Cheesecake
Cheesecake and I have a very long, complicated relationship. When I was little, I hated cheesecake. This persisted until I landed my current foodservice-related job and had the opportunity to try flavored cheesecakes for the first time. I was in friggin’ heaven. They were so good. Little by little, I started loving cheesecake.
I have to say, my favorite, hands down, is any variety of chocolate cheesecake. You’re taking two things I love — chocolate and cheesecake — and melding them into a seriously sinful treat. My second favorite would have to be turtle cheesecake, followed closely by pumpkin.
Plain cheesecake is actually pretty good, too. I haven’t had a really good cheesecake in a long time, though. Any recommendations?
Baklava
Baklava used to be one of my most favorite desserts — that is, until I became allergic to almost every nut in existence. The lone two “safe” nuts I can consume are cashews and pecans (and, thank God, pecan pie! Oh how I love thee!), but everything else is unsafe. Or life-threatening.
So, baklava. For those unfamiliar, it’s a Greek dessert made with layers of fillo dough with nuts in between and drenched in honey. Some will say it’s too sweet. Not me! It can never be too sweet! But those nuts pose a serious problem. One year, I got so desperate that I ate just the top layer, thinking I could circumvent the nuts. It worked…except, damn it, I wanted more.
I found a recipe for nutless baklava that I might try this holiday season. It is here: http://delishvegetarian.hubpages.com/hub/nut-free-baklava-recipe I will report my findings after the holidays are over.
Tiramisu
An Italian dessert made with ladyfingers soaked with coffee and a mixture made with mascarpone cheese. It is then flavored with liquor and cocoa.
I am not a coffee person at all. Anything remotely mocha-flavored I avoid like the plague. However, I’ve had a couple good tiramisu. The trick with those, for me, is a light mocha flavor vs. strong. If it’s barely there, it’s actually pretty good. But if it’s strong, it tastes too much like coffee and yuck. I won’t, as a rule, eat tiramisu unless it’s offered to me. But there are people out there (like my entire family) that love coffee and would eat that right up!
So those are my thoughts on desserts. There are more coming!
What’s your favorite dessert of the three I talked about? Like something else completely different? Anyone allergic to nuts that wants to try the recipe?
Till next time….bon appetit!
Weaver of Words 