Pavlova...

The perfect end to a dinner party... An enormous pavlova will have your guests weak at the knees... Forget kiwi and lemony cream... You want sharp rasberries and vanilla creaminess dripping from forks....

My Pavlova

You'll need

6 Egg whites

400gms caster sugar

1.5 tsp white wine vinegar

1.5 tsp cornflour

Preheat your oven to 200c. Whisk the eggs into soft peaks, add the sugar, flour and vinegar and whisk again until shiny and with soft peaks again.  Line and dust (with icing sugar) a shallow roasting pan and plop your mix into it, allow it to make its own shape.

Pop into the oven, and immediatley turn the oven down to 150.  Bake the meringue for 1 hour or until it is nicely brown and cracking along the 'seams'.

When ready remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.  Lift the meringue onto your dish, and with the back of a spoon crack the surface, allowing it to collapse in on itself.  Fill the hollow with vanilla cream (use M&S Madagasgar vanilla cream if you can!) and top with raspberries... 

Exquisite!

Cheats Cuisine!

Another handy number to throw together! Its absolutely delicious and perfect for visiting children!

So simple - it cannot go wrong!

Sticky Toffee Banana Bake

You'll need

2 Jamaican Ginger Cakes

4 Large Bananas

Anything else you fancy, I sometimes add pecan nuts!

For the sauce

100gms Muscovado Light Brown

4 oz butter

150mls double cream

4 tbsp golden syrup

Method

Stir the sauce ingredients together and heat in a saucepan until the butter has melted. Meanwhile slice the cakes and the bananas and layer them.  When the sauce begins to bubble, remove from the heat and pour over the layers.  Bake for 15 minutes at 180c until piping hot. Serve with vanilla icecream. This makes a good amount for 6 people so you can say...

Yes, there is seconds...!

Cheats Cuisine!

To make a spectacular dessert in a hurry follow these easy peasy instructions for my quick and easy Black Forest Dessert!

You'll need 

for four 

4 chocolate brownie

1 tin pitted black cherries

4 pots chocolate mousse

125mls double cream, whipped to soft peaks

2 tbsp vanilla sugar

1 chocolate flake

4 oreo cookies, roughly broken

75cls kirsch (or vodka will be fine too!)

Method

Break the brownies into bite sized chunks and pop into the bottom of the serving dish, mix the kirsch with the juice from the tinned fruit and add the vanilla sugar, then spoon about two tablespoons over each brownie.  Add half the cherries.  Plop some cream on, then a full chocolate mousse, oreo cookies and more cream.  Top with cherries and chocolate flake.

Perfect squidgy goodness to finish off a good meal!

Easy Peasy Roly Poly

I loved making swiss rolls in school, something about getting that perfect swirl with no cracks appealed to the perfectionist in me!

So when I set about making a meringue roulade, I was sure I could handle it! However it was a hundred times easier, believe it or not!! Rolling meringue is like rolling marshmallow, easy as pie! And even if it cracked it would look great! Winner all round! For this roulade you need nothing but the basics... no flours, no vinegars, nothing... Dunno how but it works a treat, even without the stabilisers!

White Chocolate and Blueberry Roulade!

You'll need

275gms Caster sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract or half a pod, scraped

5 Egg whites, room temperature

Icing sugar, for dusting

For the Filling

150gms White chocolate

100mls Natural yoghurt

250gms Marscapone

150gms Blueberries

Heat your oven to 220c.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until holding stiff peaks, then gradually whisk in the sugar until the meringues are glossy and stiff. Whisk in the vanilla.

Spread the meringue thickly on a lined swiss roll tin. Turn your oven down to 160c and bake the meringue for about 15 minutes or until golden and firm to touch.

Remove from the oven and turn out onto a piece of greasproof, dusted with icing sugar. Leave to cool.

Melt your chocolate in your usual way, then stir in the yoghurt. Beat in the marscapone until smooth. Spread over the meringue and top with the blueberries.

