The Dessert Blog

Want an idea for a fun activity to experience with your kids? How about an idea that will allow them to use their creativity and that makes them feel like an adult for a brief moment? Baking is that perfect activity. It gives kids practice to improve their invaluable skills in the kitchen, which they’ll need later in life. The best choices for recipes should be easy to make and allow for some creativity such as shapes, colors or toppings, and of course, the most important “ingredient”, they should taste great!

So what’s something that your kids will love to make and eat?

You got it- rice crispy treats. We will look at three different approaches in this article and add some twists along the way. We will make normal rice crispy treats, mixed ones and chocolate covered. You’ve all made rice crispy treats before so to have some fun with the normal kind let’s discuss shapes. You can make the traditional square-shaped treats with a square cake or brownie pan, but you could have even more fun than that. Find some cake pans with a whole variety of different shapes. You can find a variety of many different shapes, anything from their favorite characters, seasonal shapes like Halloween or Christmas, as well as various small normal shapes like stars or mini bundt cakes. The cake pans come big or small and can be found at any store that sells baking supplies or online.

Before you finish up all the mix, take half of it and blend in your favorite hard candies to add flavor and a contrast of texture, whether they’re M&Ms, Reese’s Pieces or cinnamon candies. Have some more fun, why not try soft candies too? Try some multi-colored chocolate chips or your favorite gummy candies, maybe Sour Patch Kids.

Want some more unique ideas? Mix in chocolate flavored rice crisped cereal with the mix to create multi-flavored treats. Just have the kids help with stirring the mix after it’s removed from the heat (microwave or stove top), mixing in the candies and pressing the mix into your choice of pan.

Your kids will love to chomp down on these tasty rice crispy creations. Then they can take some to school to share with their friends and they make great teacher gifts too. But the fun is just beginning. You could combine all these different ideas for the “ultimate step”.

Now we are going to create chocolate covered rice crispy treats!

I prefer to use a double boiler to melt chocolate, which you can find in many stores. It’s basically one saucepan sitting inside a bigger pan. You heat up the water on medium heat in the bottom pan and place grated milk chocolate or milk chocolate chips in the top one. You can also melt chips in the microwave using a small microwavable bowl. First, heat up the chips for one minute and 10 seconds stir and then again in 10-second intervals. The chips will not melt down to liquid on their own. You must stir them using a metal spoon. Wait until the chips show the beginning signs of melting. No matter the shape of treat, dip it into the chocolate at least half way over the treat and place on a baking sheet lined with wax or parchment paper. Toss on some sprinkles or red, green or blue colored sugar or dip the treats in white chocolate. Why not!

Your kids will enjoy the big variety. Let their creative juices flow. And don’t eat them all! Don’t forget to take some to the people that matter most. These delicious goodies make ideal teacher gifts, friend gifts, grandparents gifts or for relatives.

Let your “little chefs” boast how good their treats look and taste!

If you like chocolate, pecans and caramel then you will definitely love a turtle cheesecake. This is a great type of cheesecake that is very scrumptious and sweet. In fact you can even make one of these delicious cheesecakes yourself. Here is a process you can use to make your very own turtle cheesecake.

The first thing that you will need to do is to chop up some pecans. In order to get a proper turtle cheesecake ready you will need to get a cup of chopped pecans ready. Once you get them chopped up you can cook them in an oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You should cook them for six minutes. Afterwards you’ll need to melt some unsalted butter into a small bowl. You will need six tablespoons worth of butter for the recipe.

Next you will need two cups of crushed vanilla wafers. These wafers should then be mixed in with your melted butter and placed into a nine inch round springform pan. Be sure to put the pan on top of a cookie sheet. Next you can heat the mixture for ten minutes at 350 degrees. It will need to cool off after the ten minutes are over.

For the caramel flavor you will need to gather fourteen ounces of caramel candies and melt them. You will need to melt the caramel candies in five ounces of evaporated milk. After you get this melted you will need to get the combination stirred and poured over the crust that you have just formed. When this is done you will need to sprinkle the pecans you toasted earlier on top of the cheesecake.

