Sometimes we just need to celebrate in our own way!

Those of you who know me personally, know that I love sweets. Don’t get me wrong, Margot’s Morsels came about because I also love a crunchy salty snack. It’s those complimentary textures/flavors that get me every time. And, I love the possibilities that Margot’s Morsels can bring to recipes, in general.

Think about the importance of salt in recipes, in general. It can enliven the depth and complexity of other flavors, equalizing the flavors. Rich desserts get balance from salt and it can help make citrus taste fresher, make spices more aromatic and even help dark chocolate and cocoa taste less bitter.

For those of you who are purists, I completely understand. An example? I have a life-long relationship with those chocolate wafer cookies with the creamy vanilla cream sandwiched in between…you know which ones I mean.  As I have looked for recipes that could be adapted and enhanced by morsels, I came across a couple that I wouldn’t change for all the right reasons, Chocolate Cheesecake Bars and these little Fudge Swirled Oreo Bottom Cheesecake Cupcakes. Try them, if you love cheesecake, chocolate and those sandwich cookies, like I do, these recipes are for you.

But, I’ve been thinking about expanding the use of Margot’s Morsels since the beginning. It wasn’t long before I realized that they add that flavorful crunchiness to salads and soups on their own but they also increase possibilities for deserts. One of my regular customers from the farmer’s market brought me her recipe for “savory” bread pudding and I mentioned it in a blog back in early November. But, that started me thinking about sweet bread puddings. Why couldn’t we do a sweet bread pudding using Margot’s Morsels Simply Sea Salt – and, we can!

Going down a simple path, I've also offered up baked apples stuffed with a sweet morsel filling. Once cooked, I sliced them down the middle or into quarters and piled on vanilla bean ice cream.

And my favorite by far became our sweet nut/morsel crumb crust made with any kind of nuts, and bakes up toasty with a delightful level of crunch thanks to the combination of nuts and morsels. I made it on New Year’s eve using hazelnuts with a chocolate pie filling topped with fresh raspberries in a little pool of raspberry coulis. Ok, I admit it, it didn’t make it to midnight but that didn’t diminish the celebration.