Roll your meringue, using the paper to help. Leave wrapped in the paper and chill for at least 1 hour before serving dusted with icing sugar.

Gok Gok...

My darling little Joe has found out about chocolate and since then the mere rustle of a wrapper in a pocket has him shouting "GOK GOK" very loudly!  You can see for yourself below...!!

So it was like christmas for him the other evening when, spurred by a chocolate loving daughter, I made some good old fashioned chocolate puddings, of the self saucing kind! I'm not a huge fan but everyone else in the house likes them, including now darling Joe! 

This recipe is so simple and guaranteed to turn out everytime so do try them!  

Hot Chocolate Puddings

You'll need

250gms plain chocolate

50gms soft unsalted butter

120gms caster sugar

4 Eggs

Half tsp vanilla extract

50gms plain flour

Pinch of salt

Method

Melt the chocolate in your usual way.  Mix the butter and sugar together using an electric mixer until blended and smooth. Then add the eggs, alternatively with spoons of flour, to avoid curdling until you have a smooth batter.  Add the vanilla and the salt, then mix in the chocolate using your mixer to make sure it doesn't settle at the bottom of the batter.  

Butter your ramekins well and pour the mixture in.  Bake in a preheated oven at about 200c for about twelve minutes. DO NOT OVERCOOK!!! The top should be cooked and the sides coming away from the ramekins.  

Upturn them onto individual plates and serve with gently whipped cream on the side.... Ooooh and raspberries if you have any!!

You can also make these a little bit more "dinner party" by using a chocolate flavoured with spices, Green & Blacks do a few, or by adding a tsp of chilli powder to the mix for a fiery kick! If you do use spiced chocolate use creme fraiche instead of cream and add a few drops of rosewater or orange flower water... 

 

Who's been eating all the pies?

Short answer - Me! 

These last weeks I have been obsessed with perfecting my Lemon Meringue Pie recipe, and so the house has been dotted with these perfect fluffy desserts.  Any opportunity I had to make a dessert and I was on it! In all, I think, I made seven... and I'm almost happy!

So I'm going to give you the recipe, although it may have to be replaced sometime soon, at this very moment I am Lemoned and Meringued out! 

Lisa's Lemon Cloud Pie

Firstly for the base, line a 9" deep cake tin with greasproof paper or tin foil.  In your processor blitz about 300gms of digestive biscuits to crumbs.  Melt 125gms butter in a saucepan and stir through the biscuits.  Pour the buttered crumbs into the tin and press down, with a soup spoon, until smooth.  Pop into the fridge as you do the next stage. 

Now, for the filling you will need,

2 Large Lemons, zested and juiced

40gms cornflour

290mls water

2 egg yolks, beaten

100gms caster sugar

Method

Pour enough water (maybe 50mls or so) into the cornflour and stir, despite resistance, until smooth.  Then, in a saucepan, bring the water and the lemon zest to the boil.  Remove from the heat and add to the cornflour paste. Add the sugar and the egg yolks.  Return to the pan and stir with a wooden spoon until you will see it start to thicken.  Continue until it coats the back of the spoon and hangs rather than drips.  Pour onto the biscuit crumb crust and chill.

Make your meringue topping by whipping 3/4 egg whites until they have stiff peaks.  Add approximately 120/150gms caster sugar and whip again until the meringue is glossy.  Pour into the tin, on top of the curd and then into a medium oven (I preheat to 200c and then turn down to 150c when I put the pie in) for 45 minutes.  If the top becomes too brown while cooking, cover with foil.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand on a teatowel (curds sweat!) for about ten minutes or longer before serving.

Americana...

So listen, as I've said before, I am enamoured with American food at the moment and have been eagerly anticipating food scenes in my favorite tv shows... Bill tells me I'd see it all in The Sopranos but I just don't find people getting kicked to death entertaining so I'm passing indefinately on that one.  However recently, while watching a gorgeous American movie called "Waitress" I was reminded of that great American institution "The Cream Pie"... 

