Five Quick Desserts

I hate to post so late during the week, but I like to think that there are some out there who would love to get stuck into some great desserts over the weekend. Enjoy!

If you need some quick desserts that will get you out of trouble when you have little time and people arriving on your doorstep?

My husband loves his desserts, but to be honest I don't have time to be making them every day, and my waistline doesn't need to have anything extra added to it. When there is dessert on offer - I eat it, and because of that I need to try and stick to something reasonably healthy, or just eat fruit, except on special occasions.

I've been stealing playing with recipes from friends and family, internet, my old recipe file and just about everywhere to come up with a few quickies.  These have seen me through a few desperate days when I needed something fast, yet good enough to serve to friends and family.

Luckily, I have a lot of rhubarb in the garden, and it is growing like crazy at this time of year.  Here are a few of my favs, with links to the websites where applicable. I have made all of them as the photos will show, and they are all fast to make and pretty darn healthy. Well, I am stretching that a little......

Roasted Rhubarb- serves 4 

a quantity of rhubarb stalks washed and chopped into large pieces
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 star anise
zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup orange juice

Chop up the Rhubarb into small lengths and place it in an oven tray. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and spread this over the rhubarb. Bake in a moderate oven 160º fan forced/180º/350º until soft, around 30 minutes. Remove star anise and serve with custard, ice cream or cream.

Alternatively, you can make this into a Rhubarb Fool. 
Whip a carton  of cream, 300mls until thick and slowly incorporate the rhubarb. Keep some of the juice aside. Now fill up some sundae dishes, glasses or whatever is at hand, dripping the juice over the top. Add a sprig of mint to finish this off. Serve by itself.

Apple - Pastry Roses

I was really impressed with the way these 'Apple Roses' looked - so pretty. This was very fast to make and I only cooked them for 30 minutes.  The only problem I found with the recipe was that after cooking the cream cheese just seemed to disappear. I have replaced cream cheese with Mascarpone and mixed in lemon zest. I found this worked much better. Also cook the apples until they are really soft so they are easier to roll.

You will find the recipe here:  
https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/74239093841437331/

Raw Chocolate Mousse - 4 serves

2 ripe avocadoes
1/2 cup carob powder
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup coconut milk
pinch salt

Put all of the ingredients into a food processor and blend together. Empty into a container and place in the fridge for 1 hr. Serve with fresh fruit or by itself. Just increase the quantities if you need to make for more people.

Banana and Raspberry Ice Cream - 4 serves

2 large frozen bananas, peeled
1 cup frozen raspberries/strawberries

Place the bananas and the raspberries in a food processor and pulse until it turns into ice cream. You may need to stop the machine a few times and scrape down the sides. Use immediately or store in the freezer in a sealed container. But remember to take out of the freezer for a good 10 minutes before serving, to allow it to soften. 

Its worth keeping some frozen bananas in the freezer at all times. They are great for smoothies too.  Don't forget to peel and slice them before freezing.Because it's damned hard and messy trying to peel them after they are frozen - believe me I have tried. This is fabulous on a hot day and really as good as any home made ice cream.

The Colour Purple - Blueberry Banana Bread

My favourite range of colours is on the purple and pink spectrum. So its fortunate that the current thinking in healthy food comes in the same shades.

Red cabbage, eggplants, beetroot, blueberries and purple potatoes are, we are told, what we need for long lasting health and vitality. Why? because they contain an enormous amount of antioxidants.

Hard to believe just 1/2 a cup of blueberries has the same amount of antioxidants as 2 1/4 cups broccoli, 2 1/2 cups corn 2 1/4 cups spinach. That's why my favourite fruit at the moment is blueberries. 

It is so easy to include a handful in breakfast cereal, pancakes (check out my blueberry recipe here) and now I've added them into my banana bread, to give it a little more goodness and lift it from ordinary to power packed. As well as being antioxidant rich, this recipe is vegan as it contains no butter or eggs.

Blueberry and Banana Bread

Ingredients

1.5 cups blueberries

3 ripe bananas peeled and mashed

2 cups plain flour - could be gluten free

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup agave syrup

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup milk - could be cow, soy or almond

2 tablespoons lemon juice

• Pre heat oven to 180/350º. grease and or line a loaf tin 9 x 4 or 22 x 10 cm.

• Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl.

• Add lemon juice to milk and allow it to curdle. Then add the agave syrup and mix.

• Add the ripe bananas to the flour, alternating with the wet ingredients and mix together  until you have combine all ingredients. Don't over mix.  Gently mix in the blueberries.

• Turn the mixture into your prepared tin and bake in a moderate oven for 45 - 55 minutes.

• Keep checking to make sure the bread is not browning too quickly. If it is adjust your oven temperature down a fraction.