Four Ingredients for Simple, Stunning Dessert

About author / Amy Powell

World traveler; gourmet 30 minute meals; lover of exotic ingredients; winner on FoodTV's Chefs vs City; graduate French Culinary Institute. Her recipes will tantalize your taste buds.

I am always on the lookout for simple, easy to assemble desserts for those nights when friends drop by. As many delicious bakeries now dot city blocks and artisanal ice creams line store freezer shelves, there is nothing like putting a plate of something sinfully delicious looking in front of a friend and being able to say, "Yes, I made that."

It is hard to explain what is so great about a homemade dessert. Maybe it is that a chocolate chip cookie is at its best when the chocolate is still slightly molten. Maybe it is that pies are better when they are warm, right from the oven. Maybe it is because a homemade dessert never looks quite as good as what you get from a restaurant, but that jagged cut, slightly sloppy plate is a secret signal that what you are about to eat is going to be really good.

As the beneficiary of many desserts made by friends that I thought blew the socks of their restaurant counterparts, I have recently been trying to up my game by expanding my repertoire of sweet treats. Unfortunately, desserts usually take more planning, and quite a bit more time than your average pasta dinner with salad starter. Which is why I've been increasingly searching for the sort of simple to throw together sweets that don't take up all my cooking time and come together effortlessly at the end of a meal.

I practically stumbled upon my most essential dessert recipe when a friend came over to cook with me one recent evening. She was in charge of the main course (slow cooked salmon and arugula salad) and I was in charge of wine. But contemplating a bowl of lemons on my table I thought to myself, "It would be really nice if I could make dessert somehow making use of those."

A quick rummage through my refrigerator and pantry later and I found I had all the ingredients for a pound cake: butter, flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda. I also had some mascarpone cheese and a bit of heavy cream. I could whip up the cake batter quickly and it could hang out in the oven undisturbed while my friend cooked the fish. The cake could cool while we ate dinner. Then perhaps I could throw together a sauce utilizing the mascarpone and whipped cream.

It worked almost exactly as planned. While the cake cooled on a wire rack I whisked the mascarpone using the whipped cream to thin it out. Eventually it formed a sort of thick sauce with soft peaks. I added some sugar to taste and some grated lemon zest. I cut thick slices from the cake and spooned the sauce over one end, sprinkling the plate with some pistachios for texture.

The cake was homey, moist and yes, still warm from the oven. It was the sauce that really pulled it together. However, it was a tangy light counterpoint to a dense slice of cake. With the scattering of pistachios it was pretty, almost restaurant looking, but for some reason, a lot tastier.

After some research, this mascarpone enriched whipped cream is actually pretty common. What I stumbled on through happenstance with the contents of my refrigerator is also frequently paired with fruit, like poached pears or macerated strawberries. In other words, it is a four ingredient topping that can take everything from a cake to fruit and elevate the end of the meal from boring to fabulous. Easy and impressive, now that is my kind of homemade dessert.

Serves/Makes: 4

• 16 ounces fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters
• 4 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• fresh mint leaves