Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dessert. Show all posts
We were very grateful to have been able to get our hands on a fruit and vegetable box last week. It was filled with all sorts of lovely things and I have been making sure that I make the most of everything that was in the box.
I have been enjoying eating the apples out of hand, and Todd has been enjoying the bananas. One night I made us a cut fruit salad with some of the bananas, some cut up oranges, a kiwi and some coconut.
And of course we have been enjoying the potatoes, onions, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower in the box. I still have parsnips and a butternut squash to make use of. Not a problem.
There was a quantity of Conference pears, which can be awfully hard to eat out of hand, but they are beautiful for cooking with as they hold their shape well.
Conference pears are a medium-sized pear with an elongated bottle aand are quite similar in appearance to the 'Bosc pear'. A table pear, it is suitable for fresh-cut processing. The skin is thick greenish-brown, becoming pale yellow when ripe. The flesh is white, but turns pale yellow when the pear is ripe. The texture is very fine and soft, and the flavour is sweet. They have always reminded me of Russet Apples in a way.
They are beautiful roasted! Roasting softens them up nicely and really enhances their beautiful pear flavour.
This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique which you can apply to any quantity of the hard fleshed fruit. In fact you really want hard fruits for this as they stand up better in the roasting, and hold their shapes well.
To do this I peel the fruit and then I scoop out the seed portion of the fruit using a metal measuring spoon, or a melon baller if you have one. This leaves a little bowl shape, which is perfect for filling with things . . . like little nobs of butter . . .
I lay them out on a baking sheet, lined with paper, cut side up and do just that. Pop a little knob of cold butter into each bowl.
It is probably not more more than 1/4 tsp. We are awfully fond of the flavours of cinnamon and cardamom and so we also sprinkle a modicum of ground cinnamon and ground cardamom over each pear half. I finish them off with a small drizzle of honey and then I roast them in a hot oven . . .
It doesn't take too long . . . only about 20 minutes or so. I start them cut side up, roast for a bit, then flip them over, roast for a bit longer, and then I flip them and cook them just for a little while longer until they are just slightly caramelised and beautifully sticky. These are gorgeous served with a nice dollop of thick yogurt or some cream. Ice cream would also be very nice.
Roasted Pears with Honey, Cinnamon & Cardamom
Yield: Variable
This is not so much a recipe as it is a technique. Its great for when you end up with fruit that is rock hard. These always turn out perfect.
Ingredients:
- fresh pears
- honey
- butter
- ground cinnamon and cardamom
To serve:
- thick plain yogurt, or pouring cream
- vanilla bean ice cream
Instructions:
How to cook Roasted Pears with Honey, Cinnamon & Cardamom
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with some baking paper.
- Peel your pears and cut them in half lengthways. Using a metal teaspoon or melon baller scoop out the seeds of each half and discard. I also like to trim off the blossom end, although I do leave on the stems for asthetic purposes.
- Place the pears cut side up on the baking tray. Put a little dab of butter into the hollow in each pear half. Sprinkle with each with some cardamom and cinnamon and then drizzle with honey.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, flip over and roast for a further 10 minutes. Flip again and roast until the pears are sweetly glazed, soft and golden.
- Serve warm with some of the juices spooned over top and a dollop of yogurt or some cream, or even a scoop of vanilla ice cream of you have it.
I can't help feeling a tiny bit sad today as this was the day that I should have had my children arriving. Oh what a joyous reunion that would have been. It has been 8 years since I have seen them. Nevermind, with any lucky and the goodness of God it will still happen later in the year. Stay happy, stay healthy, wash those hands and, if you can, stay home!
Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake. My mother, God bless her, loved cheesecake. It was one of her favourite desserts. She was only the size of a bird, so tiny that a good breeze could have easily blown her over, but she did like to eat.
I don't know what her secret was to keeping her slim figure. I remember her asking me about seven or 8 years back did I have a good cheesecake recipe. I did and so I shared it with her. I don't know if she ever made it or not. I like to think that she did, and that she enjoyed it.
