The Wedding Reception Viennese Hour

A delightful wedding trend is recent years has been the Viennese hour. This event takes place at the reception following dinner and it is essentially a display of every delicious dessert that anyone could ever imagine. This is what you need to know to plan a fabulous Viennese hour for your wedding reception.

Let’s face it: everyone remembers a wedding which had really great food. My first encounter with a Viennese hour was at a Winter Wonderland wedding. The bride wore a beautiful beaded gown and dazzling crystal bridal jewelry. Her bouquet and centerpieces dripped with Swarovski crystals to match her bridal jewelry. The band was amazing. But what I really remember about that wedding was the moment after dinner when the doors were opened to an adjoining room to reveal the most spectacular display of desserts I had ever seen in one place: the Viennese hour.

What should you feature at your Viennese hour? Everything! The whole point of it is to give your guests that kid in a candy shop feeling. Everywhere they look, they should discover another of their favorite sweets. The dessert hour should leave your guests a little awestruck, as they look around in wonder, thinking, “Where should I begin?”. Continue reading “The Wedding Reception Viennese Hour”

Lactose Free Recipes – Desserts!

Are you looking for some lactose free recipes? Desserts being left out of the diet for those who are lactose intolerant is just wrong. I think just about everyone has a sweet tooth and just because your body and milk don’t get along doesn’t mean you have to go without.

It’s tough enough searching for recipes or adjusting your current recipes to be made lactose free; creating lactose free recipes, desserts for example can be a little tougher. Many desserts call for milk or a milk product such as ice cream or whipping topping. With a little thought and ingenuity you can create some very tasty treats that are lactose free.

The recipes can be simple or they can be more complex and they can be fresh or they can be frozen. You can make shakes, cakes, cookies and even whipped topping. If you have the hang of the foods that you can eat, then creating desserts that will quickly become your favorites will be easy.

When searching through the numerous lactose free recipes, desserts specifically, you will find a variety of flavors just like you do when you are searching for a new recipe for breakfast or dinner. One super simple recipe is to make a milkshake from chocolate flavored almond milk and blend with ice; if you want to add a little vanilla you can. Continue reading “Lactose Free Recipes – Desserts!”

4 Recipes for No Bake Pie Crusts

For no-bake pie crusts, you can experiment with just about any crispy ingredient as your base. Pretzels, potato chips or shortbread cookies come to mind.

Before you start experimenting, here a 4 tested and proven to work no-bake pie crust recipes. These no-bake crusts are suitable for cream fillings or fillings cooked on the stove top and cooled before adding to the pie.

Why turn on the oven if you don’t have to? Use these recipes for your summer pies.

Graham Cracker Pie Crust

This crust is perfect for cream pies and gelatin based no-bake cheesecakes.

Continue reading “4 Recipes for No Bake Pie Crusts”

Low-Sugar, Gluten Free Alternatives to Your Favorite Desserts

Yeah! Who doesn’t love homemade Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies? Well, these classic cookies are low in sugar & gluten free. They only have about 7 grams of focused carbs! See below how it’s done.

Prep Time:

Minutes to Prepare: 12 mins.

Minutes to Cook: 12-14 mins.

Number of Servings: 26

Ingredients: Continue reading “Low-Sugar, Gluten Free Alternatives to Your Favorite Desserts”

Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe For The Toaster Oven

Last spring my organic seed supplier had a special on pie pumpkin seeds. Naturally, I decided to grow pie pumpkins for the first year ever. The five vines I planted produced over 100 pounds of pie pumpkins. This left me with a problem: I can only eat so many pumpkin pies. I can only give my neighbors and friends so many pumpkin pies. I did find the pumpkins work well in pumpkin soup (something I’ve eaten a lot of lately) but I still needed something different. I recently found it: pumpkin cheesecake. I tried many recipes and finally came up with one all my own that I love.

One warning: if you bake the pumpkin cheesecake without a water bath it will likely crack on the top. I’m ok with this; I think it adds to the rustic, homemade look. If the cracks present a problem for you, you will need to use a traditional Bain Marie, or water bath, and extend the baking time by 15 minutes.

Ingredients Continue reading “Pumpkin Cheesecake Recipe For The Toaster Oven”

Make the Best Cheesecake Ever – Grandma’s Secret Recipe

Say the word “cheesecake” and it rolls off the tongue, bringing with it associations of decadence and sweet, creamy goodness. In New York, it’s even “famous”. Yet many people opt to buy this time-honored dessert, thinking it must be complicated and time-consuming to make. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If cheesecake is a favorite for your family, then the following recipe can show you how to whip one together quickly and easily.

