Luscious Creamy Desserts

introduction

Who can resist luscious creamy desserts? They are the world’s favorite comfort food. And that’s saying a lot, since comfort foods are our most beloved of all. I think of creamy desserts as the teddy bears of the dessert world. A dessert may be flavored with chocolate, lemon, berries, or whatever—but our true favorites, the dishes that touch our hearts and stay there, the desserts we are always pleased to see sitting in front of us, are creamy.

Desserts are for pleasure. They are indulgences and luxuries, and we count on them to raise our spirits. And what could raise a mood or spirit better than a luscious creamy dessert like a quivering panna cotta, a rich butterscotch pudding, a caramel apple shortcake, or a Venetian-style fried custard? Many creamy desserts have a pristine simplicity—neither the techniques nor the ingredients are elaborate—and yet the potential for satisfaction, for pleasure, even for consolation, is huge. When we’re served them, we feel safe and loved, and when we prepare them and serve them to others, we feel generous and nurturing.

This selection of desserts is not only a celebration of our favorite texture, it’s also a celebration of flavors. While all the desserts are luscious and creamy, they are not all vanilla, or all white. Here are desserts with gorgeous, vibrant colors and bold flavors, along with others that are delicate and pale. It’s no longer a vanilla world! Classic vanilla custard sauce is fantastic, but mango custard sauce is just as good as the original. It’s even better with some desserts.

LUSCIOUS CREAMY DESSERTS includes desserts flavored with fruits and berries, including many types of citrus, dried fruits, and tropical fruits. You’ll also find herbs, spices, and aromatics like tarragon, coriander seed, ginger, and licorice. Other flavorings include nuts of all kinds, liqueurs, and lots of chocolate, caramel, and coffee.

Just what defines a creamy dessert? To me it’s any dessert that feels creamy in your mouth. It may not have heavy cream in it, but the creaminess is there. It may instead include mascarpone, half-and-half, crème fraîche, ricotta, yogurt, or sour cream. Or take lemon curd. It’s definitely creamy, but the creaminess comes from egg yolks and butter, not cream. Lemon curd is essentially a custard that is made with butter instead of cream. Yet what is butter? Churned cream.

Some of the recipes in LUSCIOUS CREAMY DESSERTS are amazingly easy, while others are for more experienced cooks or for show-off occasions. There are both recipes for traditional desserts and fresh ideas for contemporary ones.

For me, creamy means caramel just as much as custard. Caramel is sweet and creamy, but dark caramel has an appealing bittersweet edge. It’s the balance and complexity of flavors that makes it compelling. And a caramel sauce or syrup is a great foil for many creamy desserts. Think of the way the caramel that lines crème caramel offers the perfect bittersweet foil to the creaminess of the custard. Please take note also of the Caramel-Coated Strawberries (page 148)—their crisp, very thin coating of dark caramel really enhances the flavor of the berries as well as the look of the plate. They are a real treat.

Creamy desserts call out for contrast—crisp cookies on the side, crunchy praline on top, toasted candied nuts, an icy granita, a tart fruit sauce, or ripe fresh fruit and berries. You’ll find lots of those contrasts here. I’m very fond of the Lemon Crunch (page 146), which is the quickest and easiest recipe in the book. Just crush a few of those rough-looking brown sugar cubes (like the ones served in upscale restaurants with coffee and tea) and stir in freshly grated lemon zest. The flavors come together in a wonderful way, and a sprinkle on top of a creamy dessert just before serving adds a very pleasing aromatic and fresh-tasting crunch.

Praline is a cousin to caramel. Shards of it, looking like shiny pieces of glass, make a grand garnish. Crisp, crackly coarsely or finely ground praline can be sprinkled over or into many creamy desserts. In fact, I had to keep myself from recommending praline for almost every one of these recipes. But please know you’re encouraged to use praline with abandon.

You will find desserts here that are just the thing for a weekday when you, or someone you love, needs comfort. But when you want to celebrate, you have many choices—try the Cannoli Cheesecake (page 51), say, or the Roasted Banana Ice Cream with Pecan Praline (page 98), or the Chocolate-Lemon Cream Cake with a Hat (page 37). For more restrained occasions, try Greek Yogurt with Sour Cherry Preserves, Walnuts, and Honey (page 84), Brown Butter–Crème Fraîche Pound Cake (page 43), or Espresso Granita con Panna (page 109). Sometimes you just must have something luscious, creamy, and delectable, and you are sure to find the recipe here.

all about cream and other dairy products

Dairy products are produced from milk, mostly from cows but also from other animals such as goats and sheep. Not only delicious, they are high-energy-yielding foods, our richest source of calcium, and very nutritious. They are high in protein, B vitamins, selenium, zinc, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. And most dairy products are fortified with vitamin D.

Cream is a product of stillness. It is simply the part of milk that has a far greater concentration of fat than milk as a whole, and it rises through the body of the liquid to form that thick ivory layer at the top.