Then at a family dinner the other evening, my youngest brother mentioned that his culinary high was the eating of a Coconut Cream Pie while visiting my older brother in New York.  His face became wistful and he spoke quietly of its perfect marraige of creaminess, sweetness and nuttyness.  I had to try it.

So with him on his way over to watch the Celtic match with Bill, I set about making one, with a few tips from Martha Stewart, whom I've been told is like Nigella Lawson mixed with Anthea Turner.  We don't get much from Martha Stewart this side of the pond, but I do know she is one to look to for superb baking tips.

Here it is...

Coconut Cream Pie

You'll need

A prepared pie crust (See my fav recipe here)

75gms plain chocolate

85gms cup sugar

170gms unsweetened coconut milk

85gms whole milk

85gms Double cream

30gms cornflour

5 egg yolks

A good pinch of salt

100gms flaked, unsweetened coconut

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter

Prepare your pie crust.  When cool, melt the chocolate and brush the inside of the pie with the melted chocolate until well covered.  Leave to cool.

Mix the cream and milk together.  Combine the coconut milk, the sugar and half the cream/milk mix in a saucepan and heat gently.  Just before the boil take it off.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk the remaining  cream/milk mix and cornflour together stirring until smooth. Whisk egg yolks with salt in a seperate mixing bowl. Temper yolks by adding some scalded milk mixture slowly to the yolks while whisking well. Add yolk mixture and cornflour mix back into milk mixture and whisk vigorously over medium heat until thickened and just about to boil. It should coat a spoon and not drip easily.  Remove from heat and add coconut, vanilla, and butter. Mix together until butter is melted. Taste and add more sugar if you need it. Fill your pie dish with the mix and refrigerate.  

My brother was the first to taste it - "thats it, thats it!" he said "perfect!" 

But well guess what! I didn't like it! After all that I put a forkful into my mouth and was not happy. 

It was just too globby... I wonder with a topping of some sort would it even out more for my taste.   I mean I like the inside, I like the outside but the combo just wasn't right for me... I'm now thinking meringue topping? What do you think?

Jelly on a plate!

As you know I love Limoncello, and I absolutely adore (roll your r's on that one) its sister Cremoncello (which is made by adding cream)... In fact I truly believe the latter to be the most perfect liquid in the world... 

So it follows that I might attempt some form of sweet from these delicious liquers...

I have plans for cakes, tortes, trifles and all sorts of conncotions  to be slathered with these delightful cellos, but for now here is a little quickie... an amuse bouche shall we say, a petit four...

Perfect for a quick dessert, can be whipped up in seconds, to amaze and please those lucky enough to sample it!

LimonJello

You'll need

1 packet of lemon jelly (Jello stateside!)

100mls boiling water

100mls Limoncello

150mls double cream

Method

Melt the jelly in the boiling water until completely dissolved.  Add the limoncello and the cream, stir well and pour into moulds.  I filled 8 small moulds.

Leave in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight and serve, alone, perhaps with some fresh fruit and a homemade biscuit on the side!

Perfect Pear...

I have to say Pear is just a perfect dessert fruit, it marries wonderfully well with nearly everything - almonds, custard, spices, vanilla... the list is endless, and it continues to crop up, paired with new and wonderful things, year after year... Roquefort, pork and beetroot are foods I've seen it coupled with on menus of late, there is a wealth of possibilities...

So I wanted to make another Semi-Freddo, having enjoyed the first one, and since wondered about its possibilities.  

Our big trip has emptied our coffers, and is still digging around in the fluff in case it missed a cent, so I had to use storecupboard ingredients, bar the cheeses which I bought.  Spying a tin of Pears lurking in the back of my cupboard and a packet of ginger biscuits, I jumped at the combination, it works so well and would carry the light Semi-Freddo perfectly.

The result was a perfect combination of lightness and flavour, a marraige made in heaven, a perfect pear (threesome really but...)

White wine Semi Freddo, with ginger and pear...

