As a gift for your favorite coffee-loving moms, bake coffee-flavored shortbread. These are made even more special with a double chocolate drizzle.

The recipe, from Taste of Home, is easy to make. Prep time is 15 minutes, bake time is 20 minutes per batch plus cooling.

RECIPE: COFFEE SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients For 60 Cookies

1. PREHEAT the oven to 300°F. Cream the butter, sugars and coffee granules in a large bowl until light and fluffy.

2. COMBINE the flour and salt in another bowl; gradually add to the creamed mixture.

3. ROLL the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out the cookies with floured 2-inch to 3-inch cookie cutters.

4. PLACE the cookies 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 300°F for 20-22 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool.

5. MAKE the chocolate drizzles. In a microwave, melt the white chocolate with 1 teaspoon shortening; stir until smooth. Repeat with the semisweet chocolate and remaining shortening. Drizzle over the cookies.

6. REFRIGERATE until set. Store the cookies between pieces of waxed paper in an airtight container.

It’s easy to put together. The biggest challenge is how to keep the ice cream cold on a buffet table. We use a punch bowl filled with ice, and nestle pints into the ice.

Use a hot plate to keep caramel and chocolate sauces warm.

Then, make these decisions:

SELECT THE ICE CREAM

For a group of 8, we recommend four pints of ice cream and/or frozen yogurt. If your group includes people who avoid dairy, make one or two of them sorbet. Easy decisions:

Easy decisions:

 
For a more elaborate offering, consider brownie cubes, crushed almond nougat or peanut brittle, mini meringues and other favorites.

Consider if your guests are the types who’d want maraschino cherries as the crown on the sundae. We prefer these Bahlsen Waffeletten, rolled waffle cookies dipped in milk or dark chocolate.

Easy decisions:

 
SERVEWARE

You may need to borrow some extra ice cream scoops, or use serving spoons.

Use whatever dishes you have: bowls, mason jars, wine glasses or the easiest option, 9-ounce hard plastic party cups.

Check out these hinged-lid storage jars. A set of 12 is $48, which is a reasonable investment if you’re planning on summer entertaining.
 
Send us your ice cream party tips!

When you can’t be there to bake a cake, send a cake in a jar. Jar’d Cake from one of our favorite bakers, Cake Chicago, offers four delicious varieties to send as a Mother’s Day gift, or give as party favors.

Everything at Cake Chicago is made from scratch, including the raspberry conserve a nd salted caramel.

Choose from:

 
Tied with grossgrain ribbon, the jars are $7.00 each, with a 2 jar minimum.

Get yours at Cake-Chicago.com.
  

[2] Start with a can of diced, fire-roasted tomatoes (photo © Muir Glen).

[3] Tricolor tortilla chips add an extra layer of fun (photo © Abuelita Mexican Foods).

It’s easy to make the salsa, but if you’re pressed for time you can buy ready-made corn and bean salsa.

Check out the history of the parfait—for most of its existence, a frozen dessert.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

> More Cinco de Mayo recipes for every meal of the day.

> The history of Cinco de Mayo.
 
 
RECIPE: MEXICAN PARFAIT

Ingredients
 
For The Salsa

 
For The Parfait

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. MIX the salsa ingredients in a medium bowl.

2. SPOON into each of the jars 1/4 cup salsa, then 1/4 cup yogurt. Repeat with two more layers. Top with a layer of salsa

3. GARNISH with a sprig of cilantro. Serve immediately with tortilla chips.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

(Check out the different sugar substitutes.)

A wholesome alternative to processed sugar and chemically-derived sweeteners, Stevia is becoming more and more popular among health-conscious individuals.

The plant Stevia rebaudiana has been used for more than 1,500 years by the Guaraní peoples of South America. For hundreds of years, it has been used in Brazil and Paraguay to sweeten teas and medicines, and to chew as a sweet treat.

It came of notice to Europeans in 1899, when Swiss botanist Moisés Santiago Bertoni, conducting research in Paraguay, first described the plant and the sweet taste in detail. He named the genus in honor of the Spanish botanist and physician Petrus Jacobus Stevus (Pedro Jaime Esteve, 1500–1556).

The sweet leaves of Stevia rebaudiana. Photo courtesy
Wikimedia.

Stevia is also known as sweetleaf, sweet leaf and sugarleaf. It is a member of the sunflower family (Asteraceae), which includes:

Stevia is an easy care plant that grows well indoors in a sunny window (and in the garden, of course), yielding small white blossoms in summer.

You can dry and grind the leaves into a powdered sugar substitute. Or, do what the South Americans have been doing for generations: Pluck a leaf from the plant and drop it into your hot or cold beverage.

You can also use it like a bay leaf to sweeten dishes as they cook.

You can buy the seeds from Burpee.

The plant reaches maturity, 12-20 inches, in 40-60 days.

Or, you can buy plants that are already growing. Here’s one online source.