Five Great Dessert Recipes and Ideas for This Valentine’s Day

This year, if you’re planning to skip what is the busiest restaurant night of the year and do something a little more intimate to celebrate Valentine’s Day, then you’ll want to make sure that your dessert game is on point.

Dessert is the course that is arguably the highlight of any Valentine’s Day dinner. But don’t freak out, having a spectacular dessert ready to cap your evening in can be as simple or as complicated as you have the desire for.

1) Ganache-Dipped Strawberries

We’re going to start off easy here, with a recipe that while not foolproof is at least ridiculously easy: Strawberries Dipped in a Mixture of Dark Chocolate and Cream. There are several easy recipes on the internet for making a ganache, but make sure that you use a double boiler to help you control the temperature of the chocolate and cream mixture so it doesn’t break and end up an oily mess.

Dip the strawberries in the mixture, leaving the stem-end as a handle and leave them to cool/set on parchment or wax paper in the fridge. Bonus points for using bamboo skewers and making an arrangement with strawberries and flowers.

2) Truffles

Don’t be scared. Truffles aren’t that hard to make and you’ll get a disproportionate amount of credit for trying, even if they don’t come out perfect. The best-tasting recipes generally only have three or four ingredients at most. And the best part is, you can cover up any of the imperfections in your final product with a dusting of cocoa powder, or a roll in some crushed cacao nibs.

3) Molten Chocolate Cakes

If you’re baking skills are a little more advanced, and you have the time to put something a little more intensive together, a molten chocolate cake (aka lava cake) is a great dessert option that also seems like it must’ve taken longer than it actually did. With only four steps total, this is a great recipe that allows you to take soufflé-level credit without soufflé-level effort.

4) Chocolate Soufflé

If you’re looking to pull out all the stops and make what is quite-possibly the most impressive of all Valentine’s Day desserts, than the individual Chocolate Soufflé may be the challenge you are looking for. The recipe may only have nine or so ingredients and six or so steps, but getting it right may take a practice batch or two.

5) Call in a Pinch-Hitter

These days, not everyone has the time, energy, and enthusiasm necessary to create a stunning Valentine’s Day dessert from scratch. That’s fine. You can always call in a pinch-hitter and pick something up after work.

Make sure though, that whether you’ve picking up a whole cherry pie, say from a great local café like Bipartisan that bakes their own from scratch, or if you’re getting cupcakes or truffles, that you take the steps ahead of time to make sure that you’re not scrapping it out with someone at the grocery store desert case over the last box of commercially prepared baked goods.

Valentine’s Day Dessert Making Can Be as High or Low Stress as You Like

Whether you choose to go all in with a chocolate soufflé or phone in an order for a whole pie, focusing your attention on the dessert course of your Valentine’s Day plan is a great way to make sure that the evening ends on a high note. With so many easy recipes and other options to choose from, the evening is sure to turn out terrifically for you and that special someone.

[Photos via: Delish, Momstart, Cookdiary, and Inspiredtaste]