cacao, Khalua, Xanath, Creme of Tequila, Bailey's, or other favorite liqueur

dash salt

1 C heavy whipping cream

Put everything into a blender EXCEPT for the cream. Fasten the top onto the blender, minus that little plastic thing in the middle.

Heat the cream to scalding. Just before the boil, turn on the blender and slowly pour the hot cream through the hole in the blender lid while the blender is running. Continue blending until the mixture is smooth.

Dear God. I'm making these tonight.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Nanaimo Bars are truly Canadian and go back to the 50s. I've always found them too sweet but DH loves them. They are a big hit in Canada!

Now I'm really intrigued. I also don't like things that are too sweet, but find that I can just reduce the sugar in most recipes.

Hope PC doesn't mind sharing. Or you, Darienne?

But in the meantime, I plan to do some crazy-mad googling.

Ask and ye shall receive! In your neck of the woods, what you're looking for is Vanilla Pudding powder, probably Kraft brand. I use Royal Vanilla Flan powder, which is basically the exact same thing packaged for Latin American dessert eaters.

This recipe makes an 8" x 8" pan and scales up really well (I've made Nanaimos for 500 by simple scaling with no ill effects to the recipe). It's easiest to work with if you either have disposable aluminum pans or if you line your glass/metal pan with tinfoil - that way you won't have to worry about damaging surfaces when it comes time to lift and cut the bars. They're normally served chilled, because they get a bit liquidy in the heat (not that this is a bad thing, really....)

Nanaimo bars are traditionally cut into fingers of about 1" x 2" simply because they're so sweet and so rich that it's difficult to eat more than that in one go. The bars themselves take their name from the town of Nanaimo, British Colombia, which is where the dessert was invented (or at least, that's what I've always been told).

THE BASE

0.5 C butter

2 oz semisweet chocolate (for me, the more bitter the better)

0.5 C sugar

1 egg

1 C rolled oats (quick oats)

1.5 C coconut

0.5 C chopped nuts of your choice (I use walnuts)

1 TSP vanilla extract

---

In a double boiler, melt the butter, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate. Crack in the egg and whisk until the mixture is smooth and a little bubbly. Remove from the heat and add in the oats, coconut, and nuts; stir (or rather gunk about; it will be quite stiff) until completely coated, then press this dough into the pan. If it seems to be lacking in chocolatey-ness, you can add up to 2 TBSP of cocoa powder (at the melted butter stage) or up to 0.25 C of chocolate chips (at the oats stage).

---

THE MIDDLE

0.5 C butter

2 TBSP + 2 TSP heavy cream

2 TBSP vanilla custard or flan powder (or vanilla pudding powder - what's important is a shocking yellow colour and a strong vanilla flavour, with some cornstarch thrown in for good measure)

2 C icing sugar

---

Cream the butter with the flan powder and icing sugar until you get a mixture that resembles coarse sand. Add the cream a little at a time until the mixture becomes creamy and quite thick - this takes more than the reccomended amount of cream in my kitchen, and may take less in yours simply due to our relative altitudes. Spread this over the base layer and pop the pan in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

There are a number of variations on this filling; this is the original one. My mother hates it, but I am very fond of mint buttercream (with a couple of drops of mint essence and green food colouring) in summertime Nanaimo bars, and others have used other flavours of pudding to great results (caramel, strawberry, cherry, chocolate, etc.) It's up to you.

---

THE TOP

4 oz semisweet chocolate

2 TBSP butter.

---

Melt together in the double boiler, then pour over the top of the chilled dessert. Return to the fridge. If you've got really good, high fat-content couberture chocolate, you can omit the butter from this step.

ETA - Alternately, you can top these puppies with chocolate ganache. I've had very nice results using a bittersweet-brandy ganache and then striping it with white-chocolate coconut. Then again, I normally have tubs of these things in my fridge!

That's it. Cut them when they're completely chilled (about 2 hours) and serve them quickly. If you're feeling really fancy, you can paint with other colours of chocolate onto the top of the bar, or use a stencil and cocoa powder to decorate them. I'm usually too lazy to do this unless I'm selling the bars....

Edited February 26, 2012 by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Nanaimo Bars are truly Canadian and go back to the 50s. I've always found them too sweet but DH loves them. They are a big hit in Canada!

Now I'm really intrigued. I also don't like things that are too sweet, but find that I can just reduce the sugar in most recipes.

Hope PC doesn't mind sharing. Or you, Darienne?

But in the meantime, I plan to do some crazy-mad googling.

Ask and ye shall receive! In your neck of the woods, what you're looking for is Vanilla Pudding powder, probably Kraft brand. I use Royal Vanilla Flan powder, which is basically the exact same thing packaged for Latin American dessert eaters.

This recipe makes an 8" x 8" pan and scales up really well (I've made Nanaimos for 500 by simple scaling with no ill effects to the recipe). It's easiest to work with if you either have disposable aluminum pans or if you line your glass/metal pan with tinfoil - that way you won't have to worry about damaging surfaces when it comes time to lift and cut the bars. They're normally served chilled, because they get a bit liquidy in the heat (not that this is a bad thing, really....)

