Desserts Recipes (Most Popular)
Another good ol' classic, this one is a light lemon tube cake from my paternal grandma (who never baked as long as I could remember). All I've changed is the wording to make it a bit easier to understand. I've yet to try this out at home, if you do, please share your results!
Fat-free, absolutely delicious and with a teeny whole grain secret! It's the best coffee cake anyone on a diet will ever eat!
This is the recipe, from 'Better Homes & Gardens 'New Cookbook', which is the cookbook that has been my bible for over twenty years. I couldn't find a publication date, but it is over twenty-five years old. NI is with 1% milk.
A crêpe with a hot sauce of caramelised sugar, orange juice, lightly grated orange peel and Grand Marnier on top, which is lit. A showstopper of a dessert!
Also known as New York Specials (at least according to my 1935 cookbook) these are a maple-flavour bar cookie like a Nanaimo bar. Very rich, cut small pieces!
Wonderful chocolate layer cake which is soaked in Kirsch liqueur, with cherry filling. Very rich, but for best results use full-fat sour cream and real unsalted butter, it makes a difference!
A light peanut butter sponge cake is cooked in a can, of all things, and is the perfect foil for a raspberry and chocolate filling. I used fellow Canadian Bernard Callebaut’s dark couverture chocolate as that’s all I had on hand. Any good chocolate (or even Nutella) works nicely. A great dessert for two.
A lower fat, high-nutrition version of a pumpkin bread recipe, using extra pumpkin and no oil. They taste great, and are great for you! They freeze very well; just microwave a frozen muffin for 20 to 30 seconds and it's ready. Great school snack for kids!
What do you get when rich chocolate, toasted macadamia nuts and berries combine? A delightful, rich and flavourful flourless wonder that will leave your guests craving the recipe!
An old WW recipe of mine, updated for my family's tastes and health needs. Splenda can be subbed for 1/2 the sugar, and sometimes I like using maple sugar too!
The wonderful woman who gave me this recipe, and the rest of the Italian family, loved these when I brought them to her son’s hockey game. The slightly uneven texture is sandy without being dry or grainy thanks to the ground almonds, and the hint of lemon brightens them up and adds a little flair.
For the Chinese New Year, a common practice is to clean out all the "old" aspects of your life to welcome in all the new good luck for the coming year. This cake made use of pretty much everything that was in my baking cupboard as I cleaned it out - three kinds of nuts, three types of dried fruit and even a handful of pureed berries I found in the fridge. It's dense, moist and luxurious, and you'd never guess it only has 1/4 cup of oil!
Since my friend K is allergic to walnuts and hazelnuts, her original choice of dessert (a maple-walnut cake with maple mousse) at Niagara-on-the-Lake's Cannery Restaurant was out of the question. She does love almonds though, so I brought them into the mix instead and cooked up a fantastic mousse and ganache to crown the whole thing off!
These are a baked, vegan mock up of one of my long-gone favourite doughnuts. A yeasted base is filled with a luxurious caramel-coffee custard and capped off with a simple powdered sugar icing. A final drizzle of caramel adds an ooey gooey pizazz! *Note - you'll only use about 1/2 the custard recipe for filling the donuts. The rest? Dunk the scraps!
Adapted from Godiva's website, this is more of a rich frozen custard than an ice cream. A little amount goes a long way - and it's worth every calorie!
A simple mash-up of homemade ricotta and overripe bananas fills a whole wheat shortbread crust and is topped with an eggless strawberry curd. Creamy and sweet but still light - and low in added sugar!
These also make awesome baked doughnuts with a powdered sugar glaze - don't be disturbed by the sunken appearance of the muffins though, that's what frosting's for!
This is really more a compilation of recipes, since you can make the components ahead of time (it's actually best to make the cake and filling a day ahead). The "ball" mix can be frozen up to 6 months either formed or not - and they taste like apple fritter doughnut holes when rolled in cinnamon sugar!
Creamy, dreamy and rich, with a hint of tang from the buttermilk. Coat it in chocolate (dark or white) for an extra special treat - as a bonus it keeps longer!
If you like Coffee Crisp bars and *love* coffee cake, this decadent combination is for you! You even get a little nutrition (and nutty flavour) in the mix thanks to whole wheat flour, psyllium husks and flaxseed.
I can’t tell you how long I’ve been dying to make these cinnamon buns from Brown Eyed Baker. Made puff-pastry style (laminated with cream cheese instead of butter), the dough is extra tender but sturdy enough to hold onto the rich, spicy sweet filling I made with granola (instead of nuts), raisins, honey and brown sugar laced with a hefty dose of spice! A light brushing of honey-butter glaze caps them off for the best Sunday morning breakfast ever!
Is there a better way to eat your veggies than in a vegan, rich brownie-like cookie? These babies were inspired by http://www.chowvida.com/2013/01/double-cho
colate-zucchini-cookies/ and were an absolute hit - you'd never guess they were low-sugar, lower-fat or whole grain!
I adapted this recipe from http://tinascookings.blogspot.ca/2013/02/r
ed-velvet-cookies.html to make it vegan, and while I found it needed way more water than the original called for, the dough was a great base for bittersweet chocolate stars! Of course, if you can't find star-shaped dark chocolate (I think mine came from Sweden), chocolate discs or chunks (even broken up candy bars) work just as well.
Can you believe I hate avocado au naturale? This bittersweet, creamy frosting is the only way I’ll take a bite – and not only is it added-fat free, there’s no refined sugar either - just a dash of raw agave and a pinch of stevia! Slightly adapted from Giada De Laurentis’ Avocado Mousse
Adapted from http://blueberriesandblessings.com/2012/10
/04/12-woct-week-two-dark-chocolate-bl
ack-bean-cookies-glutenfree/, these are GF, 100% stevia sweetened, and packed with dark chocolate, dried cherries and the goodness of legumes! The yellow peas I use are the same ones you find in French pea soup, and are mild and buttery without any "beany" flavour at all.
The quintessential comfort of French toast is embodied in it's casserole form - bread pudding. This recipe is the bare bones of the equation - from here, anything is possible!