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.

Updated July 2026

How about a make-your-own-sundae ice cream and/or sorbet bar for get-togethers. It’s fun and pretty easy to pull off.

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 the pints or quarts into the ice.

The ice also serves as a surface for the ice cream scoops. Easy, peasy.

Below:

> How to select the ice cream.

> Lots of toppings.

> Sauces and whipped cream.

> Serverware: dishes, spoons

> Beverage pairings.

> Alcoholic beverage pairings.

Elsewhere On The Nibble:

> The history of ice cream.

> The history of ice cream—longer version.

> The history of the ice cream sundae.

> The different types of frozen desserts: a photo glossary.

> The year’s 50+ ice cream holidays.

> America’s favorite ice cream flavors.
 
 
1. SELECT THE ICE CREAM

Unless you have a particular theme in mind (e.g., chocolate flavors, berry flavors, pink [e.g. black raspberry, cherry vanilla, raspberry swirl, strawberry, strawberry cheesecake]), consider starting with the most popular flavors.

America’s favorite flavors are vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and butter pecan. You can choose those, or vary the selection.

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 plant-based or sorbet.

Easy Decisions

 
Other Options

The next four most popular flavors on the list are cookie dough, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate chip.

If you don’t want to add more pints, you can approximate this second flavor group with toppings of cookie dough balls, Oreo pieces, mint baking chips, and chocolate chips.

The best way to keep the ice cream cold is to place them in 9-inch square metal baking pans that have been kept in the freezer. When you’re ready to serve the ice cream, place the pints on the counter for 5 minutes to soften. Then, grab the frozen pan from the freezer and add the pints, surrounded with ice cubes.

If you skip the tub of ice, the ice cream will last about 15 minutes before it gets too melty. If you want to extend the sundae bar for a longer time, have backup pints in the freezer.
 
 
2. SELECT THE DRY TOPPINGS

Easy Decisions

 
For a more elaborate offering, consider brownie cubes, crushed almond nougat or peanut brittle, crushed waffle cones, mini meringues, and toffee shards.

Fancier Options

If your crowd has a sophisticated palate, consider:

 

[8] Sophisticated toppings: crystallized ginger, macerated strawberries and basil, salted Marcona almonds, salted chocolate, coconut (photo © The Nibble).
 
 
3. SAUCES/WET TOPPINGS

Easy Decisions

 
Note that corn syrup-based sauces like butterscotch, caramel, and hot fudge often require warming to be pourable. Unless you can keep them warm, it’s better to buy pourable squeeze bottles.

Plus, squeeze bottles are also much neater! Ghirardelli makes the best (photo #5).

Fancier Options

 
 
4. SERVERWARE

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

We like to use festive paper plates and napkins along with compostable spoons, but you can use whatever dishes you have: bowls, mason jars, wine glasses, etc. Plastic or paper party bowls are another option.

As you can see in photo #1, our dish of choice is an edible waffle bowl, presented atop a festive, heavy-duty paper plate and colorful napkins. We’ve also taken to using reusable (and compostable) bamboo spoons.

[2] Bowls are the neatest way to present the toppings (photo © Nana’s Company).

[3] Things can get messy if you use a muffin tin. Not just the tabletop, but people spooning up toppings from one well can easily—if inadverently—spill some into the neighboring well (photo © The Nibble).

[4] Waffle bowls add fun and crunch. Here’s how to make your own waffle bowls from Taste Of Home.

[5] Girardelli makes the best pourable dessert sauces (photo © The Nibble).

[6] The Inspired Room knows how set up a backyard sundae bar. They pre-pack the ice cream into hinged jars and keep them cold in a tub of ice. For neatness, the sauces go into syrup dispensers. Check out their article on the topic (photo © The Inspired Room).

[7] This top-rated ice cream scoop is just under $10, and comes in 18 colors, enough to match most any ice cream flavor (photo © Spring Chef | Amazon).

 

[9] All of these spirits can pair with ice cream sundaes. Details follow (photo © The Nibble).
 
 
6. ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE PAIRINGS

________________
 
*The fruitiest Extra Virgin Olive Oils (EVOO)—especially for a sophisticated ice cream topping—are made from specific olive cultivars known for their delicate or medium fruitiness. Also look for the term “Late Harvest.” Olives harvested later in the season are riper and produce a mellower, sweeter, and much fruitier oil compared to “Early Harvest” oils, which are more intense, grassy, and peppery. The following olive varieties are considered the fruitiest:

Arbequina (Spain): This is the quintessential fruity olive oil, very mild with little to no peppery finish. It often has distinct notes of green apple, banana, and almond. Because of its buttery sweetness, it is the top choice for drizzling over vanilla ice cream.

Hojiblanca (Spain): Its very broad flavor profile includes notes of tomato, apple, and avocado. It starts sweet and fruity on the palate before finishing with a very mild, pleasant bitterness.

Koroneiki (Greece): While it can have a bit of a peppery kick, a high-quality Koroneiki is deeply fruity with an aroma that evokes fresh green herbs and citrus.

Nocellara del Belice (Sicily, Italy): This variety is famous for its bright green flavor—tasting like buttery green olives with a very fresh, fruity, and slightly citrusy aroma.

Picudo (Spain): Known for being very aromatic and sweet, this variety often tastes like exotic fruits, apple, and almond. It’s much softer than its more common Spanish cousin, Picual (Picual is one of our favorite EVOOs for salads and drizzling).

Taggiasca (Liguria, Italy): This oil is extremely delicate, sweet, and fruity with a strong almond finish. It’s light and not overpowering (and can be more expensive).
 
 

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

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.