Of course with her lung cancer operation and all of the complications she had afterwards, her days of cooking were pretty much over, although by all counts she did have a fairly healthy appetite right up until she passed.
Her tastes had changed however and the things she liked to eat before, she no longer enjoyed. Funny how that goes. I suppose it was the dementia.
Cheesecake is not something I make really often. With there only being two of us, a full-sized cheesecake just is not practical anymore.
I will sometimes buy two slices in the shops, but they never live up to their promise. That's all I will say about that.
I once bought a frozen Cheesecake Factory one at Costco and that was very good. It was already cut into slices that you could just take out and eat as and when you wanted them.
But it was huge and cheesecake is something we only want once in a very blue moon, so again, highly impractical as I ended up giving most of it away. You can't keep these things in the freezer forever.
This quick, easy and delicious baked cheesecake recipe I am sharing with you today ends all of those problems. It is the perfect size for the smaller family!
You bake it in a 9-inch X 5-inch loaf tin. It cuts perfectly into 6 smallish wedges. I say smallish, but really they are all any one person really needs to be eating of such a rich dessert.
A delicious swirl of tart dark cherry preserves is baked into the cheesecake . . . I used an Italian brand. (Crosta & Mollica) It has lovely big bits of cherry in it, and I don't find it to be overly sweet.
If you don't like cherries, you could use peach jam, or blueberry jam . . . strawberry, raspberry . . . any kind of jam you want or desire.
I think you could even use lemon curd if you wanted to . . . now THAT would be extremely dangerous for me.
My husband might not even get a look in, I am that greedy when it comes to lemon. Sad but true.
It works out fine however because he isn't really fond of lemon anything so he doesn't really mind if I snuffle up all the lemon goodies.
Anyways, back to this dessert. Its gorgous. Its simple to make. It is quick to make.
And it is just the right size for us. If I had some sour cream I would have topped it with some and it would have been even better.
If you are a smaller family looking for a tasty dessert, or even if you are a normal sized family wanting something that isn't going to be hanging around for days, I hazard to guess that this dessert would be perfect for you.
Yield: 6 smallish servings
Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake
All of the lush deliciousness of a full sized version, but with less temptation to resist.
ingredients:
For the crust:
- 160g digestive biscuit crumbs (fine) (1 cup graham cracker crumbs)
- 60g butter, melted (1/4 cup)
For the filling:
- 16 ounces (1 pound) FULL fat cream cheese
- 95g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 1 large free range egg, beaten lightly
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 9 tsp good quality dark cherry preserves
instructions:
How to cook Small Batch Cherry Cheesecake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 by 5 inch loaf tin and line with parchment paper, leaving extra on the sides to lift it out.
- Mix together the crumbs and butter. Press into the bottom of the loaf tin evenly.
- Whisk together the cream cheese, egg, vanilla an sugar until smooth. Pour into the loaf tin on top of the crumbs. Add the cherry preserves in spoonfuls on top of the batter and then using a skewer, carefully swirl it.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes. The centre will be almost set, but still have a slight wiggle. The top should be firm. Cool for an hour in the pan then lift out and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hour or overnight.
- Cuts into 6 small wedges.
We are supposed to have a nice weekend weatherwise this weekend. Here's hoping! Our back garden s squelching and we could use a few dry and sunny days to dry it out so that we can mow! Happy weekend everyone!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The
English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are
reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you
may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
I am willing to guarantee that you are going to fall abso-flippingly in love with this simple cake I am sharing here with you today. GUARANTEE!
Not only is it a very simple cake to make, but it has to be one of the moistest, most flavourful cakes you could ever want to eat.
I have adapted the recipe from one I found in the book Clodagh's Kitchen Diaries by Clodagh McKenna.
I was able to purchase a copy of this second hand the other week and the day it arrived I immediately bookmarked this recipe and set out the very next day to bake it. I kid you not.
