Skip dessert: How to create the perfect raspberry martini to sip on as your day comes to a close

Excerpted with permission from Farm to Table Desserts by Lei Shishak. Copyright 2018 by Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

In Farm-to-Table Desserts, chef Lei demonstrates how baking with locally sourced, organic ingredients is so satisfying that it will quickly become an easy and delicious habit.

With more than eighty sweet recipes divided by season, Farm-to-Table Desserts shows readers how to create simple desserts using fresh and local ingredients at their prime. With Lei’s instruction, home cooks will see how easy it is to bake fresh year-round.

By combining fresh raspberries and Meyer lemon juice, you can create the perfect dessert martini to sip on as a warm spring day comes to a close. Simple syrup is made with equal parts sugar and water brought to a boil and cooled. If you don’t have simple syrup on hand, agave nectar is a fine substitute.

Recipe: Raspberry Martini

Makes 2 Martinis

6–8 raspberries

3 ounces Nolet’s Silver Dry Gin

2 ounces fresh Meyer lemon juice

1 ounce simple syrup or 1½ teaspoons agave

Sugar for rims

2 Meyer lemon peels

Directions

Add the raspberries, gin, Meyer lemon juice, and syrup to a shaker and top with ice. Vigorously shake and strain into two chilled Martini glasses rimmed with sugar. Garnish each with a lemon peel.