The Wine Lover's Dessert Cookbook: Making Perfect Matches of Sweets & Wines

Wine pairing with desserts? It's possible to carry this off easily and gracefully, with the help of award-winning pastry chef Mary Cech and culinary expert Jennie Schacht. Food and wine connoisseurs of the highest form, their collaborative effort resulted in The Wine Lover's Dessert Cookbook.

The book teaches us how to make merry matches of dessert wines with each dessert genre, and the recipes are prefaced with useful suggestions on choosing the correct dessert wine. There is also a user-friendly reference chart, so you can make a quick note before heading to the wine shop. Experimenting is the key to a successful and fun pairing.

Photo credit: Frankie Frankeny

We were very fortunate to have the chance to chat with these talented ladies:

Q: Tips on dessert wine pairing with desserts?

Mary Cech: Don't make over-the-top sweet desserts that will hide the dessert wines' flavors - that can dull the wines' beauty, leaving it possibly flat or sour.

Q: Favorite recipes to share from the new book?

Mary Cech: Blackberry Topped Chocolate Silk Tart, Hint of Mint Orange Chiffon Cake, Jeweled Apricot Soup with Couscous Timbales, and Coffee Cream Tart in a Cocoa-Espresso Crust.

Jennie Schacht: Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Fresh Peaches is silky-smooth, easy to prepare and always stylish. Apricot Gingerbread Upside-Down Cake is sweet, spicy and versatile; when apricots aren't in season it's perfect with pears. Chocolate Souffle Roulade is the perfect answer to a chocolate craving.

Chilled Strawbery Consomme

Q: What is your favorite dessert wine?

Mary Cech: I have acquired quite a dessert wine sweet tooth. Moscato d'Asti for its light, fun, fizzy all-around fresh taste which pairs so well with such a wide variety of desserts. Malmsey Madeira for its thick, lush nutty toffee elegance.

Jennie Schacht: I have to pick one? Moscato d'Asti is a lovely light, fizzy, gently sweet wine from Italy's Piedmont region. It's low in alcohol and easy to enjoy. I love some of the less well known sweet red wines with chocolate, like Banyuls and Dulce Monastrell, though Port can also be a wonderful match. Malmsey Madeira is made from the Malvasia grape and develops flavors of pleasantly bitter caramel and toasted nuts.

White Chocolate Raspberry Parfait

(Recipe used with permission from Chronicle Books)

In the United States, we generally think of a parfait as a layered dessert made with ice cream, fruits or syrups, and whipped cream. The French have something else in mind. Though also served in a tall, narrow sundae glass, the classic parfait (French for 'perfect') is a frozen custard made using the technique for sabayon. The resulting treat freezes creamy smooth without needing an ice cream maker. Use white chocolate made with cocoa butter for the best flavor.

Making the Match
This blond dessert with chocolate flavor notes matches well with a young, fruity, lower-alcohol zinfandel port. The wine brings out the chocolatey flavors in the dessert and pairs well with the raspberries. It is also nice with Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise or other muscats. We enjoy it with Montevina Aleatico (Amador County, California), a light-bodied muscat with a brilliant ruby hue.

Makes 6 servings

2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
3 ounces white chocolate, melted
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to medium peaks
1 pint (2 cups) fresh raspberries
Raspberry liqueur for drizzling (optional)

Combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in the top of a double boiler and place over, but not touching, about an inch of simmering water. While whisking briskly and constantly, heat the mixture until it is hot and has turned from liquid to all foam, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the melted chocolate.

Beat the egg and chocolate mixture with an electric mixer at high speed until it is room temperature, 3 to 5 minutes. Fold in the whipped cream. Transfer to a covered 1-quart container and freeze until firm enough to scoop, 2 to 3 hours or up to 1 month.

Alternate layers of the white chocolate parfait and berries in tall sundae glasses. Drizzle the tops with raspberry liqueur, if desired.