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.

Apple and Cranberry Chutney

Not many of my friends make their own preserves. They probably think I am a bit nutty because I tend to make everything I can. Just to prove how right they may be (well just a wee tiny bit) here are the contents of my preserve cupboard I've just cleaned out.

Cherry and Vanilla Conserve  9 jars
Seville Orange Marmalade    14 jars
Grapefruit Marmalade with Whiskey 1 jar (Obviously need to make more of this)
Indian Lemon Pickle 2 jars
Pear Jam                 2 jars
Ginger and Pear Chutney 1 jar
Preserved Lemon             4 jars
Tomato and Chilli Chutney  4 jars
Apple and Cranberry Chutney 6 jars
Brinjal Pickle    1 jar
Spiced Nuts     3 jars
Onion Confit    1 jar

See what I mean? There's not nearly enough for the coming year; and I have some luscious green apples to use and teamed with cranberries you have a fabulous festive chutney to give to friends for Christmas. I know there isn't much time left but this recipe is so quick and easy you can make it in a jiffy!

It's not easy to find fresh cranberries in Adelaide but a good alternative is frozen ones. The recipe works just fine using frozen and they are readily available in the supermarket. Other great things about this recipe is that it is very quick to make, as well as being a versatile chutney for vegetarians because it teams so well with vegetable dishes and the colour is stunning. The origin of this recipe came from BBC Food but I have changed the recipe quite a lot to suit my taste. But to be fair, this was not an original recipe of mine and I need to acknowledge that.

So in order to add more colour to my preserve cupboard I am making another batch of this chutney. Let's go!

APPLE AND CRANBERRY CHUTNEY

2 kg cooking apples - peeled, cored and chopped into bite size piece

1 kg  eating apples - peeled, cored and chopped into bite size pieces

1 kg white sugar

1 kg cranberries frozen or fresh
500 ml of verjuice or apple cider vinegar
1 kg brown onions sliced finely
100g grated fresh ginger

1. In a large pan add onions, apples, verjuice, ginger and sugar and sit on a low heat stirring until all the sugar has dissolved.

2. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer until the fruit is nice and tender. This will take anywhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour. The mixture should be thick and chunky.

3. Add the cranberries. Cook for a further 10 mins. I like to burst a few of the cranberries with a wooden spoon and leave the rest whole.

4. Spoon the mixture into hot, sterilised jars and seal (if you are not sure how to do this check out my post on Cherry Jam).

5. Keep in a cool dark place to mature for a few weeks. Refrigerate on opening.

The Italian's Have It!

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you will join me this year as we launch our food journey of 2014. 

The first recipes for the year will be from Italy. Here are a few photos taken on my last visit to Tuscany, to get you excited.

Harbour at  Riomaggiore  - top,  Volterra - middle,  view across Tuscany - bottom - photos by Cyndy

So why start with Italy, you may well ask?

Firstly, I wanted to to begin the year with one of my favourite countries. Beautiful scenery and historical buildings, wonderfully friendly people and amazing food.  We can also travel into many other exquisite places from here going west, east or north. We will come back to Italy later in the year and look at regional cooking and how that has developed over time and try out a few new recipes. But I wanted to start with something that everyone can cook regardless of how much experience you have.

Today, I desperately needed to use up some Granny Smith apples and I knew that this recipe would inspire many people. It is very easy to make and just a little different from your everyday apple pie. I think it makes a stunning centrepiece for any table.

They say Coppi in Naples and Sfogliate in Lombardy, but most people will recognise the name Crostata! It is a sort of open apple pie which is popular in Italy. I can certainly remember eating a huge slab of Crostata in Sienna a couple of years ago; crisp shortcrust pastry, succulent apples with just a hint of cinnamon.

So diving head first into 2014, here is a recipe for Rustic Italian Crostata.

Rustic Apple Crostata

Ingredients - Oven temperature 180 degrees fan forced

Pastry

220g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Salt
120g Butter cubed
50ml Cold water approx

Make a shortcrust pastry, by putting flour, butter, salt in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. With motor running, add water a little at a time until it forms a soft dough. On a floured board, gently bring pastry to a ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Filling

120g Granita biscuits or similar
1 tbls Icing sugar for the top
2 tspns Ground cinnamon
2 tbls Plain flour
1 kg Granny Smith Apples (you could use any other kind of apples)
75g Caster sugar + 2 tbls sugar extra
2 tsp Vanilla extract
40g Butter

Peel, core and slice all the apples but one. The remaining one should be peeled and sliced whole, removing the seeds but retaining the 'star- like' pattern. Melt the butter in a pan, add 75g sugar, and vanilla extract. Place the apple slices in a large bowl and drizzle the butter mixture over the apples to coat them thoroughly. Put aside.

In a food processor, add Granita biscuits, 1 tablespoon of sugar, cinnamon and flour. Put aside.

Take a pizza pan or a large baking sheet. Cover with baking paper. If you use a baking sheet draw a large circle on the piece of baking paper as a guide. Roll out pastry larger than the pizza pan or the drawn circle. The overhanging pastry will be used to fold back onto the apples. Add the Granita biscuit mixture. Lay the slices of apple randomly over the granita mixture, ensuring the whole apple slices are on top. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar and fold over the pastry edge. (see photo)
Place in a pre-heated oven and cook for around 35 minutes until pastry and apples are browned.
While still warm, sprinkle with icing sugar to give the apples a nice sheen.

Buon appetito!

This recipe was adapted from Belinda Jeffery's Apple and Cinnamon Crostata from The Country Cookbook - Lantern 2010