The recipe also comes with a fun story: one day, as a friend was driving home, she noticed sheets of paper littering the side of the road, whipping up near her windshield as she drove along. Feeling curious, she decided to stop and see what was written on these mysterious scraps. It turned out that this “trash” became her treasure; each scrap contained a recipe, neatly hand-written, from the 1950’s. Hence, forever after, this cheesecake will be referred to as “Roadside Cheesecake”.

Here is the recipe that came from someone’s grandma (we just don’t know whose): Continue reading “Make the Best Cheesecake Ever – Grandma’s Secret Recipe”

New York Style Cheesecake Recipe

New York style cheesecake recipes are made with a combination of cream cheese and Italian cheese cakes made with ricotta cheese. In the early 1920’s, this particular silky style of cream cheese was developed in the New York area.

New York style cheesecake recipes were introduced by Jewish delicatessens in New York City. Arnold Reuben Jr., owner of the legendary Turf Restaurant at 49th and Broadway in New York City and a descendant of immigrants from Germany, claimed his family developed the first cream cheese cake recipe. Reuben’s cheesecake was so good, it won a Gold Metal at the 1929 World’s Fair.

The superior qualities that make Reuben’s classic New York style cheesecake are a graham cracker crust, a creamy texture, and distinct lemon flavor that is firm but light in density. Below you will find his Classic New York Style Cheesecake recipe.

Classic New York Cheesecake Continue reading “New York Style Cheesecake Recipe”

Different Types of Cheesecakes

If you think that cheesecake is cheesecake, then you’re either not a baker or have been living under a rock for your whole life. There are more kinds of cheesecake than Carter has liver pills, and he’s got plenty of them to go around. We’re not going to cover every type and style of cheesecake in this article but just try to give you some idea of why a cheesecake is not just a cheesecake.

Cheesecake is one of the most common and popular desserts in the world today. It is also one of the oldest made from a dairy product other than milk. Cheesecakes can be made of ricotta cheese, havarti, quark, twaróg, or more usually, cream cheese. Other ingredients such as sugar, eggs, cream and fruit are often mixed in, too. This is the reason why there are so many types of cheesecakes because the number of recipes you can come up with are virtually unlimited.

So what styles of cheesecakes are there? Below are just a few with a brief description of each. There is the good old American style cheese cake. These are usually made from cream cheese, which was invented in 1872. After James Kraft invented this type of cheese, it became the top product for making cheesecake in America. Continue reading “Different Types of Cheesecakes”

The Foods You Need to Eat During Pregnancy!

Need some real, practical suggestions for healthy breakfasts, snacks, meals and drinks for avoiding excessive weight gain during pregnancy? Look no further – we’ve even given you a shopping list!

PREGNANCY NUTRITION: TOP FOODS TO EAT AND TO AVOID!

Pregnancy Nutrition: BREAKFAST IDEAS

Fresh fruit smoothie: Blend any fresh fruit (with some natural unsweetened live yoghurt (soya, goat or cow’s) and a handful of mixed seeds (e.g. pumpkin, sunflower, sesame and linseed).

Tip: if you are in a hurry, add fresh orange or apple juice to dilute your smoothie so it’s easy to drink, then put in a beaker and take it with you.

Boiled, scrambled or poached egg with buttered oat cakes or rye toast. – Wholegrain rye toast spread with nut butter (almond, cashew, hazel or peanut) Continue reading “The Foods You Need to Eat During Pregnancy!”

Top Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Taste and nutrition as well as the health benefits of tomatoes have been highly valued. Enjoyed all over the world, they are essential ingredients in the diets of many cultures. Yet the plant has a spotty past, including myths, misconceptions and controversy, and the challenges of modern mass production of the tomato continue to spark debate. Yet there is no debate over the intrinsic health benefits of the tomato. The tomato is treasured for its nutritional value as much as for its delicious taste.

History of the Tomato

Peru is generally credited with first cultivating of the fruit now known as the tomato. The tomatoes of that day were tiny compared to modern tomatoes, but were already a valued food, bred for flavor. From Peru, the tomato spread through Southern and Central America. Mexico’s Aztecs prized them, using them extensively in their cooking, including salsa. When the Spanish invaded Mexico during the early 1500’s, the Aztecs developed a new, gruesome recipe involving tomatoes. The fruit was served with the flesh of the Spanish invaders. Continue reading “Top Health Benefits of Tomatoes”