Dessert Therapy: Six Recipes That Never Disappoint

 with Suzanne Dunaway

Chocolate Bread Pudding, Caramel Peaches, Summer Berry Pudding, Lemon Sorbet, Pots de Crème & Three-Minute Ice Cream

These desserts are very easy to make, some light and some a bit heavier such as the Dark Chocolate Bread Pudding and the Pots de Crême (which is simply a crême brûlée in a cup). However, to help ease your conscience, I use my delicious focaccia bread for the pudding instead of egg- and butter-filled brioche, so you will be shaving calories while enjoying the same rich flavour of a higher fat dessert. To make two desserts at once, make the custard base for both pot de crême and bread pudding and refrigerate until use.

CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING

Yield: 6 serving

• 6 tablespoons soft or melted butter
• 4-6 one-half-inch slices of white bread, left in slices or cut into cubes
• 1 ½ cup milk
• 1 ½ cup cream
• 4-6 ounces bittersweet chocolate (I use Valrhona 70 – 71% but 61% is fine, too)
• 1 tablespoon strong espresso
• 2 tablespoons Cognac or rum
• ½-3/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs plus 3 yolks
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Using 1 teaspoon of the butter, grease a 9-inch baking dish liberally and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the bread slices and toast them until golden under the broiler. Cut into cubes if you wish. Arrange them in a heatproof baking dish which will fit into another larger one. Heat the milk and cream until bubbles form around the edge of the milk, add the chocolate and coffee, and stir over very low heat until chocolate is melted. Add the Cognac or rum, the sugar, the vanilla and the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Cook over medium low heat until mixture is smooth and thickened slightly. Pour the mixture through a sieve over the bread slices, press down the bread into the custard, and set the dish in another larger pan filled with hot water to come halfway up the baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes or just until set and nicely browned on top. Remove from water and let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

PEACHES IN CARAMEL

• Yield: 6 servings
• 6 ripe peaches or any very firm, sweet peach, peeled and cut in half
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• sprinkle of cinnamon (optional)
• 1 cup heavy cream

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the peaches, cut side down, in a baking dish large enough so that they fit side by side. Dot each pear with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in the middle to low part of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the sugar, butter and peache juices caramelize.

If they are not caramelizing well, turn up the heat to 475 and watch the peaches closely so that they do not burn. When the pears are light brown and the sauce is caramelized, add the cream and jiggle it around in the pan; put the peaches back in the oven for 5 minutes to marry the cream and sauce, then serve on a plate with a little of the sauce over the peaches.

In a pinch you may also caramelize the sauce on top of the stove, and it works beautifully. The guests never knew that a bunch of cranky peaches did not feel like getting brown that night.

SUMMER BERRY BREAD PUDDING

Yield: 6 servings

A summer “pudding”, as all desserts are called in England, is one of the great desserts of the world and not at all a pudding as we know it. It is far more simple to make, light in texture, and reflects the lovely tastes of summer and the coolness one needs in hot weather. You may serve the pudding with whipped cream or mascarpone, but it is equally good by itself.

• 8-10 thin slices of bread, crusts removed, and each slice cut in half
• 4 cups fresh berries (My favorites are raspberries, strawberries, boysenberries, and you may use frozen ones in a pinch. Just make sure they are not sweetened, or if they are, adjust the sugar to taste.)
• 2/3-1 cup sugar (I like mine less sweet, some like more sugar)
• Juice of a lemon
• 1 cup heavy cream or mascarpone

In a saucepan, mix the berries and sugar and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes and cool. Line a glass bowl using some of the bread, and press firmly. Spoon some of the berry mixture over the bread, saturating it well. Alternate the bread and berry mixture in layers until it is finished. Place a flat, glass dish which fits inside the bowl over the pudding. Put plastic wrap loosely over the pudding and weight it down with a small brick, hand weight, or anything heavy that works. Seal the plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 hours. To unmold the pudding, remove the weight and plate and place a larger plate over the bowl. Quickly turn the bowl upside down and the pudding will fall onto the plate. Serve with whipped cream or mascarpone.

SORBETTO DI LIMONE

Yield: 6 servings

The Romans (and the French) are, as are all Italians, crazy for gelato (ice cream) and sorbetti (sorbets). One of the loveliest hours of the summer day is just after the riposino (little rest after lunch) when the streets of Rome are beginning to fill up for the passeggiata (early evening stroll) and ice cream shops such as Giolitti and Le Palme are buzzing with the distribution of geometrical cones filled with such flavours as Fior di Latte, named after a mozzarella, Nocciola (hazelnut), or Sorbetto di Mango. Ice cream is a as much a madness as favismo and is taken very seriously. Those who do not eat gelato are looked upon with mistrust and incredulity, so it is best to steel yourself and pile your architectural square cone high with at least three flavors.

This is a light sorbet to which I add a little cream for body.

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup sugar
• ¾ cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• ½ cup heavy cream

In a saucepan, combine the water and sugar and boil for 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Let cool. Stir in the cream and freeze for 1 hour in a metal bowl. After 1 hour, stir briskly to break up any ice crystals that have formed and freeze again for 3 hours or until firm. Take out of the freezer about 5 minutes before serving to soften a little.

Yield: 6 servings

My mother made these for us for special occasions, thus ensuring that I would be a cook, if only to have them in my repertoire after she had gone. You may cut the cream and use half milk, half cream, and you may use 4 eggs and 2 yolks to make the same dish into what were known in my house as “cup custards”. Sprinkle fresh nutmeg on top and tie your children to you for life. Kids seem to love any kind of custard.

• 2 pints heavy cream
• 10 egg yolks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• One blow torch

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Arrange 8 ramekins in a large, flat pan. In a large bowl or the bowl of a food processor, beat the egg yolks and sugar. Heat the cream just to simmering and whisk in the egg mixture and vanilla. Cook until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Strain into a pitcher, then pour into the ramekins. Fill the ramekin dish with very hot water which reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the custards barely move under the “skin” on top. Remove the custards from their hot bath, and cool to room temperature. Sprinkle 1 spoon of sugar over the tops of the custards, broil them under a broiler, and make sure the sugar caramelizes but does not burn. Or use a blowtorch and let your guests do it!

THREE MINUTE ICE CREAM

Yield: 4-6 servings

I love gelato and make this one in about 1 minute flat, with minimal preparation of about 3-5 minutes. My technique is this: Choose your favorite berries or stone fruit such as peaches or apricots, and slice thin. Freeze them with sugar, then whip them up with cream just before serving.

• 3 cups sliced fresh strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, or mangos
• ½ cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons
• pinch of vitamin C
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 ½ pints heavy cream
• a few drops of vanilla

Mix the berries with the sugar and vitamin C and freeze. When you are ready to serve dessert, have ready 4 sorbet glasses or bowls. In the bowl of a food processor, whip the cream until barely thick, add the vanilla, then add the frozen berries, broken up with an ice pick into small chunks. Continue processing until the ice cream is thick and firm. Do not process too long or the berries will heat up and you’ll have to serve semi-freddo cream soup!

Suzanne Dunaway loves “cooking and painting, gardening, singing, playing the piano, her husband’s ex-wife, her two very individual step-children and six step-grandchildren, and she has strong opinions about cooking with indiscriminate dry spices, sprouted garlic, or green peppers, and ordering cappuccino in Italy after 10AM.”
She regularly shares with P-O Life readers her PO-inspired culinary creations.