When my friends asked me to replicate a roasted pumpkin soup from their recent trip to Austria for their wedding reception last September, I was stumped for a few minutes—not how to make it, but how to serve it. It was a buffet after all and there wasn’t a seated first course where a cup of creamy soup was a natural option. I’d think on it.
But I didn’t need to think long. I walked into Pier One Imports and there on a display sat boxes of shot glasses complete with miniature spoons. I picked up a couple dozen and that’s how first-course cups of pumpkin soup morphed into cocktail-hour shooters. People loved it.
While I may have bought the shot glasses as soup shooters, I had big dessert plans for these little guys. You’ll see a couple of my creations below but you can see even more over at AARP where I write a bi-weekly column.
I wanted these desserts intense—if it’s only a couple of bites, it’s gotta pack a punch—I also wanted them simple—no making cake or pudding or mousse before I could even think about assembly. With these you whip up cream, flavor a little cream cheese, and crush cookie crumbs. After that you’re ready to assemble.
Shot glass desserts are a beautiful blend of ease, decadence, and portion control. Remember to savor every bite. There’s enough to satisfy and when they’re gone, you’re blessedly done.
Raspberry jam with seeds is NOT decadent. These should be using seedless jams in keeping with that goal. Yes, it costs a few cents more, but
seeds in the teeth (not to mention problems digestively for the many with
diverticular issues…). I think this is a particular issue in light of it being
also published on the AARP site! One could push aside a fresh raspberry
garnish easily, but spooning down in to find seed studded jam throughout
would make this a non edible choice for lots of people. M.
Hi Marie, Thank you for your comment. I developed several shot glass desserts both for Three Many Cooks as well as AARP and purposely linked the two stories because all the desserts on each site are different. There are 4 different jam (raspberry, orange, cherry, and strawberry) and chocolate shot glass desserts on AARP as well as a coffee version. The two shot glass desserts we ran on this site were for pumpkin and chocolate mint, giving people so very many festive choices. I’m sure you’d love a chocolate-raspberry shot glass dessert made with seedless raspberry jam as well as the many, many options offered here and AARP. Enjoy!
I would LOVE to see ALL of the “shot glass” desserts. On AARP, I can only find two (Choco with Raspberrys and a Mocha dessert). I read above that there are FOUR shot glass desserts. I also saw the two mentioned at ThreeManyCooks.
Can you send me a link or tell me where I can find the other AARP shot glass desserts, please?
Thank you!
The 4 on AARP are the variations off the chocolate jam theme. Depending on whether you use cherry, raspberry, strawberry jam or orange marmalade there are 4 options there–chocolate-orange, chocolate raspberry, chocolate-cherry, and chocolate-strawberry. I love these because you use the jam not only as a flavoring, but as the sweetener and coloring for the whipped cream. On AARP’s site there’s also a chocolate-coffee shot glass dessert. On our site we’ve got pumpkin and chocolate mint. Enjoy them all! Maybe you’ll see a lemon variation floating around one of these days!
Would you please email all the shot glass dessert recipes! What a great idea. I have collected shot glasses from everywhere. Great idea for a dinner party!!!
Thank you so much!!!
Paula, you can find a few more recipes here: http://www.aarp.org/food/recipes/info-12-2011/mini-desserts.html
And stop by Three Many Cooks, more will be coming as the seasons change.