Tag Archives: desserts

Summer Berry Terrine

I am still cruising, but I wanted to share one of my favorite summer recipes. It is chock full of summer berries, and antioxidants. Although it does have sugar in it, I think it would fairly easy to make a sugar-free version.

This is one of my mom’s favorite dessert recipes to bring to a summer picnic. I love that it is so light and fruity. It also looks great for Fourth of July!

Summer Berry Terrine

adapted from Mixed Berry Terrine

serves 8

Ingredients

1 1/2 envelopes (.25 oz) each unflavored gelatin

1 1/3 cups white grape juice

1/3 cup sugar (increase if berries are not sweet)

4 cups mixed berries, we use hulled and halved strawberries and blueberries

Directions

Sprinkle gelatin over 1/3 cup grape juice and let soften for 2 to 3 minutes.

Heat another 1/4 cup of grape juice in a small saucepan. Add the sugar and stir over medium heat until dissolved. Add the gelatin mixture to the warm sugar mixture. Stir to combine and then add in the remaining 3/4 cups of grape juice.

Place the berries into a 4×8 inch loaf pan. Pour the gelatin mixture over the berries. You may need to gently press down the berries so they submerge. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.

To unmold, first use a knife to loosen the edges of the mold. Then microwave 2 cups of water until hot. Pour water into a large casserole dish. Set the mold in the casserole dish and let sit for 1-2 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and shake firmly to release.

A Chocolate Crazed Weekend

Pretty much since the day I gave up chocolate for Lent, I have been looking forward to stuffing myself full of chocolate on Easter. I daydreamed about chocolate and thought about how much better food would taste once I could flavor everything with cocoa powder. I even moved my cocoa powder into a cabinet that I rarely open to stave off temptation.

When Easter weekend came around I went chocolate crazy. On Friday, I cataloged everything I wanted to eat, with corresponding grocery and baking dish lists. Even though I ignored all serving size information, most of these desserts kept me guilt free as well. I got the below three recipes from Chocolate Covered Katie, one of the best dessert blogs ever! All of her recipes are vegan, and she also includes a lot of options for gluten-free folks as well.

1. Deep Dish Cookie Pie: Hands down my favorite. It was more of the consistency of cookie dough than a cookie, but I loved every bite.

Nothing illustrates how delicious this was better than a comment that Perry made when he first tasted the pie. I had given him a sample platter of all the pies and he after biting into this one he said, “Wow, this is amazing, too bad it’s unhealthy and you can’t put this recipe on your blog.” And because I am mature, I laughed maniacally and told him it was “full of beans-so there, yeah desserts can be healthy and delicious! what now?”.

2. Chocolate Bar Pie: Although nothing can compare to the cookie dough pie, I really loved this pie as well. It was more of an “adult” dessert because of its richness and flavors. I did not use a pie crust so the result was more of a mousse, but it was deliciously chocolately and creamy. Out of all the recipes, this was was the easiest to prepare and I could probably make it using the Bullet instead of a food processor. Claire served as my outside seal of approval on this recipe and went back for seconds-usually she is a bit skeptical of my healthy foods.

3. Chocolate Strawberry Truffle Pie

The above picture pretty much sums up my feelings on this recipe. I just kept blending and blending and blending… While the consistency never reached perfect smoothness, the flavor of the pie was great! I subbed cherries for strawberries, and thought that both the cherries and chocolate were highlighted and neither was overpowering.

4. Reese’s Eggs: Ok, I really should not count these…but I have to because they are so delicious and I think they have a superior chocolate to peanut butter ratio than the regular Reese’s.

Did you make any fun Easter desserts this weekend? Or just any great healthy-ish desserts? What are your favorite Easter candies?