You'll need

225gms philidelphia cheese

225gms marscapone

150mls double cream

50 mls sweet white wine

4 - 8 tbsp icing sugar (this really is down to your own preference)

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Ginger biscuits

knob of butter

1 tin of pears in their own juice!

Method

Beat the cheeses and the cream together until smooth, tip in the extract and the wine before adding the sugar to taste.

Pour the mix into a round cake tin and cover.  Freeze for at least 2 hours.

Crush the ginger biscuits, and add the melted knob of butter. 

Take the Semi-Freddo out of the freezer about 15 minutes or so before serving, cut into slices and serve on a heap of the crushed biscuits alongside pears with some juice drizzed over.  You could also add flaked dark chocolate if you felt the need!!!

Semi Freddo!

As you know I love a challenge, so when my soon-to-be sister-in-law asked me to try to replicate the dessert we had both ordered in the local Osteria I felt up to the challenge.
The dessert is called Semi Freddo and is usually a semi frozen ice cream, but the one we had was different, more like a cheese cake... just delicious! So I decided to try it out and see what I'd come up with!

It turned out to be a lovely dessert but next time I will use Philidelphia instead of Marscarpone, the Semi freddo needs that cheesey tang to make it perfect.

Here is the recipe I used, replace the marscapone with cream cheese if you want more of a cheese cakey flavour!

Semi Freddo

You'll need

400gms Marscarpone
150mls cream
2 tsps extract of vanilla
75gms icing sugar (or more to taste)

Ameretti biscuits and sliced peach to serve!

Method
Mix the cheese and the cream until blended and add the vanilla and sugar. Blend well and pour into a tupperware dish. Freeze for at least 4 hours or overnight and then leave in the fridge for an hour before serving.

Cut into slices and serve on crushed ameretti with peaches (I popped the fruit into a hot saucepan with some sugar and a bit of butter to release the juice!)

Pick me up!

Italys favorite dessert - Tiramisu (literally pick me up!) is so easy you could make it in your sleep. I don't use egg yolks in mine, never have and never will, I think the marscapone is rich enough to carry the dessert without glooping it up with egg yolk! Some people use egg white as well, I think whipped cream and sugar marries the cheese perfectly and have no interest in fluffyness, either literal or metaphoric.

So here is my recipe for perfect Tiramisu!

You'll need
125mls fresh cream
5-6 tbsp icing sugar
1 shot of Kahlua
300gms Marscapone
about 20 Saviordi biscuits (Ladyfingers)
1 cup of esspresso coffee

Method
Whip the cream lightly and then stir in half the Kahlua and 2 tbsp of the icing sugar. Add the marscapone and stir until a creamy paste. Pour the rest of the Kahlua into the cup of coffee. Line the dish with half the biscuits and sprinkle with some coffee. You want the biscuits moistened but not soaked. Top with half the cream mix, and then top that with more biscuits. Sprinkle the remainder of the coffee over the layer and top with the rest of the cream mix.
Grate chocolate or sprinkle cocoa powder, chill until its nice and cold.

I am a wally! I didn't upload the picture of the finished product onto my little USB stick! Thats why there is none, I'll try to get it uploaded soon!

Easy dessert!

This can be rustled up on a one flame gas burner when camping, and of course at home.

Carmelised Peaches

for four

8 peaches, destoned and sliced

Caster sugar

2 ounces of butter

Toss the peaches in enough caster sugar to coat them thickly and then add them to a hot pan with the butter.  Leave the butter to melt and begin to bubble.  When it is thick caramel, remove from the heat and serve with ice cream (pistachio works really well) and some whipped cream!

Bananaque...

There is no other way to round off a barbequed meal than with Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Bananas...

Slit a banana on its back side all the way through but leaving the skin intact, stuff with marshmallow and chocolate buttons... Wrap in foil and pop onto the Barbie as you eat your main meal. 

 Then you can check and see if the banana skin is blackened and the chocolate melted - unwrap and pop into a bowl, top with ice cream and eat!

Can it get any better?

Bill is allergic to Bananas so we used a pineapple round, cut in half and sandwiched with the chocolate and marshmallow.

