Recipes - Desserts / Sweets

(Most recently added recipes display first.)

Poached Pears In Honey Syrup

Ingredients

  • 60ml/4 tablespoons Manuka honey
  • juice of 1 large lemon
  • 375 ml/1-1/2 cups water
  • 6 saffron threads
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 2 cloves
  • 6 firm brown pears

Serves 6

Preparation

  • Heat honey and lemon juice in a heavy deep pan
  • Stir over a low heat until honey has dissolved
  • Add water, saffron, cinnamon stocks, and cloves. Bring mixture to boil, reduce and simmer for 5 minutes
  • Peel pears with stalks attached and level the bases by cutting so that the pears stand up by themselves
  • Add pears to the liquid in pan and simmer with lid on for 20 minutes or until the fruit is tender.
  • The dish is delicious served warm or cold.

Tip

Add some fresh raspberries when serving. The tart taste of the berries is a marvelous counterbalance to the sweetness of the honey.

Healthy Hints – serve with Greek yoghurt to add good bacterial cultures to strengthen the immune system. Manuka honey has anti-bacterial benefits.

Speedy Spotted Dick

Ingredients

  • 225gr SR flour
  • 110gr butter, melted
  • 50gr caster sugar
  • 175gr currants
  • 2 large eggs, beaten
  • ½ cup skim milk

Preparation

  • Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir through melted butter evenly
  • Stir in the sugar and the currants
  • Add the eggs a little at a time until the mixture is smooth
  • Pour in the milk and combine, so the mixture has a consistency where it will drop off the spoon
  • Pile the mixture evenly into 6 lightly oiled individual custard cups
  • Cover with plastic wrap and place on the outer edge of the microwave turntable
  • Cook on High (100%) for 4 minutes
  • Stand for a minute before inverting onto serving dishes to serve warm with golden syrup

 

Pear & Fig Jam Bread & Butter Pudding

Ingredients

  • 3 or 4 slices of bread
  • Butter
  • Pear & fig jam
  • 3 eggs
  • ¼ cup castor sugar
  • 1 cup milk, room temperature
  • 1 cup milk, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • Cinnamon for dusting

 

Serves 4

Preparation

  • Lightly butter 1 side of the bread slices.
  • Spread with jam
  • Cut into triangles and arrange in a 20 cm round Pyrex pie plate, in overlapping rows.
  • Mix eggs, castor sugar milk, cream & vanilla and pour gently over and around bread.
  • Allow pudding to sit for 15 minutes to soak up the custard, before sprinkling with cinnamon and covering with plastic wrap.
  • Place in the microwave oven and cook on MED HIGH (80%) for ten minutes.
  • Stand for 5 minutes before slicing and serving with yoghurt

 

Option: You can add fresh, sliced poached pears or good tinned ones in one lay, with fig jam on the next bread layer.

Individual Christmas Puddings with Fresh Cherry Sauce

Ingredients

Pudding

  • 375g pack mixed dried fruits
  • 3 tablesp brandy
  • 1 cup Self-Raising flour
  • 1 teasp cinnamon
  • 1 teasp nutmeg
  • 50g cold butter, coarsely grated
  • 1 slice (1/2cup) whole meal bread crumbed
  • 1 x 60g egg, lightly beaten
  • 2 tbs unsweetened apple juice
  • 2 tbs skim milk

Makes 6

Cherry Sauce

  • 500g fresh cherries, rinsed, stems removed, pitted
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons Kirsch or Grand Marnier
  • 1/4 cup pouring cream

Makes 1 cup

Preparation

  • Spray 6, 200ml china custard cups with non-stick cooking oil.
  • Set aside.
  • Place fruits and brandy in an ovenable glass jug.
  • Stir to combine, cover and cook on HIGH (100%) for 2 minutes.
  • Sift the flour and spices into a mixing bowl.
  • Rub in the butter and stir in breadcrumbs.
  • Add the egg, apple juice and milk, stir well.
  • Add the warm fruits.
  • Stir until mixture is well combined.
  • Working quickly, spoon the fruit mixture into the cups
  • Elevate the cups around a microwaveable roasting rack.
  • Cook on Low (30%) for 8 minutes, check, cook a further minute if necessary.
  • Allow to stand for 5 minutes, invert onto serving plates and serve with warm cherry sauce.

    Preparation – sauce:

  • Place cherries and liquor into a blender.
  • Add the liquor and blend the cherries until the fruit liquefies.
  • Pass the cherry mix through a fine mesh strainer.
  • Warm the strained cherry juice in a pan, stir in cream and then swirl around individual plum puddings to serve.

Tip
Puddings suitable for people with Diabetes & tested in 850 watt microwave oven

Cherry Semifreddo Christmas Pudding *

Ingredients

  • 400gr fresh ripe cherries, pitted
  • 2 tablespoons rose water
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 250 mls whipping cream


Omit cherries, replace with 375g packet dried fruit medley or jar of fruit mince and serve with any berry coulis.
Pour final mixture into a 4 cup (1litre) loaf pan or 20cm spring form pan lined as directed.

Preparation

  • Rinse cherries and sprinkle with rosewater and allow to macerate for several hours.
  • Beat the egg yolks and half the sugar with the electric beater until thick, pale, creamy and double the volume.
  • Whip the cream with other half of the sugar and combine evenly with the egg mixture.
  • Line the base and sides of a 1 litre pudding basin with plastic wrap leaving the wrap hanging over the sides of the basin.
  • Spoon the mixture into the basin, fold the plastic over the top to cover the semifreddo.
  • Freeze for I – 2 hours or until partially frozen.
  • Remove from freezer and stir through cherries.
  • Recover and return to the freezer until frozen.
  • Turn out of the basin, slice and serve with a few extra fresh cherries.