Category Archives: Dessert

Saffron Parfait with Raspberry Coulis

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151202 Saffron Parfait w Raspberry Coulis-9518
Wonderful, different dessert. Quick to make but needs 3-4 hours in the freezer.

Serves 6

4 egg yolks
2-3 drops of vanilla extract
100 g caster sugar
0.5 g saffron
250 ml whipping cream

Raspberry Coulis:
300 g (frozen) raspberries
3 tbsp powdered sugar

  1. Whisk the eggs with the sugar and vanilla until fluffy.
  2. If using strands of saffron, not the ground kind, use a pestle and mortar and grind the saffron threads to a powder. This is easiest done by also adding some sugar to the saffron.
  3. Add the saffron to the eggs mix.
  4. Whisk the cream separately, then fold in the egg mixture.
  5. Pour in cake tin and freeze for 3-4 hours.

Coulis:

  1. Thaw the raspberries.
  2. Add the sugar.
  3. Puree in blender.

Grilled Pineapple with Baked Mascarpone Cream

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151125 Grilled Pineapple with Baked Mascarpone Cream-9437

Wonderful and different variation to the crème anglais or ice cream usually served with grilled pinapple. Start by making the Mascarpone Cream in advance as it needs to be chilled for a couple of hours.

1 pineapple, cut into thick slices
1 tbsp cinnamon
3 tbsp brown sugar

½ vanilla bean pod
4 egg yolks
50 ml brown sugar
250 g Mascarpone Cheese
2 tbsp milk

  1. Oven at 175C
  2. Scrape out the vanilla seeds from the pod and add to egg yolks
  3. Add the sugar and whisk until fluffy
  4. Mix the cheese and milk.
  5. Add the egg mix.
  6. Pour into greased casserole dish. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Let cool
  7. Whisk the mixture again and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
  8. Coat the pineapple with the sugar/cinnamon mixture. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  9. On a heated grill (or in a hot grill pan), fry the pineapple until the grill lines have coloured both sides.
  10. Serve with the mascarpone mixture.

Old Fashion Apple Pie

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151118 Cinnamon Apple Cake with Vanilla Cream-0731

A wonderful, sweet pie with a layer of cinnamon flavoured cake on top
4 apples, cut into thin slices

100 g butter
½ vanilla pod
175 ml sugar
120 g gluten free flour mix
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
Dash of salt

1 large egg, whisked

Whipped cream
A few drops of vanilla essence

1 tsp cinnamon, to dust the ready pie

Oven at 180 C

  1. Grease a pie tin and place the apple slices on the bottom
  2. Melt the butter
  3. Split open the vanilla pod, scoop out the seeds, add to the melted butter and let cool
  4. Combine all dry ingredients
  5. Add the cooled butter and remaining ingredients together
  6. Spread the mix over the apple slices.
  7. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes.
  8. Before serving, dust the pie with some extra cinnamon.
  9. Serve with whipped cream flavoured with a few drops of vanilla.

151118 i receptet Cinnamon Apple Cake with Vanilla Cream-0712

Chocolate Fondant with Raspberry Surprise

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151111 raspberry chocolate fondant-9361

The traditional Chocolate Fondant with a twist. In the middle of the chocolate, I place a fresh raspberry. A sweet and fruity surprise. The correct texture of the fondant is dependant on ingredients, (size of ramekins if you use something different) and oven heat. Since the heat of the oven may vary from oven to oven, you may want to make one extra fondant and test before baking those you will serve your guests. Also, I always use my kitchen scale for this recipe.

Serves 4

120 g dark chocolate (at least 70%)
115 g butter
3 eggs (190 g)
125 g sugar
50 g gluten free flour
Butter for the ramekins (or any other small mold you want to use)
Raspberries (1-2 per serving)
Raspberries to serve on the side
Whipped cream to serve on the side

  1. Oven at 200C
  2. Melt the butter in a bain-marie (a bowl set on top of boiling water on your stove)
  3. Mix the sugar and eggs, add the flour and stir well.
  4. Butter the ramekins well.
  5. Fill each ramekin to 1/4th and add the 1-2 raspberries. Fill with more chocolate mix, up to 3/4th of the ramekin.
  6. Place in heated oven 7 minutes. The crust should have formed on top before taking it out. Let stand for 5 minutes before turning onto plate.
  7. Serve with some more berries (and whipped cream) on the side.

