Dessert Kabobs and Speculoos Waffles

For New Year’s Eve, we wanted to have people over for a little party since it had been so successful in years past.  However, our previous NYE parties involved lots of fancy cooking.  It looked beautiful, but it was a lot of work and resulted in lots of cleanup.  This year, we outsourced the messy part and did dinner at a restaurant.  There are plenty of desserts that are easy to make in advance so I prepped them early (and cleaned the kitchen) then set them out on the table, covered in saran wrap, when we left for supper.  We came home, simply unwrapped the desserts, and were ready to go.  I made things even easier for myself by making half of the desserts and simply picking up the other half from the store…and even the ones I made were semi-homemade.  One of the best decisions I’ve made.

The dessert menu included:

• Store-bought:
  • Sea Salt Brownies from Trader Joe’s – this is one of the best things TJ’s makes (in the bakery section).  They are perfect every time.
  • White Chocolate Peppermint Pretzels
  • Mini Gingerbread Men
• “Homemade”:
  • Dessert Kabobs
  • Speculoos Waffles

Let me start with the dessert kabobs.  Simply skewer glazed doughnut holes (Dunkin Donuts’ munchkins) and fresh berries onto a stick.  Just before serving, drizzle with warm dulce de leche.  If you don’t have dulce de leche, use caramel or fudge sauce – anything wold be good.  They look gorgeous and actually taste amazing.  And they take about 5 minutes to throw together.

Next, you could do just about anything with speculoos butter and it would be delicious.  I decided not to complicate things so I simply spread it on some pre-made belgian waffles.  You could also spread between two lady fingers or madelines and dust with powdered sugar.  I went with the waffles because I happened to find them first at the grocery store.  If you don’t know what speculoos cookies are, they’re basically those Biscoff cookies you get on a Delta flight.  You know, the ones that are so freakin good.  Well, Trader Joes has taken the flavor of those cookies and turned it into something the consistency of peanut butter.  Ohhhhhh my gosh.  Nobody wanted to try these, but when somebody finally took the first one (nobody ever wants to be first!), I could hear moaning.