Nanaimo bars are traditionally cut into fingers of about 1" x 2" simply because they're so sweet and so rich that it's difficult to eat more than that in one go. The bars themselves take their name from the town of Nanaimo, British Colombia, which is where the dessert was invented (or at least, that's what I've always been told).

THE BASE

0.5 C butter

2 oz semisweet chocolate (for me, the more bitter the better)

0.5 C sugar

1 egg

1 C rolled oats (quick oats)

1.5 C coconut

0.5 C chopped nuts of your choice (I use walnuts)

1 TSP vanilla extract

---

In a double boiler, melt the butter, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate. Crack in the egg and whisk until the mixture is smooth and a little bubbly. Remove from the heat and add in the oats, coconut, and nuts; stir (or rather gunk about; it will be quite stiff) until completely coated, then press this dough into the pan. If it seems to be lacking in chocolatey-ness, you can add up to 2 TBSP of cocoa powder (at the melted butter stage) or up to 0.25 C of chocolate chips (at the oats stage).

---

THE MIDDLE

0.5 C butter

2 TBSP + 2 TSP heavy cream

2 TBSP vanilla custard or flan powder (or vanilla pudding powder - what's important is a shocking yellow colour and a strong vanilla flavour, with some cornstarch thrown in for good measure)

2 C icing sugar

---

Cream the butter with the flan powder and icing sugar until you get a mixture that resembles coarse sand. Add the cream a little at a time until the mixture becomes creamy and quite thick - this takes more than the reccomended amount of cream in my kitchen, and may take less in yours simply due to our relative altitudes. Spread this over the base layer and pop the pan in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

There are a number of variations on this filling; this is the original one. My mother hates it, but I am very fond of mint buttercream (with a couple of drops of mint essence and green food colouring) in summertime Nanaimo bars, and others have used other flavours of pudding to great results (caramel, strawberry, cherry, chocolate, etc.) It's up to you.

---

THE TOP

4 oz semisweet chocolate

2 TBSP butter.

---

Melt together in the double boiler, then pour over the top of the chilled dessert. Return to the fridge. If you've got really good, high fat-content couberture chocolate, you can omit the butter from this step.

ETA - Alternately, you can top these puppies with chocolate ganache. I've had very nice results using a bittersweet-brandy ganache and then striping it with white-chocolate coconut. Then again, I normally have tubs of these things in my fridge!

That's it. Cut them when they're completely chilled (about 2 hours) and serve them quickly. If you're feeling really fancy, you can paint with other colours of chocolate onto the top of the bar, or use a stencil and cocoa powder to decorate them. I'm usually too lazy to do this unless I'm selling the bars....

I always use the Harry Horne's Custard Pudding Powder (or failing that the Bird's Custard Pudding Powder).

Haven't made a batch of these for a while!

[Beth Wilson]

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the first time in probably 15 years, and it is all your fault! This thread started me thinking of good old snacks that got ya through the craving and there is nothing like a good cookie with chocolate to do it.

I got a brownie recipe with my small toaster oven sized Pampered Chef stone pan and it cooks up in less than 20 minutes from start to finish...It is small and toaster oven sized but it was the Perfect size for my 11pm sweet cravings.

Now, I must check to see if I have any Custard Powder in the house!

Once again, Thanks for being great enablers!

[Kouign Aman]

flour tortilla, butter, brown sugar.

lay tortilla in pan, spread w butter, heat til it melts, add brown sugar, cook as long as desired.

Roll it up and eat it.

I like them a bit soft, so stop just when the sugar/butter bubbles, but you can go to caramelish if you like.

These are hard to stop eating.

Alternative is white sugar w cinnamon instead of the brown sugar.

[Darienne]

Had forgotten about those.

I do mine a bit differently. Butter & sugar both sides. Cinnamon too if you like. A long piece of chocolate at the bottom of the roll-up procedure. Into the oven 375 degrees for a few minutes.

Yummm :wub:

[Kim Shook]

We bought a bag of those enormous marshmallows, just because they were hilarious, and the other night, I roasted one. I had to eat it in layers (I like them burned BLACK) and the final layer was a gooshy, gooey, delicous mess. One filled me right up.

And this weekend reminded me that Lois' Best Coffee Cake takes about 45 minutes from idea to hot coffee cake slathered with butter to crunching down through a buttery, sugary, cinammony cracked top!

[Panaderia Canadiense]

...hot coffee cake slathered with butter to crunching down through a buttery, sugary, cinammony cracked top!

OMG, recipe, recipe!

[Kim Shook]

...hot coffee cake slathered with butter to crunching down through a buttery, sugary, cinammony cracked top!

OMG, recipe, recipe!

Here you go, ma'am. This was a recipe that Maggie's mother used to make and that Maggie wrote about in her wonderful eG essay Swans and Streusel.

[Kouign Aman]

Kim Shook, are you talking about the enormous marshmallows that are about 6-8x bigger than the jumbos?