Fruity Baked Brie

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151105 Baked Brie-9193

A wonderful, classic dish to be served at the end of the meal. Quick and easy to make.
1 small, whole Brie cheese
Mixed nuts
Dried fruits (mango pieces, goji berries…)
Honey

  1. Oven at 200C
  2. Place Brie on a baking sheet, sprinkle with nuts and dried fruits and drizzle a bit of honey on top.
  3. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or more. The cheese needs to be very soft when pressing the middle.
  4. Cut and serve at the table, possibly with some extra honey on the plates.

Dessert Crepes with Lemon Sauce

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151028 Crepes with lemon sauce-9072

Crepes should be made quite thin and this is sometimes difficult with a gluten free batter. Add a tablespoon of ground Psyllium Husk to the flour, or, make them slightly thicker than normal crepes. This wonderful lemon sauce is both sweet and sour and can also be served with chocolate cake or ice cream.

Batter:
100 g gluten free plain flour (+ 1 tbsp ground Psyllium Seed Husk)
1 egg
Pinch of salt
10 g sugar
300 ml milk
20 g butter

Lemon Sauce:
200 caster sugar
100 ml water
2 lemons

Decorations: Lemon balm or mint leaves

Lemon sauce:

  1. In a pan, combine water and sugar. Simmer over medium heat, until reduced by a third. Remove from heat.
  2. Wash lemons and make long strands of the peel.
  3. Juice the lemons and pour in the pan, pass the contents of the pan through strainer into a bowl and then add the peels.
  4. Chill for 60 minutes.

Crepes:

  1. In a bowl, whisk eggs and milk .
  2. Add sugar, salt and flour (possibly combined with some psyllium husk)
  3. Mix well, protect with cling film and set to rest for 20 minutes.
  4. In a small pan, melt the butter. Take off heat just when going brown.
  5. Cool slightly. Whisk into batter.
  6. Fry the crepes

Serving:

  1. Fold in quarters
  2. Spoon over sauce
  3. Garnish with some lemon balm leaves or maybe mint leaves.

Almond Butter Apple

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151021 Almond Apple-0630

An easy recipe and so delicious! Given to me by my daughter. I like to serve this as is but it goes really well with the earlier posted Crème Anglaise. Pink Lady apples provide a slightly tangy taste that is perfect with the almond butter.

1 apple per person (Pink Lady)
1 tbsp almond butter per apple (can be purchased in most health food stores)
Almond flakes
Ice cream or Crème Anglaise

Oven at 200C

  1. Slice the apples into 4 slices each. Remove the seeds. Place on baking sheet and bake in oven for 20 minutes.
  2. In a dry pan, toast the almond flakes
  3. When the apples are done, assembly as follows: Bottom slice, almond butter, next slice, butter etc until each apple is complete with its four slices.
  4. Serve as is or with home made crème anglaise or slightly melted ice cream

Crunchy Biscotti Crumbs with Cardamom Cream and Berries

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151014 Crunchy Biscotti Crumbs w Cardamom Cream and Berries-8987

This recipe stems from a failed attempt at making Biscotti. The loaf came out too thin but was just so delicious that I wanted to use it for something. Considered a Biscotti cake (will publish this at a later date) or just making crumbs for a dessert – the crumbs won (for now). The Cardamom cream is a wonderful addition to this dish or can also be served with just berries.

Serves 6
Biscotti:
100 g blanched almonds, dry pan roasted and chopped (place for a minute in boiling water, then peel)

1 whole egg
150 ml sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean extract
Zest from 1 lemon (finely grated)
½ tsp salt

1,5 tsp baking powder
150 g plain gluten free flour

Cardamom Cream:
500 ml crème fraiche
2-3 tsp of ground cardamom
½ teaspoon of vanilla extract
Raspberries (or any other berry you like)
Making the Biscotti:

  1. Oven at 175 C
  2. Mix egg and sugar, add vanilla extract, lemon zest and salt
  3. Combine flour and baking powder, add to egg mixture
  4. Add the prepared almond pieces
  5. Let the dough stand for 10 minutes. Check texture, if too lose to form (sticky) loaves, add more flour
  6. Make 3 long loaves on greased baking parchment. Possibly using a piping bag with large nozzle.
  7. In oven 20 min
  8. While still hot, cut into biscotti slices
  9. Let cool
  10. Store in tightly covered tin.
  11. Create the crumbs either by chopping in small pieces or place in a plastic bag and “hammer” with the back of a knife.