I had no idea when I wrote this post that a "bananaque" is actually an asian treat, see here! I was trying to be clever, playing with the word barbeque and banana, but the amount of hits this post has had is unbelievable with people looking for information on actual bananaques! I couldn't figure it out for ages! So if you came here looking for something else, I apologise for the mix up, but please stay to have a look around, you're very welcome!

...And all things nice...

How I love a challenge!

Our weekend was choc full with friends calling, and of course I love to feed the masses! I was set an unusual challenge though when I got a text from Ciara who, minus Jay for the second time in less than a month, was coming for dinner on Sunday. She asked me to leave her out on the dessert course, her intolerances making it impossible for her to enjoy anything moreishly sweet.

Ciara has found that she functions better avoiding refined sugar, but can eat honey and she also suffers a high intolerance for gluten. It was a challenge to combine the two points into my little project as the commercial products for coeliacs contain refined sugar, and a lot of the diabetic products contain wheat. I was certainley not going to hand her an apple while we tucked into a chocolate cheesecake, and I was sure I could make a sugarless mousse but I wanted to really challenge myself. So I decided. I would make a Gluten free Sugar free cheesecake if I died trying (or got very tired...)

I ran around health shops, I ran around supermarkets, what would work? what could I use? Its amazing what has gluten in it, you'd be surprised. Here is just some of the exhaustive list...

Oats, wheat, rye, and barley.

Malt vinegar.
Grains are used in the processing of many ingredients, so it will be necessary to seek out hidden gluten.

The following terms found in food labels means that there is gluten in the product.

Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (HVP), unless made from soy or corn, Flour or Cereal products.
Vegetable Protein unless made from soy or corn, Malt or Malt Flavoring unless derived from corn. Modified Starch or Modified Food Starch unless arrowroot, corn, potato, tapioca, waxy maize, or maize is used. Vegetable Gum. Soy Sauce or Soy Sauce Solids.

Any of the following words on food labels usually means that a grain containing gluten has been used, stabilizer, starch, flavoring, emulsifier, hydrolyzed plant protein.

Yikes!

That was a lot to avoid, but that was the fun of the challenge. I was determined not to buy anything with chemical sweeteners either so after a lot of glasses-on-glasses-off antics, some "DOH!"S that homer simpson would be proud of, and I lot of "I cannot believe there is sugar in this" moments... I had it!
So what was I going to make for her?

This!

Ciaras Cheesecake

Little individual cakes - recipe per cake.

Gluten free. Contains honey so not for a diabetic diet

You'll need:

for the base

• 3/4 Gluten free crackers (I used a brand called glutano)



• 1 tsp honey ( i favor Tesco finest lavender honey for use in recipes!)



• 1/4 gluten free sugar free energy bar



• 4 sweet almonds



• 1 tbsp rice crispies



• 1 oz melted butter

Whizz in a food processor with the melted butter, press into a mold, or clingfilm lined ramekin.

for the topping

• 4/5 tbsp sugar free fromage frais
  


• 50 gms sugar free chocolate (I used an organic one sweetened with fruit juice from a company called Dam) - Make sure there is no wheat products in the chocolate as some do have them.
  


• Handful raspberries
  


• Double cream for serving.

Melt the chocolate in a bain marie and stir in the fromage frais. Mix some of the raspberries through and spoon in on to the base. Top with extra raspberries and chill in the fridge for at least an hour. This makes a nice chocolate pot type dessert if you want to leave the base out which would make it suitable for a diabetic.

To be or not to be...

Its always the way isn't it? Something you could do blindfolded decides to take you down a peg or two.

"Oh I'll make the dessert" I said when my mom asked us down my dads anniversary dinner on Sunday, "I'll make the most amazing cheesecake" I beamed. I'll make it the morning of the dinner I thought confidently, its such an impressive dish!

Oh does pride come before a fall...

I did everything right, in the right order, with the right ingredients...

