Does a dessert exist that isn’t improved by caramel? We recommend trying this recipe with apple pie, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, bundt cake, brownies, ice cream, or skip the vehicle and eat it alone. The original recipe for this caramel sauce calls for Darjeeling black tea, but any black tea would work. Spiced Chai or Earl Grey would make excellent variations. There are three main steps to making caramel sauce: making a cream mixture, caramelizing the sugar, then whisking it all together with the remaining ingredients while everything is still warm.

Ingredients

If you’ve followed our recipes lately, you know we’re fans of fancy looking frozen desserts that require no machine and little effort. Continuing in that tradition, we present the refreshing tea granita! If you’ve never had a granita, it is usually made with water, sugar, and flavor, sometimes fresh fruit, and has a unique texture somewhere between sorbet and shaved ice. It’s exactly what you want on a hot day and a refreshing way to enjoy the sweet, floral flavor of our Jasmine First Grade green tea.

Ingredients

¼ cup honey

Instructions

1. Steep tea for 2.5 minutes. Green tea has a tendency to become bitter with over-steeping, so be sure to strain the leaves out at this point.
2. Add honey and stir well.
3. Pour the sweetened tea into a freezer safe container. The deeper  the liquid, the longer the “granitafying” takes. We used a shallow 8×8 pan.
4. Freeze for one hour, or until ice crystals begin to form around the edges.
5. Remove and stir the crystals into the liquid. Return to the freezer for 20 minutes and repeat. Continue this process as the mixture hardens, scraping the surface with a fork as it solidifies, until fully frozen and fluffy.
6. Store in the freezer until ready to serve. If it solidifies too much, let it thaw a little in the fridge and re-fluff with a fork.

Having mastered super-simple Vietnamese Iced Coffee Pops, we decided to try another lazy, low-tech frozen dessert: no-churn ice cream. This one might be slightly more lazy, given that an appliance does most of the work and the freezing happens in one step, not two.

Inspired by The Kitchn’s easy recipe for no-churn, 2-ingredient vanilla, we decided to try a coffee version, swirling fudge into the mixture before letting it set. It took minutes to make the ice cream base and the possible variations are endless. Tea, spices, or even herbs would make interesting flavoring alternatives, and mix in anything you like for texture.

Ingredients

• ½ cup cold, dark roast brewed coffee (we used Medium Roast Espresso)
• 1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups cold heavy cream
• Hot fudge (well, warm fudge)

Instructions

1. Pour the sweetened condensed milk into a large bowl and whisk in the cold coffee (or other flavoring), set aside.
2. Whip the heavy cream until peaks form. We used a hand mixer on medium-high.
3. Add whipped cream to the condensed milk mixture and blend by hand or on the low setting until combined.
4. Blend again on medium until the mixture is just thickened.
5. Pour mixture into a freezer-safe container (we used a standard size loaf pan) and cover with wax paper.
6. Freeze overnight or until firm and enjoy!

• Your favorite pie filling
• Ol’ Smoky Moonshine cherries (as a garnish on top)

Like long days lounging at the Jersey shore, enjoying buckets of fried seafood and spectacular people-watching, Strawberry Wave Cheesecake coffee is a seasonal delight you won’t find anywhere else. Inspired by the glorious cake below — baked by our shipping supervisor Lori — it’s here for only a short, sweet time, so enjoy it while it lasts!

Cheesecake may not be the first dessert that comes to mind if you’re in the mood for something light, but this recipe, adapted from a letter published in a 1962 issue of Gourmet magazine, promises to be just that — for 1962 anyway. The original recipe, titled “Mrs. Davis’ Unsinkable Cheesecake”, was named for the creator’s unsinkable determination to create a fluffier, less disastrously caloric version of the classic dessert.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lb cream cheese

14-oz can sweetened condensed milk

4 large egg yolks

1 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon Confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon orange or lemon zest

Strawberry jam

For the topping:

2 pints fresh strawberries

3-6 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Directions

1. Beat together the cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. While beating, add the egg yolks one at a time and beat until very smooth.

2. Add the sour cream, Confectioners sugar, vanilla, and citrus zest.

3. In a separate bowl, beat 4 egg whites with 1/2 t salt until stiff. Fold into the cheese mixture.

4. Pour batter into a 10-inch springform pan lined with a cookie or crumb crust.

5. Drop spoonfuls of strawberry jam into the batter and cut through the jam and batter with a knife to create a swirl effect.

6. Bake at 275 degrees for 1 hour. Turn off the heat and let sit (door closed) for 45 minutes or more. The cake should cool completely in the oven. Remove from the pan when cold.

7. For the topping, mix 2 pints of fresh strawberries, sliced, with 3-6 T granulated sugar and 1/2 T fresh lemon juice. Serve on the side if you’re proud of your swirling knife work or just smother the whole thing in gorgeous juicy berries.