Desserts

Nothing says fall in Canada like fresh local apples. They’re crisp and tasty straight off the tree and magically even more delicious baked. Everyone loves their warm rustic flavours and you’ll love how easy it is to stuff them in the oven but why wait? You can fill Half Your Plate and enjoy this treat any time of year!

Every chef knows how easy it is to jazz up dessert by pureeing fruits into simple sauces. With just a few simple ingredients, a bit of gentle heat and a strong blender you too can transform almost any ripe fruit into a colourful backdrop for almost any dessert. Apricot uniquely creates the smoothest sauce of them all though. Its’ juicy tender flesh and fresh aromatic flavour go well with everything. Even at dessert you can fill Half Your Plate!

Are you looking for a signature party trick? Having a dinner party? Trying to impress your kids? Leaping flames! Dangerous heat! Cooking on the edge! This is how to fill Half Your Plate with delicious bananas and a showstopper dessert that no one will ever forget!

There are many ways to bake a memorable chocolate chip cookie, but this version emphasizes chewiness. If you prefer your cookies with lots of chewy texture without much crispy brittleness, then you'll love these deeply flavoured and tantalizingly textured treats.

It's fun to try new ideas and it's always fun to freestyle cook. And it's particularly fun to stir every form of chocolate into one bread pudding. I admit sometimes I feel the need to go overboard a little bit and even push some limits, but the kitchen is a really safe place to do that, and a fun place too. Once you know the bread pudding rules, you can break them all day long. Who knows? You might just end up with Five Chocolate Bread Pudding with Chocolate Whipped Cream.

You can easily make your own homemade chocolate treats. It's deliciously easy to stir a variety of crispy, crunchy bits into a warm pool of melted chocolate, cool and harden the works, then start snapping off homemade candy!

Every kid deserves to grow up experiencing the sheer thrill, the absolute joy and delight of watching popcorn leaping out of the pot and into the air. Around here it's a regular spectacle, and you don't need microwave to put on this show. Popcorn is fun for the whole family, and if you want to really impress the kids, go for the caramel.

Who said baking a homemade dessert has to be difficult? Not me. This dessert could not be simpler and is fully customizable. It has 2 basic parts - the apple filling and the oatmeal topping. Choose any type of apple (or a combination), your favourite fresh or frozen berry, and any of the baking spices. Ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, or simply cinnamon all work.

Spice up your snack life with this seedy, snappy brittle. Once you master the art and craft of making a homemade brittle, the possibilities are endless. Substitute other spices, stir in your favourite nuts or seeds, you can even you chopped up pretzels or cookies!

Making caramel is easy, but it does benefit from keeping a close eye. The sugar syrup might not look like it's doing much for a while but as soon as it starts changing colour, stay close to the stove. It can go from light yellow, to dark brown, to a smoking black mess in a matter of moments. It's also extremely hot, so exercise caution and keep it away from young fingers until it has completely cooled.

Fruit baked under a topping is delicious and so is fruit baked in the topping. Easier too. Just mix the works together into one tasty jumble. Half fruit, half crumble, all easy. Locally delicious too, especially during the seasonal sweet spot when your local strawberries line up with longer-season fresh rhubarb. Make the most of this classic good cop/bad cop duo contrasting sweet and tart personalities!

You can create this dessert with any of the season's berries. Unless you have strawberries fresh from your backyard or the local farmer’s market though, use frozen strawberries for the best flavour. Fresh from away is a waste of time. Just saying.

Can you make a butter tart taste like a pumpkin pie? Yes! These tarts evolved from basic butter tarts, but they’ve come so far that they’re really more like little mini pumpkin pies. But does it really matter where they came from? It’s where they’re heading that counts. In this case, your table!

This treat is so rich and deeply delicious that no one will know you took a shortcut! The secret is the custard-like texture of silken tofu.