The next parts of preparation involve getting cream cheese and chocolate chips prepared. Twenty-four ounces of cream cheese should be added to the recipe. After this you will need to use a half cup of white sugar along with three half teaspoons of vanilla extract.

Two eggs should then be added. The entire mixture should be mixed up to where it is smooth. You will need to melt some chocolate chips next. Be sure to gather enough for half a cup to mix into your recipe.

The entire mixture will need to be poured into the pan and baked at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for forty minutes. Be sure to put the turtle cheesecake in a refrigerator and let it sit overnight. When you are finished you will be able to enjoy a great dessert and serve it to your friends.

Most people have a sweet tooth and it’s this sweet tooth that can be the downfall of many a diet. As soon as we’re on a diet or a healthy eating regime we feel restricted and all of a sudden we have cravings for chocolate, ice cream and chocolate fudge cake!

The secret of healthy eating is not to restrict yourself but, instead, to have a balance - everything in moderation. You need to cut down on fats and sweets but you certainly don’t need to ban them. Look through your recipe collection and online for low fat dessert recipes to use instead of your usual high fat favourites.

Even if you are unfortunate enough to be diabetic, you can still indulge your self a little. There are alternatives to sugar, such as sucralose, that can be incorporated into your favourite dessert recipes with wonderfully tasty results. You still need to watch the total carbohydrate content, but as long as you are careful, you can still have the desserts that you long for.

Here are some top tips for enjoying low fat and low sugar dessert recipes:-

1. Look for dessert recipes which contain mainly fruit.

2. Layer fresh fruit with fat-free or low fat ice cream or whipped cream substitute to make a tasty ice cream sundae.

3. Use sugar free jelly.

4. Make trifles with sugar free jelly, fresh fruit, fat free sponge cake, low fat custard and a low fat cream substitute - a tasty treat.

5. Enjoy fruit sorbets and look for dessert recipes for sorbets

6. Mix berries or sliced fruit with fat-free yogurt and sprinkle with cinnamon.

7. Grill half a grapefruit sprinkled with brown sugar - great for breakfast or as a dessert.

8. Enjoy a pineapple - buy a special pineapple corer and slicer to make preparation easier and pour Malibu over pineapple slices for a yummy dessert.

9. Sauté banana or pineapple with a little brown sugar until caramelized.

10. Slice into the skin of a banana and pop a couple of squares of dark chocolate into it, wrap in foil and bake until banana is soft and chocolate is melted.

11. Treat yourself to an ice cream maker and find dessert recipes for low fat ice creams.

12. When baking muffins or cakes, replace half the fat content with mashed banana or pureed prunes.

13. Use egg whites instead of whole eggs in baking.

14. When buying canned fruit, buy fruit in juice rather than in syrup to cut down on sugar.

15. Look for dessert recipes for fruit that is in season. Fruit always tastes better when it is in season.

16. Share desserts with your partner instead of having one each.

17. Check food labels on commercial desserts to check fat and calorie content.

18. Instead of pouring cream over desserts use cream substitutes or puree fruits to make a sauce.

19. Meringues - Meringues are low in fat. Make a meringue sandwich with berries or strawberries and a fruit coulis.

20. Melons - A slice of melon is a great starter and a great dessert. Experiment with different types of melons.

You will be able to find plenty of healthy dessert recipes online and in books and you might even be able to adapt your favourite recipes to make them more healthy.

Remember, desserts do not need to be unhealthy - in fact, if you plan it our carefully, the dessert could be more healthy than the main course!

Roger Wakefield works for for the Recipe File site, which ranks amongst the most authoritative collections of recipes around. The Recipe File website includes over 40 thousand recipes which cover recipes as diverse as dessert recipes to nut recipes. Preparing wonderful meals for your loved ones can be simple and enjoyable if you have the right recipes. The Recipe File makes sure you will never have trouble finding a scrumptious new recipe in minutes.