Making the Cardamom Cream:

  1. Combine all the ingredients and whisk until thick, taste for more cardamom or vanilla flavour.
  2. Chill for at least 30 minutes

Serving:

Add the Crumbs, Cream and Raspberries in a bowl (or on a plate) as shown

151014 Crunchy Biscotti Crumbs with Cardamom Cream and Berries-9028

Chocolate Cream with Salted Candied Pecans and Raspberry Drizzle

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151007 Salted Candied Pecans with Chocolate Cream-9044

Sweet Drizzle, Salty Pecans and Creamy Chocolate – this is a wonderful dessert with many flavours! The salted pecan brings a great contrast to all the sweetness of this dish, but please serve your guests more pecans with your dessert than this photo shows. The chocolate needs to be prepared at least 12 hours before serving.

Serves 4

Chocolate Cream:
150 ml double cream
150 ml milk
3 egg yolks
150 g dark chocolate, chopped

Raspberry Drizzle:
100 ml sugar
2 tsp water
75 g fresh raspberries
50 ml water

Pecans:
100 g pecan halves, quartered (not as finely chopped as on the photo)
Coarse salt (I use a salt mill)
1-2 tbsp honey

1 Papaya

Chocolate Cream:

  1. On low to medium heat, bring a mixture of cream, milk and eggs up to simmer (do not boil!) while stirring.
  2. Take off heat, add the chocolate and stir until completely smooth.
  3. Pour into small container (so that the chocolate cream will form a layer at least 4 cm high), cover and chill over night.

Raspberry Drizzle:

  1. Melt the sugar with 2 tsp water in a saucepan over low to medium heat until it has caramelized and browned.
  2. Add berries and remaining water. Bring to a boil and let the sugar completely dissolve. Reduce a bit if you want a thicker sauce.
  3. Strain into bowl. Let cool.

Salted Candied Pecans:

Roast the pecans in a dry, hot pan. When starting to brown, add salt and drizzle the honey over. Roast a few more minutes. Cool.

Papaya Swirls:

Peel the papaya. Using the peeler, cut strands of papaya.

 

Assembly:

  1. Using two spoons, form chocolate quenelles and place on serving plates.
  2. Arrange strands of papaya.
  3. Drizzle the sauce.
  4. Add the nuts. (be generous with the nuts, the provide the salty balance against all sweetness)

 

Passionate Raspberry Cake with Cheesecake Crème

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0930 Passionate Raspberry Pie w Cheese Cke Creme DSC_8860

This cake is very moist and will stay so for days. The Cheesecake Crème is wonderful and there’s usually not any leftovers but if you do have a small batch left, please place in a piping bag, pipe small piles into a tray and place in the freezer. The small frozen Cheesecake treats are great with a cup of coffee (see photo).

0930 Frozen Cheese Cake Creme leftovers DSC_8956

Cheesecake Crème:
150g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
100 ml caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
500 ml crème fraiche

Passionate Raspberry Cake:
150 g butter, at room temperature
150 ml demerara sugar (brown sugar)
3 eggs
3 passion fruits
150 ml Greek yoghurt
150g gluten free plain flour
200 ml gluten free oats
2 teaspoons of baking powder
200 g frozen raspberries, do not thaw

Fresh raspberries for decoration

 

Cheesecake Crème:

  1. Oven at 125 C
  2. Whisk cheese and sugar in a bowl.
  3. Add vanilla extract and eggs
  4. Whisk the crème fraiche until smooth. Add to the other ingredients. Mix well together.
  5. Bake in a greased ovenproof dish for 1 hour.
  6. Let cool. Whisk until smooth. Chill.

Passionate Raspberry Cake:

  1. Oven at 170 C
  2. Whisk butter and sugar
  3. Add the eggs, the seeds from the passion fruits and the yoghurt.
  4. Combine the flour, baking powder and oats.
  5. Add the flour mix to the passion fruit mix and lastly add the frozen raspberries.
  6. Pour into greased cake tin and bake in the oven 50-60 minutes.

Assembly:

  1. Place a spoonful of Cheesecake Crème on one side of the plate and use a pastry brush to create a brush stroke across the plate.
  2. Cut a slice of cake and place on top of one end of the brush stroke.
  3. Decorate with fresh raspberries.

 

Chocolate Crisp Sandwich with Kahlua Cream and Berries

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09 Chocolate Crips Sandwich w Kahlua Cream and Berries DSC_8564

A fun and easy dessert which can be prepared in advance and assembled just before serving.

