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chaep and easy banquet dessert ideas

post #1 of 17
3/16/06 at 1:15pm
Thread Starter 
No rum balls please.

Any1 have a gr8 inexpencive dessert 4 teh busy spring seaon?

I need to transport and offer to my catering halls no muss, no fuss inexpencive sweets.
thx!:bounce:
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post #2 of 17
3/16/06 at 2:39pm
my opinion, : cheap and impressive=anything made with choux paste.
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post #3 of 17
3/17/06 at 3:09am

Can you assemble onsite?

Or not depending on how long from production to presentation. I found these will hold up at least a day in the walk-in:

Napoleons using puff pastry and pastry cream. Pastry cream is one of the most versatile things on the pastry planet. You can flavor it any way you like. Mix it with stabilized whipped cream for a Bavarian Cream effect.

Chocolate and a ganache topping is nice, or vanilla and a standard glaze/chocolate ribbon deco. You can also cut them in any size you like from a petit four to a brick.

Bake the pastry up and make the cream in advance and slap it all together last minute. Yummy, easy, and popular.

You can also sandwich fresh berries in the cream.

Another idea would be to blind bake mini shortbread tart shells (I use mini muffin tins) and fill with pastry cream. Top with fresh berries, glazes, whipped cream (also stabilized) They also have a long shelf life (in the cooler)

You can mix Pastry Cream with different liquors, make a creme de menthe, grand mariner, irish cream...you name it.

April
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post #4 of 17
3/18/06 at 5:49pm
banquet tiramisu

make some sheets of ladyfinger, layer it with masc cream/coffee/rum.

Freeze it and cut it into bites. It can look pretty elegant with a coffee bean on top. Is this pretty standard? I like it.
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post #5 of 17
3/18/06 at 7:07pm
Harpua had a great idea with the pavlova in the other thread. Piece of cake to make, and very inexpensive.

Also, to get rid of cake scraps, a trifle, or, also inexpensive,

a torte of chocolate coated cornflakes layered with pb mousse.
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post #6 of 17
3/19/06 at 11:45am
Vanilla bean Panna cotta is very easy as well, just make sure you have a lot of little ramekins.

The tartlets that AprilB suggested are something we do a lot. It is very easy if you make a lot of them. You can even mix a little of the pastry cream with lemon curd and make them taste a bit different. Good with raspberries on top.
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post #7 of 17
3/19/06 at 12:15pm
I got a couple of recipes that I use alot but not sure if they would be appropriate for ur application. Pineapple cherry cobbler....chocolate pudding cake....and the never ending bread pudding using up all the muffins and such...I also use pound cake and what ever fruit is in season with ice cream or sherbert sometimes...and we also use pudding or mousse alot...in the winter i make a nice gingerbread pudding cake that everyone loves.
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post #8 of 17
3/19/06 at 2:54pm
Fun stuff from DC.....jello. layers....apricot was good, seems like the base was light possibly panna cotta type with apricot/moscato gell and chopped up apricots (could not have been fresh, it was good and gee how hard is it to make friggin jello, or exspensive?

chocolate and orange seem to be a favorite combo around here....how about chocolate cake with orange marshmallow cream covered in choc, wonder what the shelf life would be.....

Cannolis with fun goo...hmmmmchoc cream cheese with orange zest perhaps?

Key lime no brainer long life, easy to make, popular.....

stale, my brains are stale.....better stop before it gets any worse.
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post #9 of 17
3/19/06 at 7:59pm
I see you're still into marshmallows, shroom;) .

You mentioned jello-- Have you seen or tried making the amazingly colorful and beautiful jello ribbon molds?? They're really a sight.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/jello/main...ecipe_id=50315
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post #10 of 17
3/20/06 at 4:06am
Marshmallows are us! The sheets need a whole lot less liquid than Knox and the shmellies are more tender but have a much shorter shelf life. Mexican are very good as are the choc orange, then there are the raspberry and vanilla bean....ummmm, and those would have been the last to be eaten in my easter basket as a kid! go figure.

