Sure, Roselin. This is really good for entertaining because you can make it 2-3 days ahead & keep in the refrigerator: SLICES OF SIN (serves 10-12) 8 oz semisweet chocolate (use a good brand) 1/2 cup strong brewed coffee 2 sticks butter, (1/2 lb) 1 cup sugar 4 eggs, beaten 1 cup heavy cream Preheat oven to 350°. Line a glass loaf pan w/foil; butter the foil. In the top of a double boiler, melt the chocolate in the coffee. Add the butter & sugar, stirring until the butter is melted. Cool the mixture for 10 minutes. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a crust forms on top, approximately 35-45 minutes. When cool enough to handle, set the loaf pan in enough cool water to come halfway up the pan. The dessert wil rise & fall as it cools. When cool, wrap the pan well & refrigerate for at least 2 days or up to 2 weeks. When ready to serve, beat the cream until stiff (can flavor with 2-3 tsp brandy, but I just used vanilla & a little sugar). Unmold the loaf & slice. Garnish w/cream.~~

The Cappucino Mousse is divine, and very simple to make. Here are a couple more ideas. Raspberry-Lemon Shortbread Tart From Every Day with Rachael Ray February-March 2006 8 Servings Prep Time: 30 min; Cook Time: 50 min 3 cups frozen raspberries (1 pound) 1 stick plus 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 3 large eggs Zest and juice of 2 lemons (about 1/4 cup juice) Confectioners' sugar, for dusting No need to get out your rolling pin or even grease the pan for this dessert. Just use your fingers to mix the shortbread dough, then dump it straight into a cake pan, press down and bake. 1. Drain the raspberries in a strainer set over a bowl. Preheat the oven to 400°. Using your fingers, combine the butter, 1/2 cup of the sugar and 1 1/2 cups of the flour and blend together until coarse crumbs form. Pour the mixture into an ungreased nonstick 9-inch springform or cake pan and press down evenly to form a crust. Bake the shortbread crust until lightly golden, about 20 minutes. 2. Remove the shortbread from the oven and reduce the temperature to 325°. Scatter the drained raspberries evenly over the baked shortbread. 3. Beat the eggs with the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar until thick and pale yellow. Whisk in the lemon zest, the lemon juice and the remaining 1/4 cup of flour. Pour the lemon cream over the raspberries and bake the tart until the custard is set, about 30 minutes. Let cool, then dust with confectioners' sugar. You can replace the raspberries with your favorite fruitor even pieces of chocolate. Go all the way and swap a teaspoon of vanilla extract for the lemon juice and zest in the quick custard. My notes: Based on the mistakes I made the first try...Make sure the berries are thawed and drained well. Don't make the custard while the crust is baking! While the crust is COOLING I made the custard, and then put the berries on the crust just before pouring the custard on top. Baking time was a bit longer than the 30 minutes stated, too. Also...I made the shortbread in the food processor rather than using my fingers. Worked perfectly. [](http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=10&imgid=314730419) Blackberry Buttermilk Panna Cottas with Blackberry Compote For panna cottas 3/4 lb blackberries (about 3 cups) 1 1/4 cups well\-shaken buttermilk 2 3/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin (from two 1/4\-oz envelopes) 1/4 cup water 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 2/3 cup sugar 2 tablespoons blackberry syrup, store\-bought or homemade (see cooks' note, below) For compote 1/2 cup water 1/2 cup crème de cassis 2 tablespoons sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 1/2 lb blackberries (about 2 cups) Special equipment: 6 (6\-oz) molds (preferably nonreactive) Make panna cottas: Purée blackberries with buttermilk in a blender until very smooth, then pour through a fine\-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids. Sprinkle gelatin over water in a small bowl and let stand 1 minute to soften. While gelatin softens, heat cream and sugar in a saucepan over moderate heat until hot, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and add gelatin mixture, stirring until dissolved. Stir cream mixture and syrup into blackberry purée, then pour through cleaned sieve into a bowl. Pour mixture into molds and chill, covered, until firm, at least 8 hours. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chocolate Turtle Torte with Caramel Sauce Source: St Paul Hotel Crust: 3\-2/3 c pecans 1\-1/4 c sugar 7T unsalted butter In food processor blend pecans and sugar, add melted butter in steady stream until combined well. Turn out mixture into a 12" tart pan with removable bottom. Press to 1/8" thickness on bottom and 3/8" on sides. Bake at 350F for approximately 20\-25 minutes or until lightly toasted. Cool. Filling: 1lb semi sweet chocolate 2 c heavy whipping cream Bring cream to a boil and pour over coarsely chopped chocolate. Mix until chocolate is melted and mixture is combined well. Pour into cooled crust and refrigerate for 3 hours or up to overnite. Caramel Sauce: 4oz unsalted butter 1 c sugar 1 c heavy whipping cream ¾ c crushed pecans (for garnish) In heavy saucepan melt butter, add sugar and cook until dark brown (not burnt). Add cream and remove from heat. Mix thoroughly until mixture turns a rich golden color. Drizzle over slices of torte and serve. Linda