Whizzed a mix of digestives and shortbread biscuits in the processor and added melted butter, then pressed it into a thick base in my tin.

Then I melted the chocolate, as I always do, in a bain marie, and added the cream and the cream cheese. Then I plopped half the mix in on top of the biscuit. I chopped strawberries in the processor and spread them on the top.

Then I did the same with a smaller amount of milk chocolate and poured that on.

Then the strawberries again, and the rest of the white chocolate mix.

I popped it in the fridge and left it for 5 hours.

Then I took it out, happily pushed it up out of the tin on its loose bottom, and it happily plopped all over me and the counter.

It didn't set.

Why? I'm not sure, I have a vague suspicion that I got distracted by my own fabulousness in the kitchen and I may have added 200mls of cream to the milk chocolate instead of the 100mls that it should have been, and the milk chocolate mix not setting ruined the rest of it as it was in the middle.

Anyway as it turned out (after plenty of squalling and taking of the lords name in vain) all was not lost, I reseurrected most of it into dessert glasses, a botch job that no one noticed as anythign but meant to be like that. I added more cream and some ice cream and it came out as a moussey cheescakey in a glass affair.

It was enjoyed by all, except maybe for me who would have been better with a slice of humble pie!

Happy Easter!

Easter Sunday! I love an excuse to prepare a feast! So for today I ordered a leg of lamb and stocked up on luxury ingredients - the channel island double cream, the madagascan vanilla, the french butter, the best wine... Christmas and Easter, thats when we go all out and it really makes the special days special!

So with my nearest and dearest sitting happily around a decorated table, I served up our first course...

Velvet Squash Soup

(this is beyond easy and a great starter when you've guests as you can make it in advance and reheat)

You'll need

1 Butternut Squash

4 cloves garlic

500mls chicken stock

Method

Split the squash in two, and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle with olive oil and place in a roasting dish. Split the garlic cloves and place them in the hollow of each piece of squash. Pop into a hot oven (200c) and roast the bejesus out of them, until they are so soft the flesh will come away from the skin without much pressure.

Scoop the roasted flesh out and into your food processor or into a jug if you're using a hand blender. Pour on the stock. Blend until smooth and velvety.

Add salt and pepper to taste, cream if you like and a pinch of parmesan if you have it.

So everyone tucked in, this soup really appeals to all!

Main course time, so we opened a bottle of our favorite special occasion wine...

Easy Peasy Leg of Lamb

Order from a butcher, he will give you the right size for the amount of bellies!

You'll need

Leg of Lamb

Olive oil

Sea salt

Rosemary sprigs

Clove of garlic

Method

Rub your lamb with the olive oil. Halve the clove of garlic and rub the oiled meat with it. Spear the leg all over with a sharp knife and stick the rosemary sprigs into the holes.

Roast at 190c/210c until the juices run clear-ish! (My oven took 2 and a half hours)

Serve with roasted potatoes (add them to the roasting tin about a half an hour after the lamb, but par boil them first and shake them around a bit to be sure of crispy edges!) and cabbage! I always add cream and a bit of onion puree to cabbage on special occasions, ! Don't forget the mint sauce and of course the gravy - I made todays with the juices from the lamb, a cup of boiling water, two tsps redcurrant jelly and a tbsp of bisto which may not appeal to the food snobs out there but I really think bisto makes the best gravy!

So the tums were almost full, the lamb had turned out perfectly, just pink in the middle and crispy on the outside.

All we needed now was dessert!

Lets call these,

Raspberry Mmmms....

You'll need

200gms white chocolate (use green and blacks organic if you can)

200mls double cream

200mls creme fraiche

handful fresh raspberries

chocolate flake.

Sit the white chocolate in a bain marie until melted. Take it off the heat then and stir in the creme fraiche, the chocolate may seize but keep stirring - it'll be fine. Add the cream.

Plop into serving glasses (looks gorgeous in any wine glass) and refridgerate.

Just before serving pop in a few raspberries and sprinkle with crumbled flake.

Mmmmmmm....