Top 5 Desserts Made With Alcohol (that you can make right now)!

We all have the occasional sweet tooth. Here are a few recipes that combine two of your favorite things: sweets and booze! Happy eating!

Grapefruit Pomegranate Champagne Sorbet
Makes 1 quart
2 1/2 cups freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, strained
1/2 cup sugar + 2 tablespoons
1/2 cup pomegranate juice
1/2 cup champagne
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

In a medium-sized sauce pot, combine 1 cup of grapefruit juice with the sugar and heat until completely dissolved. Remove from heat and add the champagne, pomegranate and lemon juices and stir to combine. Refrigerate until entirely cool. Add mixture to ice cream maker, churn for 20-25 minutes, transfer to container and freeze until ready to serve. The sorbet will keep up to 1 week.

Bourbon Marshmallow S’mores with Bacon

Ok, I had to chime in on this one.  S’mores are already AWESOME, but to add BACON AND BOOZE?!?!  OHMAGOSH!

makes one 9×13 pan

3 1/2 envelopes unflavored gelatin (I used Knox)

1/2 cup cold bourbon

1/2 cup cold water

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large egg whites

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Oil a 9 x 13 baking panmand sprinkle on powdered sugar to cover and coat. Set aside. In the bowl of your electric mixer (a whisk attachment is best), pour 1/2 cup cold water and 3 1/2 packs of gelatin. I gently mixed with a spoon once, then let sit while you make the sugar mixture.

In a medium pot combine sugar, bourbon, syrup and salt. Heat over low heat and whisk until sugar is dissolved, about 3-5 minutes. Turn heat up to medium and let sugar come to a boil. It will bubbly up so keep yours eye on it so it does not overflow. Let it boil for 8-12 minutes, until it reaches 240 degrees F (measure with a candy thermometer). The mixture will appear to be a lightish brown color – don’t worry, the marshmallows will still be white.

Once mixture is at 240 degrees F, turn off heat and gently pour it in the mixer over the gelatin with the mixer on low speed. Once all of the sugar has been added, turn the mixer to high and beat for for 6-8 minutes. It should grow in size and be white and fluffy. About 3-4 minutes in, add the egg whites to a separate bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. I used a hand mixer to do this. If you don’t have a hand mixer, I assume you have to remove the whisk attachment, clean it (it will be a sticky mess), add a new bowl to the mixer, beat egg whites. Once stiff peaks are formed, add egg whites and vanilla extract to the sugar/gelatin mixture and beat until just combined.

Pour marshmallow mix into the 9 x 13 pan. It will impossibly sticky so be careful, and you will not be able to get it all out of the bowl. Get as much as you can, then spray a spatula with non-stick spray and smooth. Dust powdered sugar on top and let sit to firm up for 3-5 hours. Once firm, turn the pan upside down on a cutting board to release marshmallow rectangle. Cut them into pieces of whatever size you like.

For the s’mores, you obviously need some graham crackers, chocolate bars and crispy bacon. I hope this part would be obvious, though.

Brown Butter Rum Cannoli

Directions:

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 376 degrees F.

TO MAKE WONTON CANNOLI COOKIE

1. Use a 3 1/2 inch round cutter and stamp out a circle from each wonton sheet. Using a pastry brush, cover each side of wonton round with butter.
2. Wrap wonton around cannoli form and place on a bake sheet with seam side up. Bake at 375 degrees for about 5-7 minutes or until golden brown (start checking for doneness at 5 minutes). Remove bake sheet from oven and then remove cannoli cookies from forms. Place cookies on a rack to cool.

TO MAKE MASCARPONE FILLING

1. Place butter in a small pan and heat until butter is brown and nutty in aroma. Remove from heat and strain. Set aside to cool, but still liquid. Add rum to cooled butter and stir to combine.
2. Place mascarpone and confectioner sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment; beat until smooth. Add in butter mixture and beat until combined.
3. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with preferred tip.

ASSEMBLY

1. Dip ends of cannoli cookie into chocolate. Dip chocolate covered ends into crushed nuts. Set aside until chocolate hardens and sets.
2. Pipe filling into both ends of cookies. Drizzle with remaining chocolate and dust with confectioner sugar.

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Peach Sangria Popsicles 

1 cup white wine
3 Tablespoons Grand Marnier orange liquor
2/3 cup peach juice
1/4 cup club soda
1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
1 1/3 cups diced mixed fruit (such as peaches, strawberries and pineapple)

In a large pitcher or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the white wine, Grand Marnier, peach juice, club soda and lime juice.

Divide the diced fruit evenly among the popsicle molds then pour the sangria mixture on top to fill up the molds. Freeze the popsicles for 1 to 2 hours (depending on the temperature of your freezer) until they’ve firmed up slightly then insert the popsicle sticks and return the popsicles to the freezer until they are frozen solid, at least 6 hours.

Side note.  These are perfect for summer.

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Pineapple Upside Down Jell-O Shots

• 3/4 cup boiling water
• 3 ounces pineapple flavored gelatin
• 1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup vodka
• 1/2 cup butterscotch schnapps

1. Prepare 12 plastic shot glasses by spraying each lightly with cooking spray. With a paper towel, wipe all but a trace layer out. This step will help the jelly shots to release later.
2. In a medium size bowl with a spout, combine the gelatin and boiling water. Stir until the gelatin has dissolved.
3. Add in the vodka and butterscotch schnapps.
4. Drop a cherry into each plastic shot cup, then pour the gelatin mixture over the top.
5. Place in the refrigerator until the gelatin has firmly set, 3 hours or more. To serve, set jelly shots on counter at room temperature for a few minutes until they release easily when tipped upside down. Place on a serving tray and serve immediately.

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All these recipes have me hungry!  I think I’ll head over to BeerRightNow and get my materials so I can start cooking!  Until next time, cheers!