We saw them at the mexican grocery yesterday, but at nearly $4 a bag, I left them there. The bag contained both vanilla and strawberry flavored marshmallows (artificial flavors, )

[Kim Shook]

Kim Shook, are you talking about the enormous marshmallows that are about 6-8x bigger than the jumbos?

We saw them at the mexican grocery yesterday, but at nearly $4 a bag, I left them there. The bag contained both vanilla and strawberry flavored marshmallows (artificial flavors, )

Yes . These were just the white ones. I can't imagine what you would do with them. But they were somehow irresistable at the store.

[jrshaul]

I don't get drunk often. But when I do, I usually try to make bananas foster. It's a sort of alcohol-induced compulsion.

My recipe:

1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (or 1 cup dark brown, 1/2 cup white sugar)

2 Tbsp. corn syrup (prevents crystallization, making this much easier to do when inebriated)

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, unsalted

1/3 cup dark rum. Or, if you don't have dark rum, substitute bourbon whiskey. If you don't have bourbon whiskey, substitute whatever is handy. (You're drunk, right?)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

4 bananas

Combine sugar and butter in pan. Caramelize to approximately the soft ball stage (230F if you left your laser thermometer in your coat again like I do), add liquor, and ignite. Stir continuously with a long whisk, and sprinkle spices over the top for optimal pyrotechnics. After fire dies off, add bananas, sliced lengthwise and into quarters, and simmer until soft or you get really hungry. Serve with ice cream.

Incidentally, this is fabulous for a big party. I just kept cooking until I'd served about 17.

The recipe is dead simple. The only real trick is not losing your eyebrows.

Edited February 27, 2012 by jrshaul (log)

[maggiethecat]

Bananas Foster! What a great idea, except I buy bananas about four times a year. Maybe I'll pick some up tomorrow.

Late night S'Mores update. I went to Walgreens to buy some lady items and threw a Hershey bar into the cart. I hit the grocery store across the street and picked up graham crackers and marshmallows, among other stuff. The fifteen- year- old bagger said "Where's the chocolate bar, Ma'am?" (Midwestern teens are polite like that.) I laughed and told him it was in the car.

I blew the technique, and my gas burner will perfume the kitchen for weeks as the blackened marshmallows burn off. Next time I'll use a candle to accomplish the toasting. But you know? Blackened and all, they hit the spot while I was watching a Downton Abbey rerun. The fragrance took me back to summer camp on Lake Massawippi.

[Alex]

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

Well, I haven't had any distinguished guests in a long time and, when I did, it was because of my husband's job, and not because we were all chummy with them.

Maggie - this is my number one "I can't stand it any more diet be damned I have to have something decadent right now" dish. I've seen lots of similar versions, but usually come back to this one:

Chocolate Mousse

1 6-oz pkg good quality 100% chocolate semi-sweet chips

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 T Creme de Cacao, Khalua, Xanath, Creme of Tequila, Bailey's, or other favorite liqueur

dash salt

1 C heavy whipping cream

Put everything into a blender EXCEPT for the cream. Fasten the top onto the blender, minus that little plastic thing in the middle.

Heat the cream to scalding. Just before the boil, turn on the blender and slowly pour the hot cream through the hole in the blender lid while the blender is running. Continue blending until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the hot mousse into individual ramekins. Put them into the fridge to cool. They're like chocolate pots de creme - very rich. When cold, serve them with a dollop of whipped cream on top. You can dust it with a little powdered instant coffee, or cinnamon, or nutmeg. I liked to serve them with one of those Pepperidge Farm rolled cookies alongside.

Maggie - obviously the idea is for them to chill. But when I just have to have what I have to have, I don't wait for them to completely chill and congeal. I just happily slurp away.

Oh, and KayB - I never told those distinguished guests how I made that delightful cobbler. Wanted them to think I'd really gone to a lot of trouble just for them. And I also never told them that I had made this mousse from chocolate chips in the blender before I served it in tiny elegant demitasse cups, complete with demitasse spoons, doilies in the saucers, and little embroidered napkins pulled through the cup handles.

As I said, it was "Competitive Entertaining." For better or worse, that's how it was. Careers hung in the balance.

Wow, I've been making this for decades now. Good to see it here on eG. It's indeed exactly like a traditional pôts de crème and very rich, easily serving 4 as a meal-ending dessert. I've changed the proportions a bit over the years, now using an 85 or 100g bar of good 70% chocolate, 3/4 cup of cream, and occasionally 1 T of very strong espresso instead of a liqueur (Cointreau is my favorite here), or sometimes no liquid at all. The only drawback, as Jaymes mentioned, is that it takes a while to set up properly--usually at least eight hours for me--and so I've never gone the slurping route.

[gap]

I can't believe it hasn't been mentioned (I might have missed it) but Nutella is your friend here. Banana toast with Nutella or, a personal favourite, heat some Nutella until it is runny and mix in salted/roasted macadamias. Eat and repeat.

[nikkib]

Frozen berries with melted white chocolate with a splash of cream added - it's a rough version of a recipe from londons Le caprice/the ivy - seriously quick and easy, seriously tasty