In her description of the recipe she says: "This, I guarantee, will be one of your favourite recipes in this book. Light, moist and so zingy, it will keep for up to a week in an airtight container."
I would agree with everything she said but am doubtful about the last . . . not that it won't keep in a container for up to a week, but that you will even have any left to store for a week! Seriously!
Yes, it is THAT good!
This is the moistest, most flavourful cake I have ever made.
No flour in it . . . but you can't consider it gluten free because you do need a slice of white bread made into bread crumbs . . . and the gluten would be in that . . .
I used a slice of day old ordinary sandwich bread, about 1/2 inch in thickness. I did not cut off the crusts. I blitzed it into coarse bread crumbs in my food processor.
Once again I used Dorie Greenspan's trick of rubbing citrus zest into sugar to release the flavours and aromas. This cake uses the zest of one large orange and one lemon.
Use unwaxed if you can get them, otherwise scrub them well in soapy water and then dry with a soft cloth prior to zesting.
The citrus sugar gets mixed with the bread crumbs and a quantity of ground almonds . . . I think in North America you might call this almond meal or almond flour.
You will also need a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix that all together well then you simply stir in some vegetable oil that you have beaten together with some eggs.
She didn't specify the size of the eggs that I could find. I used large and they worked out beautifully.
That's it . . . just pour it into the prepared pan and bake . . . it smells really good while it is baking. Like a citrus grove . . .
After baking you make a spicy citrus syrup using the juice of an orange and a lemon, some sugar, a cinnamon stick and a couple of cloves.
This gets soaked into the still warm cake, while its still warm . . . this is the secret to it's moist texture and amazing flavour!
Moroccan Orange Cake
Yield: 8
Light, moist and filled with lovely zingy orange flavours. This is destined to become highly placed in your arsenal of favourite cake recipes! If you can't get unwaxed fruit, simply wash the fruit you have in soapy warm water, scrubbing it gently with a brush. Dry well before using.
ingredients:
- 50g slightly stale white breadcrumbs (1 slice)
- 200g caster sugar (1 cup minus 1 tsp.)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100g ground almonds (1 cup plus 3 TBS)
- 200ml sunflower oil (7 fluid ounces)
- 4 large free range eggs
- the finely grated zest of 1 large unwaxed orange
- the finely grated zest of one unwaxed lemon
- Whipped cream or Greek Yogurt to serve
For the citrus syrup:
- the juice of 1 large orange
- the juice of 1 lemon
- 75g caster sugar (1/3 cup, slightly heaped)
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 2 whole cloves
instructions:
How to cook Moroccan Orange Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter and flour an 8 inch round cake tin. Line the bottom with baking paper. (I used a spring form pan.)
- Rub the fruit zests into the sugar with your fingertips until quite fragrant. Stir together with the bread crumbs, ground almonds and sifted baking powder. Whisk the oil together with the eggs. Add all at once to the dry mixture, mixing well together. Pour into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 60 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
- While the cake is baking make the citrus syrup. Put all of the ingredients into a small saucepan. Bring gently to the boil, stirring constantly. Reduce to a simmer and simmer for about 3 minutes at which time the sugar should be completely dissolved and a thickish syrup formed. Discard the cinnamon stick and the whole cloves.
- Poke holes all over the surface of the cake with a toothpick or skewer. Spoon the hot syrup over the cake allowing it to soak in. Spoon any excess syrup back over the cake every now and then until it is all soaked in.
- Cut into wedges to serve along with some whipped cream or Greek yogurt.
She suggest serving it with either whipped cream or thick Greek yogurt.
We had it with yogurt. I had intention only of having one small taste but before I knew it . . .
This is what was staring me in the face. The devil made me do it! OH MY GOODNESS!
Prior to my moving over here to the UK, I only ever considered icing on cakes to be of the butter cream variety, or fluffy icing . . . sometimes seven-minute boiled frosting.
