Frozen Dessert

Ninety-nine percent of cava—Spanish sparkling wine—is made in Catalonia. So it's natural that the bubbly beverage has found its way into many elegant Catalan desserts. Here it is combined with the luscious flavors and bright colors of strawberries and oranges in a refreshing sorbet.

Pretty ice cream treats, decorated five different ways. Turn the freezer to the coldest setting for best results. Pack the left-over ice cream into a container and freeze it to enjoy after the bonbons are gone. Begin this recipe at least a day ahead (and you can start up to a week ahead). Once you¸ve mastered the technique here, create bonbons of your own using other homemade ice creams or your favorite purchased ones.

To make these ice pops nonalcoholic, substitute freshly squeezed orange juice for the tequila.

A light, refreshing and tangy-sweet dessert.

A quick almond crust gets filled with ice cream and topped with cardamom-scented whipped cream and berries.

Baby pineapples that have been hollowed out make beautiful serving shells for this granita. These pineapples are available at specialty produce markets.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

This granita is delicious as a palate-refresher between courses or as a dessert.

Peanuts are a huge crop in the South, especially in Georgia, and peanut-molasses brittle is a favorite treat. Sesame seeds-called benne seeds by southerners-are popular in Charleston. Brought to this country in the late 1600s by slaves, today the seeds are used in many specialties, including the famous benne seed cocktail wafers and a luscious brittle. We make our brittle out of both peanuts and benne, then crush it and sprinkle it over ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Orange juice and pomegranate juice enhance the light sorbet. The compote would also be good over store-bought strawberry sorbet or ice cream.

Many New England restaurants offer Grape-Nuts pudding for dessert, and several of the best ice-cream parlors make Grape-Nuts ice cream. The crunchy cereal becomes a soft savory note in sweet vanilla-flavored cream.

A quick, colorful and low-cal dessert. What else could you ask for?

After experiencing a dazzling meal and the gracious hospitality of Martín Berasategui, one of the top Basque chefs, at the restaurant that bears his name in Lasarte-Oria, he gave us a final taste of his talent in a wonderfully refreshing granizado de cava. The following concoction I devised is very nearly the same, and surprisingly simple.

This refreshing dessert is based on the classic cranberry sauce made from one bag of cranberries, one cup of sugar, and one cup of water (the recipe is usually on the back of the bag). Most cooked cranberry sauces should also work, so feel free to experiment.

Froyo for one, made in a blender and topped with a crackly magic shell.

A bit of cherry-flavored Jell-O powder makes these ice pops taste like they came from an ice cream truck (in the best way!).