The Easiest Desserts for a Holiday Dessert Buffet

Today in our continuing blog series, "Holiday Entertaining," we offer ideas for the easiest desserts for a holiday dessert buffet.

There are two schools of thought here:

• Buy a dessert that's completely made
• Buy a HIGH QUALITY mix and make a dessert

Most people will not want or have time to make a dessert, so we'll just recommend two high-quality lines of dessert mixes:

• Williams Sonoma
• Central Market (most of these are all natural)

With these mixes you can be assured of a high quality, which is not true of the mass market mixes.

Or, even easier, make a fruit fool and serve in shot glasses, very trendy now: mix sweetened whipped cream with berries in a blender (taste and add more sugar if needed), then spoon the fool into small tumblers or even wine glasses and decorate each with fresh berries or chocolate bits

If you want to buy one or more desserts, our recommendations are:

• Buy from a caterer
• Buy from a good restaurant you frequent and where you've eaten desserts, if they sell desserts (not all do)
• Buy from a high-quality pastry shop--but take our advice and don't buy for your party if you've never purchased a dessert from that pastry shop before.  Instead, buy one ahead of time and taste test it so you and your guests won't be disappointed.  You can always give away the extra dessert or save it for after your party.
• Buy from a specialty baker (ask for references)
• The easiest? Buy some of the wonderful panettones, pandoros, panfortes, liqueur regular and mini cakes, and so forth available at upscale supermarkets and some upscale department stores (like Neiman Marcus and Bloomie's).  If you want to be sure of the best quality, buy the more expensive ones--like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.

Then put your desserts on nice trays.  If you're lost in the "nice tray" arena, the easiest thing to do is to buy a square or oval white porcelain tray, widely available at retailers, and garnish at intervals or corners and/or in the center with:

• Fresh raspberries, cranberries, or crab apples
• Fresh herb sprigs
• Edible flowers

Then stand back, admire, and eat!

Enjoy!

Kristina

Fandango Catering and Events
(713) 522-0077
www.fandango-catering.com