Wendy Ra­hamut

De­li­cious desserts are al­ways wel­comed, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the hol­i­day sea­son. Most ice­box desserts can be made ahead of time, there­by sav­ing the host­ess time on that spe­cif­ic day. Al­though there are many op­tions to pur­chase a ready made dessert, noth­ing beats hav­ing a home­made dessert! Bon Ap­petit!

MOCHA DREAM PIE

This mocha pie is a de­li­cious al­ter­na­tive to the tra­di­tion­al mocha pie, which is much rich­er and sweet­er.

Crust

2 cups di­ges­tive bis­cuit crumbs or choco­late cook­ies

2 ta­ble­spoons sug­ar

1/3 cup but­ter, melt­ed

Place cook­ies in a food proces­sor and process un­til crumbs form, add the sug­ar and but­ter and process for a few sec­onds more.

Press in­to the bot­tom of a ten-inch pie plate; bake for five min­utes at 325F un­til just firm, cool.

Fill­ing

1 1/2 tbs gelatin

2 tbs warm wa­ter

2 tbs in­stant cof­fee gran­ules (ex­tra strong)

1/2 cup hot wa­ter

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

2 eggs, sep­a­rat­ed

2 eight oz pack­ages cream cheese

2 cups whipped cream

1 tbs co­coa pow­der

Choco­late shav­ings and choco­late chips for gar­nish

Method

Dis­solve gelatin in two ta­ble­spoons warm wa­ter, gen­tly warm un­til melt­ed.

Com­bine cof­fee with hot wa­ter and stir in­to gelatin mix­ture.

Beat eggs with 1/2 cup sug­ar, add to gelatin mix­ture and cook over low heat un­til thick, about five min­utes, re­move and cool.

Beat cream cheese un­til smooth, add egg and gelatin mix­ture, com­bine.

Fold in whipped cream. Spoon in­to pre­pared crust and chill overnight un­til firm.

Place co­coa pow­der in­to a strain­er and sift over cake, line the edge with choco­late chips and sprin­kle with choco­late shav­ings. Chill fur­ther un­til ready to serve.

Makes one ten-inch cheese­cake

A lighter side: Use low fat cream cheese and whipped cream

STICKY PUD­DING WITH CARAMEL SAUCE

Sauce

4 cups whip­ping cream or evap­o­rat­ed milk

2 cups brown sug­ar

1/2 cup un­salt­ed but­ter

Cake

2 1/2 cups all pur­pose flour

2 tsp bak­ing pow­der

3/4 cup wa­ter

3/4 cup rum

1 1/2 cups chopped dried fruit

1 tsp bak­ing so­da

1 cup un­salt­ed but­ter

2/3 cup sug­ar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanil­la ex­tract

For sauce:

Melt but­ter add brown sug­ar and cream or milk, bring to a boil, cook un­til sug­ar is melt­ed then cook on a low heat un­til sauce had thick­ened and re­duced, about 15 min­utes.

Place rum, wa­ter and fruits in a saucepan, add bak­ing so­da and boil for 2 min­utes, re­move and cool.

Pre­heat oven to 350 F

Grease and flour a 12 inch cake pan.

For cake:

Cream but­ter and sug­ar un­til light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time.

Add the vanil­la to the fruits, fold in the flour and the fruits al­ter­nate­ly in three ad­di­tions, be­gin­ning and end­ing with the flour.

Bake cake for 45 min­utes, re­move from oven, pour on 3/4 cup caramel sauce and bake for an­oth­er 15 min­utes.

Re­move from oven, cool and serve with ad­di­tion­al sauce.

Serves ten to 12

A lighter side: Use low fat cream and milk

CO­CONUT FLAN

1 cup co­conut milk

4 eggs

1 tsp vanil­la

1 tsp lime zest

1 cup full cream milk

1/3 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

Beat eggs with co­conut milk, vanil­la, lime zest, milk and sug­ar un­til well blend­ed, strain mix­ture.

For Caramel:

1 cup gran­u­lat­ed sug­ar

1/4 cup wa­ter

Com­bine wa­ter with sug­ar, stir and bring to a boil, cook un­til mix­ture turns a caramel colour, pour in­to six ramekin dish­es.

Pour flan mix­ture in­to caramel-lined dish­es, place in­to a large bak­ing tray and fill the tray half way with wa­ter.

Bake un­til firm about 45 min­utes.

Re­move and re­frig­er­ate.

In­vert be­fore serv­ing.

Serves six