I love entertaining and having guests over, and if you’re like me, you probably have a list of finger foods, appetizers, and desserts up your sleeve.
In my experience, making individual desserts makes it easier for guests to eat and mingle, and today, I’ve got you covered for that!
Here are 9 delightful desserts in a jar your guests will love. Browse through them, choose your favorites, and let’s have to treat your guests to dessert today!
Drop by her blog and say hello, preferably with a cookie in one hand, and a steeping mug of tea in the other!
Pairing a fine wine with your meal is commonplace in high culture. However, despite how much we’ve learned that wine can truly enhance what we eat, we have yet to delve into the realm of dessert wines. Here are some basic tips on dessert wines and combinations that you can use in order to increase the impact of your dessert.
The first thing you have to examine, of course, is the sort of dessert you want to have. Desserts also need to be paired with the meal, and choosing the wrong flavor means that the dessert simply won’t go over as well as it could have in other circumstances. It’s also important to choose a dessert to which good wine will be accessible. As a general rule of thumb, don’t make your dessert too sweet. The sweet dessert wines that work best shouldn’t have to compete with other highly sweet flavors, and an excessively sweet dessert can make the wine itself less enjoyable. Another thing to avoid is desserts that are cold. It’s okay to have a cold part of your dessert, but dessert wines don’t go well with an entirely cold finale, as cold temperatures can make the taste palette less sensitive to the fine details of your dessert wine.
When selecting your dessert wine, there are some very basic guidelines to follow. First, try to find a wine that is as sweet or sweeter than the dessert it will be accompanying. Beyond that, it’s all about complimenting the flavor. Ports go well with nutty desserts, ice wines go well with fruity dishes, and sauternes go well with creamy desserts. Try experimenting on your own to see what exact taste combinations work well for you, and what is often far more important, the guests who will be enjoying the meal, wine, and dessert. I have enjoyed a good glass of table wine many times with my meals. Wine tasting parties have always been a favorite pastime, especially when combined with cheese. No, I am not from Wisconsin so I do not rate a “cheese head hat”. Recently, after a pleasant dinner party with good friends, I was introduced to a new class of vintages that I had never tried before. The dessert wine I was served turned out to be the fitting end to a fabulous evening.
Grapes used for these type of wines are not harvested in the same fashion and timing as your typical table wine grapes. The goal is to increase the sugar content of the grape by mainly harvesting them later in the season. Often a noble rot forms on the grapes before harvest. In another dessert type named ice wine, the grape harvest is delayed until the first freeze. Some times these wines are developed by pausing the fermentation process.