Serves 4-6

50 g butter, melted and cooled
100 g icing sugar
15 g cocoa powder
25 ml espresso coffee, cold
25 g gluten free flour mix (not selfrising)
25 g walnuts, toasted and chopped

200 g double cream
3 tbsp Kahlua liqueur

Berries

  1. Mix all the ingredients. Let stand for 1 hour (in rooms temperature).
  2. Set the oven to 200 C.
  3. Using a small spoon, drop the batter in small piles onto greaseproof baking parchment.
  4. Bake in the middle of the oven for 6-7 minutes. The cookies will float into very thin “crisps”. Take care not burning.
  5. If you need to cut them into smaller pieces, do this upon removing them from the oven, while still hot.
  6. Let cool on the baking sheet
  7. Whisk the cream with the Kahlua.
  8. Assemble as Chocolate Sandwiches just before serving. Put one crisp on bottom and one on top with Cream and Berries in between.

Kahlua Semifreddo

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Kahlua Semifreddo

Semi soft ice cream with a hint of coffee liqueur. Deliciously creamy but can also be made with full fat yoghurt instead.

2 eggs, separated
1 tbsp sugar (for the yolks)
1 tsp sugar (for the egg whites)
2 dl whipping cream
3 tbsp kahlua liqueur
1 tsp cocoa powder
Berries

  1. Whisk the yolks with sugar
  2. Whisk the egg whites until it forms stiff peaks, then add the sugar and whisk some more
  3. Whisk the cream until firm, add the Kahlua
  4. Combine the cream and egg yolk mix.
  5. Fold in the egg whites to the cream and egg yolk batter.
  6. Fill any mold you like (I use the small, portion sized, silicon muffin molds)
  7. Place in freezer for a few hours (more if you have a larger mold that needs to set).

Turn onto plate and serve with berries. Sprinkle some cocoa powder on top.

Sweet and Sour Sauce with Strawberries and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

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Sweet and Sour Sauce with Strawberries and Vanilla Ice Cream

As usual, the secret lies in the sauce, and this is no exception. This is a wonderful, wonderful sauce, which can be served with a variety of desserts other than vanilla ice cream (for instance white chocolate ice cream, cardamom ice cream, chocolate cake, fruit salad…).

Serve as part of a dinner with:
Starter – Fresh and Fruity Vegetable Starter
Main course – Chilli Crab Cakes and Rosemary Courgette Spaghetti
Dessert – With Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Serves 4

200 ml sugar
200 ml white wine
50 ml lemon juice
1 small avocado

Strawberries, sliced

A batch of Home Made Vanilla Ice Cream as per our previous recipe

  1. In a saucepan, simmer the sugar and wine over low to medium heat until reduced to about half the amount.
  2. Remove from heat and let cool.
  3. Combine the wine/sugar mix with the lemon juice and avocado in a blender and process until smooth.
  4. Cover tightly with cling film and refrigerate. Serve well chilled.
  5. Pour some sauce onto a plate, arrange the sliced strawberries and ice cream on top.

Frozen Coffee Banana After Dinner Drink

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08 Coffee Banana After Dinner Drink -8128

This is a nice and refreshing after dinner drink/dessert. Or, why not have it with your breakfast? If you like, you can also add a few tablespoons of Kahlua Coffee Liqueur (or any other liqueur that you like), or maybe even some Rum?

Serve as part of a menu together with:
Starter: Stuffed Marinated Courgette Rolls
Main Course: Balsamic Chicken with Fruity Quinoa

Serves 4

50 ml frozen espresso coffee (pour into an ice cube tray and freeze)
1 medium size frozen banana (cut into pieces and freeze)
300 ml Greek Yogurt, low fat
100 ml milk
5-6 large ice cubes

  1. Mix all ingredients in a blender.
  2. Enjoy!

Salted Caramel Truffles

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photo 3

These little pieces of chocolate will certainly impress everyone around the table. If you want a thick chocolate cover you can dip them twice in the chocolate. We all know there is no such thing as too much chocolate!

Makes 50

1 tin (397 ml) of condensed milk
a pinch of sea salt
200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), broken into pieces

1. Place the unopened tin of condensed milk in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 4 hours, making sure you top up the water throughout so the tin is always submerged. Take out and allow to cool for 30 minutes.
2. When cool, open the tin and spoon out the caramel into a bowl, add the salt and mix well. Taste and add more salt if you like. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes so it firms up a bit – you’ll find it much easier to work with.
3. Once chilled, use two teaspoons to make balls the size of a small marble and place on a plate. Put into the freezer for 2 hours, or until firm.
4. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Put on plastic gloves (to not make too much mess), and take the balls out of the freezer. Coat your gloves with melted chocolate, roll one ball and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat the process until all the balls are coated. Put into the fridge for about 1 hour to set the chocolate and to allow the caramel to defrost and soften.