tiny delights

My favorite part of a meal? Simple: the dessert!

If I had it my way, the five basic food groups would be chocolate products, cakes, cookies, fruit, and peanut butter. Not that I don't love a nice piece of celery...but isn't it better when smothered in peanut butter?

Now, unless one lives in a home with several roommakes, making an entire cake is not always the best use of resources. Nothing is worse than a batch of cookies getting stale before I can finish eating them all! (Not that I am unable to eat a whole batch; I just try not to do it every week.) Solution? Beautiful *mini* desserts!

Here I offer some desserts from a few of my fav blogs/sites that are cute, delicious, and tiny. Lovely!

Sour Cherry Pies from sweetfineday

*makes four individual four-inch pies*

crust
2- 2/3 c flour

14 tbsp butter

1 tsp salt

1/4 c cold water

filling
2 c fresh sour cherries, pitted

1/3 c sugar

1 tbsp cornstarch

what to do
Mix butter, flour, and salt until incorporated. Mix in enough cold water to create a dough. Roll as thin as possible and cut into eight circles about two inches larger than your pans. Chill until use.

While chilling, toss cherries in sugar and let sit for 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the juice. Put the juice into a saucepan with the cornstarch and bring to a boil. Once thickened, remove from heat and and stir in cherries.

Press one dough circle into four-inch tart pan. Fill almost to the top with filling. Place another circle of dough on top; press edges together to seal. Crimp decoratively as desired and cut short slit on top of pie. Repeat for remaining pies. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheet for 40 min. at 375 degrees. YUM!

Mini Molten Chocolate Cakes

ingredients
4 tbsp unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
400 degree oven

what to do
Generously butter four cups of a muffin pan. Dust lightly with sugar. Set aside.

Cream butter and 1/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. At a low speed, beat in flour and salt until just combined. Beat in chocolate without overmixing. Divide among the four cups.

Place muffin pan on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 min or until tops no longer jiggle. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 min. Remove from pan and dust with sugar and whipped cream, if desired. YUM!

Mini Ice Cream Cakes

ingredients
Cooking spray
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup softened butter
2 large eggs
1-2/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 cups low-fat strawberry ice cream, softened (or your fav flavor instead!)
1-1/2 cups frozen whipped topping, thawed
12 maraschino cherries with stems, drained
350 degree oven

what to do
Coat a 15x10-inch jelly roll pan with spray; line pan with wax paper. Coat paper with spray; set aside.

Beat sugar and butter in large bowl at medium speed for 5 min. Add eggs one at a time, beating with each addition.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder & soda, and salt; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture; mix after each addition. Beat in extracts. Pour batter into prepared pan. Tap pan once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake 20 min or until a wooden pick comes out clean from center. Cool 10 min on wire rack; remove from pan. Peel off wax paper; cool completely on wire rack. Place on cutting board and refrigerate about two hours.

Spread ice cream evenly over top of cake; cover with plastic wrap. Freeze until firm.

Uncover cake. Cut cake with a two-inch round cutter into 24 cake rounds. Place one cake round, ice cream side up, in a paper muffin cup liner; top with another cake round, ice cream side down. Repeat procedure with remaining cake rounds to form 12 filled ice cream cakes.

Top each cake with two tablespoons whipped topping; add maraschino cherry atop each cake. Freeze until ready to serve. YUM!