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How to Make a Christmas Dessert Board

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One of the best parts of the Christmas holiday season is all of the delightful desserts! But what do you do with all of the cookies, candies, and baked goods that people give you? Before you know it, you have bags and boxes of them on your kitchen counter. A Christmas Dessert Board is the solution! A beautiful assortment of sweet treats, the board is the perfect way to bring winter cheer to any holiday happy hour or family gathering.

The brilliant part of assembling a Christmas dessert board is that it only requires opening packages and artfully arranging ingredients on a surface. Just as you would design a meat and cheese charcuterie board, you want to vary color, height, and textures as much as possible. I combined soft cocoa truffles alongside crunchy shortbread cookies and I let cinnamon gummy bears nestle up to a river of holiday popcorn.

Not sure what to include on your board? Use my list as a helpful shopping guide or gather your favorite sweet confections and just have a blast making your own desert board:

CHOCOLATE:

COOKIES:

  • Decked Out Tree Cookies (Trader Joe’s)
  • Peppermint Pretzel Slims (Trader Joe’s)

NUTS:

POPCORN:

COCOA BOMBS:

  • They were a fabulous gift from a friend, but you can find them at many bakeries and gift stores.

Other items you could include chocolate spreads, mini cupcakes, assorted berries, marshmallows, or gingerbread men cookies.  However, I should warn you about something. If you leave the dessert board on your kitchen counter, you will eat from it at EVERY passing. I highly recommend you gift this Christmas Dessert Board to someone or serve it at a party unless you don’t mind the holiday weight gain. ::laughing:: I didn’t!

Christmas is about showing kindness to others and I can’t think of a better way to bring the joy of the season to someone else than by serving them a gorgeous assortment of sweet treats! I hope you enjoy your Christmas Dessert Board as much as I had making mine.

Happy Holidays, friends!

Classic Fruit Popsicles Two Ways

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Hello Summer!

Nothing quite eases the scorching temperatures of summer like homemade popsicles grabbed from the freezer on a hot day. To welcome the warm season, I’ve created Classic Fruit Popsicles Two Ways: Honey Pineapple Citrus and Fresh Strawberry Kiwi. These recipes are easy for you to make and far healthier than ice cream.

From the moment I bought my Koji ice pop molds at Target ($9.99), nostalgia set in on the drive home. Less fattening than ice cream desserts and fun to make, the popsicle is on trend again. Maybe it’s because you control the flavors! You can add any ingredient to your juice base from vegetables to fruit. Some people even add fresh herbs. Why not? A citrus basil ice pop might sounds delicious.

You can easily make my Honey Pineapple Citrus Popsicles using frozen chunks of Dole Fruit-n-Spice Honey Lime Pineapple Chunks (leftover from a smoothie experiment last week), fresh lime juice, clover honey, Stevia, and grapefruit juice. You’ll may want to use more Stevia than I did to cut the tangy citrus flavor from the grapefruit. Preparing these cool pops is as simple as dumping the ingredients in a blender or Cuisinart and blending it until smooth even to pour.

Honey Pineapple Citrus Popsicle Recipe: Yields 3-4 popsicles

  • 1 c. Dole Fruit-n-Spice Honey Lime Pineapple Chunks
  • 1 c. grapefruit juice
  • Juice of 1/2 lime
  • 1 tsp clover honey
  • 2 tsp Stevia

Fill each popsicle well 3/4 of the way full to leave room for expansion as the fruit mixture freezes. Place your popsicles molds in the freezer for 30 minutes. Then, remove the popsicles from the freezer and gently insert the popsicles sticks. Place them back in the freezer and allow these sweet treats to harden. When you’re ready to eat one, simply run warm water on the outside of the popsicle mold until you’re able to wiggle the popsicle free to devour it.

Use the same instructions to make Fresh Strawberry Kiwi Popsicles except you will instead blend cranberry/grape juice cocktail, sliced strawberries and kiwi, and Stevia until smooth. I used less added sugar in this recipe because the fruit and juice already were sweeteners.

Fresh Strawberry Kiwi Popsicle Recipe: Yield 3-4 popsicles

  • 1 c. cranberry/grape cocktail juice
  • 1 c. sliced fresh strawberries
  • 2 peeled and sliced fresh kiwi
  • 1/4 tsp Stevia

What’s your fondest memories of summer? I remember learning how to swim at the community pool, riding my yellow Schwinn bicycle (banana seat included) with abandon, and running back and forth to my neighborhood friends’ house to play.

Take a moment to enjoy the simple pleasures of summer while cooling off from the hot temperatures with one of these fruit popsicles, a sure-win with your kids and adult kiddos too!

Baileys Cookies and Cream Parfait: Whip Your Way into Dessert Delight

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Since party planning for our St. Patrick’s Day party, I have been staring at one drool-worthy photo on my Pinterest dessert board. If I had know how delicious Homemade Hooplah’s Baileys Cookies and Cream Parfait was, I would have made it sooner. This dessert is absolutely delightful!

The recipe includes pillowy layers of homemade Baileys whipped cream nestled between Oreo cookie crumbs and the light chocolate layers of…wait for it…even more whipped cream. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself digging the spoon deeper into the glass to drag a bit of each layer up with each serving.

Having never made homemade whipped cream, I was frustrated when my bowl of Baileys, heavy cream, and powder sugar didn’t form “stiff peaks” after using a hand mixer for a few minutes. That’s because delicious whipped cream takes time! After seven minutes, I finally had real whipped cream. After 10 minutes I had eaten nearly all of it. Don’t judge me.

Tip: Over mixing your cream can turn your mixture into butter. Set a timer before you begin the process of mixing.

Homemade Hooplah’s recipe creator Chrisy recommends using a piping bag to add each layer to the glass to build your parfait. I also recommend doing so if you want to avoid messy layers. If you’re going for that Pinterest perfect photo, add your whipped cream to a corner-snipped Ziplock bag or buy a piping bag before preparing this recipe. While she give the option of crushing Oreo cookies inside a Ziplock bag, I crumbled the chocolate cookies in my Cuisinart. I love to watch theose blades whirl.

All the credit for this dessert goes to Homemade Hooplah, a Pinterest recipe success! What recipe is waiting for you to make it? Check out my Pinterest recipe boards to get some inspiration here.

Enjoy!