The fourth A--Cheri Chesley

Cheri chimed in with another question--number 4;  

What's your absolute, all time favorite dessert? 

Oh man! If not for wanting to fit into my jeans, I would eat a version dessert with every meal. Here's a sample menu of a perfect day:

Breakfast:

Pumpkin Pancakes with homemade cinnamon syrup.

Bacon

Lunch:

Crepes filled with peaches, strawberries and mixed berries, topped with whipping cream.

bacon

Dinner:

Cheesecake

Brownie sundae

Sausage patties

Dessert:

Cookies and milk.

So, asking my favorite dessert is a rough question for me to answer. Never mind that I'm also writing a book series with dessert titles, which means I've been fairly obsessing about desserts for, oh, a year. Add to that the fact that I've been low-carbing for about 8 months (and back in my jeans because of it, thank you very much) and therefore horribly deprived in the dessert department (except for the last week which I refuse to count against myself because there would be no peace on earth if I were denying myself for the holidays) and you've walked into a veritable landmine question by asking my favorite. But, here is my answer, now that I've set the stage.

My all time favorite dessert is Chocolate pumpkin cheesecake. Here's what it is:

Crust layer--graham if you have to, but if you can make an almond cookie crust, all the better. 

Chocolate layer--a 1/2 inch layer of chocolate; not chocolate chips which will harden as they cool, but something that will have enough ingrity to hold the cream cheese mixture above it, but remains gooey when you eat it. Hot fudge works great best, but freeze or refrigerate it before topping with the cream cheese to make sure it doesn't get all mixed in.

Pumpkin cheesecake layer--at least three inches thick with the perfect amount of cloves and ginger, just a hint of cinnamon (I think cinnamon easily overwhelms too many recipes, blocking the ginger which is the real zing to anything pumpkin, IMHO)

Bake and then chill at least four hours, until the cake is well set. Drizzle with hot fudge before serving. The beauty of this recipe is that it can be made low carb too.

So there you have it, my favorite dessert of all time--although I have yet to meet a dessert I don't like.

These questions have been fun, if anyone else has something they'd like me to answer, send it my way.