Previously, I revealed a list of 5 dessert sauces you can pretty much make in your sleep. These accompaniments to Desserts have the fastest and easiest preparations in my book. Now it's high time to do the same for the desserts that go with some of them. Not every dessert has to seem like a real chore to make in the kitchen. In fact, some of the really tedious ones have even been simplified through hacks or refinements for convenience.
If you are a little tired or don't have much time to whip up something bold for dessert, it would be essential to know these more basic desserts.
Some of them can be quite surprising to learn and can save a lot of time. Here is a top 5 list of desserts that you can make in your sleep.
5. Cheesecake
Traditionally, cheesecake was a dessert that required some care to prepare given that it was also one of those desserts that broke the mold in culinary. It was a flourless cake made from an uncooked custard base and blurred the lines between sweet and savory desserts with its cream cheese flavor. The cake was also time-consuming as most recipes called for an hour (if not more) in terms of baking time. These days, however, cheesecake is no longer a hassle, as there are a number of hacks to use.
Some variations for cheesecake rely on the microwave which cuts the baking time down to minutes.
Other recipes throw out the baking entirely and call for chilling the base in contrast. But the simplest of variations serve up the cheesecake base as it is. By omitting the raw eggs and just whipping equal amounts of heavy cream with the cream cheese and sugar, you have a base that can be eaten uncooked or unchilled without hazard.
Just serve in a glass with biscuits and fruit.
4. Ice Cream
Similar to cheesecake, ice cream was also quite the chore to produce back in the early days. Like the former, it started with a custard base, though it was cooked first. That base would then be cooled down and placed in an ice cream maker to be chilled and churned simultaneously to break up the ice crystal that formed before it could be called an ice cream.
As you can guess, this all took a considerable amount time but thanks to a simple hack, most of this is no longer required.
This hack does away with the custard base and utilizes only two ingredients for it: Sweetened condensed milk and heavy cream. Both would be folded into one another in equal parts, along with small amounts of flavoring and chilled in a freezer for a few hours. No double boiler or ice cream maker required.
3. Sorbet
Chances are if you are into cold desserts then you are familiar with a sorbet. This frozen confection is made from a flavored ice base; a combination of water, sugar and a flavor (fruit juice, puree, wine, tea, etc.). As a dessert, a sorbet is ideally served as a cooler on hot summer days or as a palette cleanser served in the middle of a full course meal.
Like ice cream, it can be churned and chilled in an ice cream maker or just chilled.
Unlike ice cream, however, a sorbet's base doesn't require cooking and can be easily made by just combining sweetened syrup with a flavored base; usually in a 1:4 ratio. For example, just whip 1/4 cup of simple syrup or honey with 1 pound of fruit in a food processor. The no-churn hack also applies here, meaning you can just pour the mixture into a pan and chill it in the freezer for several hours.
2. Meringue
Besides being used to leaven other desserts, a meringue can serve as one of the simplest desserts to make if you want a sweet treat. A meringue is pretty much what you get by combining egg whites with sugar.
Sugar is naturally hydrophilic, meaning it can be used to draw water out of substances. However, take note that small amounts of an acidic ingredient like cream of tarter or lemon juice need to be added to the egg whites before whipping to stabilize them.
Meringues can be either soft like cream or hard like candy and it all depends on the amount of sugar used to make them. Soft meringues call for a ratio of one part egg white to two parts sugar while hard meringues call for double that ratio. Either one can serve as a standalone dessert but can also be flavored and eaten with fruit and other desserts.
1. Ganache
This one was already brought up on my list of dessert sauces. As I mentioned back then, a ganches is much more than just a dessert sauce.
Combining equal parts of melted chocolate and heavy cream creates a base thick enough for eating and it can become thicker by simply increasing the chocolate content. Ganache is a dessert that's very simple to make and even simpler to enjoy if you are into chocolate. No hacks required.
