In the history of desserts, famous Italian dessert recipes definitely stand out from many others. These desserts range in flavor from bitter to sweet and they go nicely with a glass of wine. In Italy, the locals are just as likely to eat a piece of fruit for dessert as an indulgent, creamy confection.
If you have visited an Italian bakery, you will have seen many different varieties of cookies and biscotti. The Italians like to dunk their biscotti in red wine. A lot of Italian cookies are sweet but not excessively so and light glazes often provide most of the flavoring. Nuts or candied fruit are often added too. Biscotti might be very popular in the United States but in Italy hard, slightly sweet twice baked cookies are more popular. They are baked twice to remove as much moisture as possible, which makes the cookies dry, crumbly, and hard.
The Most Famous Italian Dessert Recipes
Tiramisu is a heavenly combination of espresso, liquor, lady finger cookies, eggs, mascarpone cheese, and cocoa. It is thought to have originated in Siena. Tiramisu was Duke Cosimo de Medici’s favorite dessert recipe and Italian immigrants spread the recipe worldwide.
The best known Italian cake has to be panettone, which is from Milan. Boxes of this cake can be found in cafes and Italian bakeries during the holiday season all over the world. The fluffy panettone dough is flavored with raisins and candied fruit pieces and the cake is shaped like a dome. Italians enjoy panettone with zabaglione custard or mascarpone cheese and a glass of liqueur or dessert wine.
Italian gelato is popular outside Italy and this ice cream is made with sugar, milk and flavoring. Gelato is not churned as much as regular ice cream, which makes it dense rather than airy or light. A lot of Italian delicacies are very heavy and they are best eaten in small portions. Perhaps Italian sweets and confections are too rich for you, in which case you can make your own and alter the ingredients to suit your taste.
Italian Dessert Recipes and Jello
Jello and gelato go together very nicely, although this may not be a combination that might have crossed your mind before it is worth a try. If you combine jello powder, boiling water and jello, you can make a light dessert with a great flavor and texture. You can combine many different jello flavors and gelato flavors. Using sugar free jello means you can trim a lot of calories from the finished dessert too.
If you have an ice cream making machine, you can make gelato with kool aid and jello by making the kool aid as normal, adding half a pack of jello, and adding it all to the ice cream maker. Jello combines well with all kinds of ingredients. Fruit trifle is a good example.
Jello complements the flavors of custard, chocolate, fruit and more. It is definitely one of the most versatile dessert ingredients and can be used to lighten Italian dessert recipes or stretch them further if you are feeding a big family.
If you are having a party, there are bound to be jello dessert recipes that you can use. You can make spooky jello recipes for a Halloween party, a flag jello cake for a July 4 party, jello pudding for a kids’ party or even a champagne jello recipe for the grownups.
