Halva With Spice Dried Fruit and Nuts

Scooped: Carrot Halvah Ice Cream

Carrots may sound like an odd dessert ingredient, but they're certainly not just health food. They're starchy and sweet, and when cooked down slowly with milk, practically become candy on their own. Consider them an alternative sweetener, like honey, but with an even more complex sweetness. In a dessert, carrots can build a mild but flavorful base for more intense ingredients to play. Our result is something of a hybrid between Indian and Middle Eastern halvah.

Chai Ice Cream

Masala chai in ice cream form, with strong notes of black pepper, ginger, and star anise.

White Sesame Pistachio Crunch Ice Cream

Nutty white sesame gets a flavor boost from orange and vanilla, with chunks of pistachios for crunch.

Pistachio Milk With Vanilla and Cardamom

Pale green homemade pistachio milk is subtly perfumed and nearly as indulgent as its distant cousin, pistachio ice cream.

Coffee Cardamom Ice Cream

Ice cream that's aromatic with the gentle flavor of whole cardamom pods and the rich bitterness of coffee.

Blackberry Pistachio Icebox Cake

I love icebox cakes in the summer, when the thought of turning on an oven is too much to bear. This cake veers a bit from tradition, adding blackberries, pistachios, and pomegranate molasses in between layers of tea biscuits and rose water-infused whipped cream. It's sweet and creamy like an icebox cake should be, but tart berries and nutty pistachios keep things interesting.

Scooped: Jasmine Tea and Rose Petal Sorbet

After my Thanksgiving excesses, I needed to atone. I also needed to shake my head clear of the pumpkin-spiced everything clouding my culinary imagination. This sorbet was as easy to make as a pitcher of iced tea, but much more refreshing.

Scooped: White Chocolate Mint Ice Cream with Pomegranate Molasses

White chocolate, of course, isn't chocolate. It's comparisons to the dark stuff that so frequently disappoint tasters. So let's step past the unfortunate comparisons and consider white chocolate on its own terms. Once you get by the whole chocolate malapropism, white chocolate's flavor is pretty awesome: a buttery vanilla with strong hints of mint and other leafy herbs.

Chilled Minty Carrot Soup With Dukkah Yogurt

This chilled carrot soup is smooth and creamy, even though it has no dairy in the soup base. Fresh mint adds a bright herbal note, while a creamy dollop of spiced yogurt finishes it off.

Vanilla, Cinnamon, and Lime Panna Cotta

This recipe comes straight from one of my favorite places to eat in Chicago, Birrieria Zaragoza. All they serve is birria, a Mexican goat stew served with fresh thick tortillas, and it's impeccable, moan-worthy. But on my last pilgrimage, chef Jonathan Zaragoza offered me this dessert, the best panna cotta I've ever eaten.