Most milk today is homogenized, using a process that forces the milk through a filter under very high pressure, which reduces its fat globules to around a quarter of their original size. These smaller particles are evenly dispersed through-out the liquid, where they are held in place by the milk’s network of proteins.

Dairy products are categorized by the amount of fat they contain, as you will see from the following.

WHIPPING CREAM

Whipping cream contains 30 to 36 percent butterfat. To be whipped by whisking it with air, cream must contain at least 30 percent fat. When cream is whipped, air bubbles are trapped in a network of fat droplets, and it roughly doubles in volume. (The whipped cream produced by a canister with a nozzle propelled by nitrous oxide is four times the original volume of the cream.) Whipped cream is said to have been created in 1671 by chef François Vatel for a banquet for Louis XIV, but it probably existed long before then.

If you have a choice between pasteurized and ultrapasteurized cream, choose the former. Ultrapasteurized cream has a much longer shelf life than pasteurized, but because it has been heated to a higher temperature in processing, it tends to be less fresh-tasting. It also takes longer to whip, and the volume isn’t as great.

HEAVY CREAM

Heavy cream (sometimes called manufacturing cream) contains at least 36 and up to 40 percent butterfat. It whips faster than whipping cream and is more stable when whipped. It is actually better for whipping, despite whipping cream’s name, but because it can be overbeaten in a flash, turning to butter before your very eyes, and because the higher butterfat content makes it more expensive, it is not generally available at the retail level. It can be found through restaurant suppliers and some specialty foods shops. Most of the heavy cream in our supermarkets is actually whipping cream.

LIGHT CREAM

Light cream, also known as coffee or table cream, is not generally used for desserts. It has 18 to 30 percent fat.

HALF-AND-HALF

As its name indicates, this is simply half milk and half cream. It must contain at least 10½ percent butterfat, but no more than 18 percent. It cannot be whipped.

MILK

Milk is graded by the amount of fat that it contains. Use only whole milk in these recipes.

BUTTERMILK

Today low-fat milk is fermented with bacteria to make buttermilk. It is often the same type of bacteria used in making sour cream.

EVAPORATED MILK

Evaporated milk is fresh homogenized milk that has been heated until 60 percent of the water has been evaporated. The high heat used gives this canned product a cooked flavor with a bit of caramel, and it is slightly darker than fresh milk. Evaporated milk can be mixed with equal parts water as a substitute for fresh milk, but in the United States it is used mostly in making desserts. It’s less concentrated than condensed milk and it almost never has sugar added. It requires more processing than condensed milk, since the sugar in condensed milk inhibits bacterial growth. It was developed by Gail Borden Jr. in 1852.

CONDENSED MILK

Also known as sweetened condensed milk, this canned product is milk that has had much of its water removed by evaporation and sugar added to extend shelf life. It includes only fresh full-fat milk and sugar. It’s a thick, sweet product that can last for years without refrigeration. It was developed in 1865 by Gail Borden Jr., using a method the Shakers developed to condense fruit juice. Borden’s Eagle Brand is still sold today.

SOUR CREAM

Sour cream, which is made from heavy cream, contains 15 to 20 percent fat. It gets its characteristic tang and thick texture from the lactic acid created by the bacteria used as a culture.

CRÈME FRAÎCHE

Crème fraîche, which translates as fresh cream, is a thick and voluptuous French cultured cream, similar to sour cream but richer, with a minimum of 30 percent butterfat.

Crème fraîche is a specialty of Normandy. To my mind, it’s one of the very few things that are better than heavy cream. Not as tangy as sour cream, or as thick, it is slightly fermented and has a subtle ripened, somewhat nutty flavor and a rich, velvety texture. It adds a depth of flavor and creaminess without being heavy or overwhelming. It has a longer shelf life than heavy cream and can even be frozen. It can be lightly whipped if chilled, and, unlike sour cream, it will not curdle when boiled. You’ll find a recipe for crème fraîche on page 12.

MASCARPONE

The devastatingly rich Italian cream cheese, from the Lombardy region, is probably best known as one of the main ingredients in tiramisu. Fresh-tasting, rich, and creamy, it has a fat content of about 70 percent.

MEXICAN CREMA

Crema, available in Mexican and other Hispanic groceries, is similar to crème fraîche and is a good substitute.

BRITISH CREAMS

Many argue that the best cream in the world is found in the United Kingdom. British half cream has 12 percent butterfat, single cream (also known as pouring cream) has 18, and medium cream has 25. Heavy whipping cream has at least 35 percent and England’s gorgeous double cream is 48 percent butterfat.

Cream from Jersey cattle, typically found in Devon and Cornwall in the southwest of England, contains natural carotenoid pigments that come from the plants the cows eat, which gives the milk the color of pale buttercups. Jersey cream is often used to make clotted cream, which is made by heating unpasteurized milk and skimming off the yellow crust that forms. Beloved by many, the thick cream has a texture that is almost like butter, although it is too soft to slice, but unlike butter, it tastes of cream, not fat. Clotted cream has a warm golden color and a smooth, rich texture. Unlike crème fraîche, it is