Several hopping restaurants in DC had geliton (sp?) on their menus.....Zatanya's had the apricot/moscato, was very good.
I played around with cherry cider and added rehydrated cherries and topped with Greek yogurt mixed into the top layer of cider jello (used the sheets)...worked for me. Trader Joes has some fun juices/ciders....add some mixins have some whipped cream containers, amaze and delight your audience with retro big clear flavored jello. Moscato or sparkling anything make a fun option too.

Desserts in STL are so boring right now, I was asked by a writer for suggestions and nagit there just are not fun creative lick your bowl after dinner desserts around. Or at least I've not found them.
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post #11 of 17
3/21/06 at 3:46am

OH, Pastels tres leches...

Use the extreme mini ice cream 'scoop' to portion out the batter in mini muffin tins. Bake and soak them in the 'milks' mixture and top with stabilized whipped cream. You can infuse the cream that you use in the mix with all kinds of flavors.

April
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post #12 of 17
3/21/06 at 5:29am
banquets.....what have you been doing?

cheese cake, chocolate cake all seem to be plated banquet desserts.....
So they are probably using Sweet Street products,lemon and choc bars already.
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post #13 of 17
3/21/06 at 12:46pm
shroom, when you use the sparkling beverages, how is the final product? I'm guessing that the bite of the carbonation is gone, and what you're left with is just the air bubbles. Is this so?
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post #14 of 17
3/21/06 at 12:51pm
moscata has alittle zip to it....not sure how that all works out but it's fun.
Wonder what soda pop would do....
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post #15 of 17
3/28/06 at 9:53pm

Oh, I forgot...

Simple recipe. Pastel tres leches. Scoop the batter with the smallest ice cream scoop into muffin tins. The idea is to make kind of little mini hamburger bun shapes.

They take maybe 10 minutes to bake a whole panful. Cool, poke and soak in the tres leches milk...sweetened condensed, evaporated and cream, rum & vanilla.

Top with stabilized whipped cream.

You could infuse the cream with other flavors of choice. I made an espresso infused tini tres leches. Kind of like a tiramisu. You just need to strain the cream well after infusion. Use ground espresso. Top the whipped cream with shaved chocolate. (not curls) Or dust with chocolate/cinnamon.

You could also make it an eggnog infusion with nutmeg.

I love this little pastry thingie. (I pretty much made it up in Montana)

April
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post #16 of 17
3/29/06 at 7:05pm
Cheap and easy? Apple squares. Line a sheetpan with pie dough, lay down a layer of sponge scraps, and top with peeled and sliced apples. Prepare a filling of 1 egg to dl of milk (10 eggs to a liter) sweeten and flavour, and pour over. Bake in a slow oven, my favorite is the reg.Garland oven, on the low rack.gp
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post #17 of 17
3/30/06 at 9:28am
Chocolate Purses are easy to make and travel very well.

4 1/2 # Butter
9 # Semi sweet chocolate
2 1/4 # sugar
2 1/2 qt eggs - room temp.

Boil butter and pour over chocolate and mix till melted. Beat eggs in mixer and place sugar on a sheet pan and heat at 350 degrees 10 to 15 minutes and add to eggs and beat till thick. Mix chocolate and egg mixtures together till well blended and chill till solid. Scoop out desired size and lay 3 pieces of phyllo on work surface and butter last layer. Depending on the size of the phyllo cut a 6" square and bring sides up to form purse and chill. Bake at 350 degrees 15 + minutes and dust with 10X. Serve with anglaise.
I also used to put large chunks of banana in the mix or just with the purse and serve it with a banana anglaise.If you dont have hundreds to make you can sprinke a mix of ground pecans-brown sugar between each layer of phyllo, but you have to butter each layer of phyllo. Mini purses are good for chocolate tastings..
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