Last minute dessert ideas

So much work goes into a holiday dinner, it’s easy to run out of steam when it comes to executing dessert. And no wonder: Of all the courses, the final one demands the most attention to detail. You can’t whip up a cake or pie minutes before serving. It takes careful measurement, time to bake and cool and advance planning. But to save your sanity, there are winning alternatives that can be assembled in short order, and they successfully measure up to the rest of the meal’s elegance. For example: New Orleans Ice Cream, the two-year-old homegrown brand from the Crescent City, makes premium ice cream in luscious, memorable flavors, like toasted coconut, Creole cream cheese and “chocolate city,” a reference to one of Mayor Ray Nagin’s post-Katrina gaffes. Coupled with homemade or store bought shortbread, a bowl of this regionally made ‘scream is wonderful and refreshing. Or try topping your favorite vanilla ice cream with crčme de menthe liqueur—a retro classic that’s festive and pretty. Similarly, Brandy Alexanders, part-dessert, part-after dinner drink, are refreshing, creamy and most importantly, can be prepped at the last minute. If store-bought pies and cakes are more your speed, two stand out among our city’s vast choices: Judy Piker’s coconut custard pie, available at the Red Stick Farmers Market and Nannette Mayhall’s red velvet cake. The former is real and homey and is served without a distracting layer of thick cream on top, which I find diverts the delivery of the pie filling. It passes the test of authenticity. Mayhall’s cakes are moist and wondrous – and it’s hard to get more festive than serving something scarlet and white.