I would never have thought of an icing simply composed of icing sugar and lemon juice, or a glaze icing.
It just was not something I had ever come across with the exception of glazed donuts and the like.
More often than not, here in the UK, the icing you will find on a cake will be of the glazed variety, and I have to say, I quite like it. Especially on simple cakes such as this one I am sharing today.
I have adapted this recipe from one I found in this book, "Cakes" by Liz Herbert, based on recipes favored by the well-known Women's Institute.
You just know if it has their approval it has to be good.
And this is indeed one very good cake!
It is a simple cake, rather than a celebratory cake, rather plain to look at, but that doesn't mean that is is a plain cake!
It is a fabulous cake . . . with a soft crumb . . . and little hidden bits of orange marmalade strewn throughout . . .
The marmalade adds just a hint of bittersweet in contrast to the normal sugar which is used. Not at all unpleasant.
In addition, there are the finely grated zests of one orange and one lemon to add flavour.
She used half butter and half margarine in her cake. I used all butter.
It worked beautifully. I never have margarine in my house. Just butter.
It whips up quickly and bakes in not much more than half an hour. It also smells rather lovely while it is baking!
I love the smell of a cake baking, don't you?
But then again, what cake doesn't smell good when its baking!!!
The icing is simple as I say . . .
A glaze composed of icing sugar (or confectioner's as it is also known) and fresh lemon juice.
Perfect. Sweet with just a bit of tang . . .
This get spooned over the cooled cake and then allowed to set.
In the book she gives the option of candying your own orange zest to decorate the top of the cake when completely done . . .
I had used all of my orange zest in the cake itself, but I did have some candied orange peel that I chopped and then used to decorate it which not only looked great but also tasted fabulous!
Some other cake recipes which you might enjoy:
RASPBERRY YOGURT CAKE - I love cakes which are made with sour cream and yogurt. Adding sour cream or yogurt add moisture and makes for a lovely tender crumb. This is a beautiful cake, with a lovely moist crumb. Its light in texture and filled with pockets of sweet tart raspberries.
FRENCH ALMOND, PEAR & CARDAMOM CAKE - This is a lovely cake, gluten free . . . loaded with beautiful ripe pears . . . ground almonds . . . and I added a touch of ground cardamom as pears and cardamom are such a quintessentially beautiful partnership and marriage of flavors.
It is delicious served warm, cut into squares with either lashings of pouring cream or softly whipped cream on top.
Yield: 12
Marmalade Cake
A moist teatime cake with a zingy lemon icing and the tang of marmalade.
ingredients:
- 175g softened butter (3/4 cup)
- 175g golden caster sugar (3/4 cup + 2 1/2 TBS) (you can use regular granulated sugar if that is all you have)
- the finely grated zest of each one lemon and one orange
- 4 TBS orange marmalade (I like Bonne Maman)
- 2 large free range eggs, beaten
- 225g self raising flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 3 TBS orange juice
For the lemon icing:
- 225g icing sugar, sifted (1 3/4 cup)
- the juice of one lemon
- chopped glace orange peel to decorate (optional)
instructions:
How to cook Marmalade Cake
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9-inch square baking tin, and then line with baking paper. (I like it to come a bit up the sides so that I can lift it out easily at the end.)
- Cream together the butter, both zests and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the marmalade. Beat in the eggs one at a time. If it starts to curdle, add a bit of the flour. Fold in the flour to combine thoroughly. Add the orange juice to give you a batter with a soft dropping consistency. Spoon into the prepared tin, smoothing over the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes, until risen and the top springs back when lightly touched. A toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Let sit in the tin for 10 minutes prior to lifting out to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Whisk together the icing sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Spoon over the completely cooled cake to cover. Decorate with the chopped orange peel if using. Leave to set completely prior to cutting into squares to serve.
This is a wonderful teatime cake. Perfect for mid-morning break, tea parties and just because . . . I think you will really love it.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
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