roselvr, do you make the Company Cheesecake from the BH&G cookbook? That's our "old reliable"... back when my dad was teaching he and I would bake twenty or so of them every Christmas for the other teachers and a very few other very lucky people. I much prefer their shortbready crust to the more common crumb crusts. I need a new copy of the OLD big book - the red plaid binder - mine's gone walkabout and they messed around with the recipes in the new version. (Did the same thing to Joy of Cooking. Irritating.) I broke the spine on the paperback in about six places ages back, it's held together with packing tape! Pie for breakfast was a staple at Grammie's when I was a little kid. No half and half though. Slab of apple pie with a hunk of "rat cheese" (very sharp cheddar) on the side - Gramp liked apple best for breakfast, other kinds were for dessert - with "Navy coffee" you could just about stand your spoon up in. (I once had a version where they tried to bake the cheese into the pie. It was vile.) She made terrible crust though. You could hurt someone with the "bone", the bit around the rim. Then she decided to go all "healthy" and the delicious breakfast pie disappeared in favor of a bowl of Wheaties. *mourn* golddust, I do so hate to disagree with you, but I've had enough people insist "oh, I just can't stand that store-bought pie crust", mumbling it around a mouthful of pie... made with that very product. *chuckle* About the third time it happened I decided not to waste precious energy on making piecrust anymore (when you have 4-6 usable hours in a day, you take your shortcuts as you can)... My mom makes kick-@$$ pie crust - perfect texture etc. - but she also smokes heavily so all her baked goods have a strong overtone of "ashtray" to the flavor. We usually give them away to friends who smoke who won't notice it. Oh! I forgot Oatmeal Pie. It's an old Amish/Mennonite recipe, IIRC. It makes a chewy-crisp top sort of like an oatmeal cookie and underneath that is a layer like the gooey part of a pecan pie. As I said above, many of our friends are allergic to nuts, so this is what I bring to a lot of wintertime potlucks as a "replacement" for pecan pie. 25 or so people will wipe out 2 or 3 10" pies and leave other desserts untouched. LOL I used to love making fancy desserts, but they are usually too time consuming for my limited time budget and our friends don't really appreciate them anyway. They'd rather have the simpler, homier stuff.

Since we will be spending Christmas Eve with friends this year, I will be makking the following. It has been a hit every time I made it! Alexa CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY GANACHE CAKE This pull-out-all-the-stops cake for special occasions may be prepared in steps in advance and glazes on the day it is to be served. For genoise 1/3 cup sifted unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder such as Droste (sift before measuring) 1/3 cup all-purpose flour 1/3 cup cornstarch a pinch baking soda 3 large whole eggs 3 large egg yolks 2/3 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt For syrup 1/3 cup water 1/3 cup sugar 1/3 cup raspberry liqueur such as Chambord For ganache 1 1/4 cups heavy cream 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons light corn syrup 1 pound semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped coarse 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam For glaze 1 cup heavy cream 8 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped coarse Garnish: fresh raspberries Make genoise: Preheat oven to 350F. Butter an 9-inch round cake pan (about 2 inches deep) and line bottom with a round of parchment paper or foil. In a small bowl whisk together cocoa powder, flour, cornstarch, and baking soda. In a metal bowl whisk together whole eggs, yolk, sugar, and salt until combined. Set mixture over a saucepan of simmering water and continue to whisk until lukewarm. Remove bowl from heat and with an electric mixer beat mixture at high speed until it has cooled and doubled in volume. Sift one third cocoa mixture over egg mixture and fold in. Sift and fold in remaining cocoa mixture, half at a time, in same manner. Pour batter into pan and smooth top. Bake genoise in middle of oven for 30 minutes, or until it is firm to the touch and pulls away slightly from side of pan. Invert genoise onto a rack and immediately invert onto another rack to cool right side up. Genoise may be wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled 1 week or frozen 1 month. Thaw genoise before assembling cake. Make syrup: In a small saucepan bring water and sugar to a boil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally until sugar is dissolved. Cool syrup and stir in liqueur. Syrup may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered. Make ganache: In a saucepan bring cream, butter, and corn syrup to a boil over moderate heat and remove pan from heat. Add chocolate, swirling pan to submerge chocolate in hot mixture, and let stand 3 minutes. Whisk ganache until smooth and transfer to a bowl. Chill ganache, covered, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days. Assemble cake: Let ganache stand at room temperature until slightly softened and pliable but still cool. With a whisk or electric mixer beat ganache just until light and fluffy. Remove parchment paper from genoise and with a long serrated knife cut cake horizontally into 3 rounds. Invert top layer of genoise onto a springform pan base or a 9-inch cardboard round and brush with one third syrup. Spread layer with half of jam and spread one third ganache over jam. Top ganache with middle layer of genoise and repeat layering of syrup, jam, and ganache. Top with third layer of genoise, smooth-side up, and brush with remaining syrup. Spread top and side of cake with remaining ganache. Chill cake until ganache is set, about 30 minutes. Cake may be assembled ahead, wrapped in plastic wrap, and chilled 5 days or frozen 1 month. Thaw cake before proceeding. Make glaze: In a saucepan bring cream to a boil and remove pan from heat. Add chocolate, swirling pan to submerge chocolate in hot cream, and let stand 2 minutes. Whisk glaze until smooth and pour through a sieve set over a bowl. Cool glaze to room temperature. With cake on a rack set over a pan (to catch drips) pour glaze through sieve onto center of cake. Quickly spread glaze evenly over top and sides of cake with a long, narrow, metal spatula. Let cake stand until glaze is set, about 5 minutes. Garnish cake with raspberries and keep at cool room temperature until ready to serve. Gourmet February 1997