Archive for the ‘Puddings and Desserts’ Category

The nicest way to eat watermelon is with friends.

It is sooooo refreshing on a hot summers day. Watermelon also makes a great addition to a fruit salad or even a green salad. One of my favourite ways of using watermelon in a salad is to cut it into blocks and season generously with freshly ground black pepper. Crumble feta cheese ove the top and garnish with some black olives. Lovely!

This apple tart is a fail-safe recipe, my friend Jackie assures me.

Although Jackie is not mad about cooking and baking, when she does something she likes it to be a success. She also doesn't like to take chances so when her sister asked her to make a dessert for their family's Mother's Day Lunch this was her first choice. She says she 's made this pudding for almost every occasion that she's had to take a dessert to and she always brings back an empty dish and a lot of compliments!

I can remember making a similar dish for a Girl Guide achievement badge and with my poor baking track record I know that I was able to make the pudding and get the badge. So, for anyone needing to make a warm, comforting pudding for the family this is the way to go. The pudding can be served hot or cold, with cream, custard or ice-cream - really versatile.

  Ingredients

Tart:

• 1 large tin of pie apples
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tbs butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 125ml milk
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt

Sauce:

• tin evaporated milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1tsp vanilla essence

Method

Cream the butter and sugar together. Beat the egg and milk together and add to the butter mixture. Sift the dry ingredients and add to the egg mixture. Pour the dough into a greased oven dish and carefully place the drained pie apples on top. Bake for 45 minutes in a preheated oven at 180°C. Heat up sauce ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes. Pour it over the hot pudding. Serve with cream, ice-cream or custard.

Tip:

Jackie says she made two puddings (it was a really large family gathering) and she replaced the pie apples with drained tins of mixed fruit cocktail for the second pudding. You could also sprinkle a bit of cinnamon over the apple tart just before serving.

Thanks Jackie for a great recipe!

My friend Esme always makes an awesome microwave chocolate cake, known as Zurkia's Chocolate Cake. The problem is I lost the recipe! I googled a few recipes and managed to find something similar. This is not really a cake, in that you can't take it out of the container you baked it in until you are serving it. I supposes that makes it more of a pudding, which is what I used it for the other day.

Somehow, I don't have an affinity with baking. I think it is a bit too precise for me - I'm from the school of "Chuck it all in, we'll see what happens!" With cooking it works very well, but baking is another story. So my advice is: Follow the recipe and hope for the best. I can't guarantee success, but if I can make it and it's edible, most people should be able too.

As an added bit of useless information, I once heard of a woman who did a doctoral thesis on chocolate cake!

So, back to the recipe.

Ingredients         

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 tbs cocoa
• 1 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup cold water or coffee
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1tsp vanilla essence

Method

Mix all the ingredients together to form a smooth batter. Pour into a 24cm square microwave proof dish. Bake on high in the microwave for about 8 minutes, checking every 2 minutes.Once the cake is firm and you can stick a skewer into it and it comes out clean, the cake is done. Melt a slab of chocolate and smooth over the top of the cake. Esme uses whole nut chocolate which adds a nuttiness to the cake. I used dark chocolate and decorated with gold sprinkles to add richness a sparkle to it!

Tip

Slice the cake into squares and serve it with ice-cream, whipped cream of even a hot chocolate sauce. This keeps well as my boys ate the leftovers as a pre-breakfast snackthe next day!

Everyone loves pancakes - no matter the season!

I only have one rule, if I make pancakes for supper they need to eat at least one with a substantial, healthy filling. Keeping this in mind I normally make pancakes when I have some left-over savoury mince. At least they get something wholesome in the stomach before filling up on cinnamon sugar, syrup, cream, ice cream and chocolate (normally all rolled up into one pancake!)

Some of the fillings I like to put into pancakes are savoury mince, chicken mayonnaise, fried mushrooms in a creamy sauce, creamed spinach. And for the sweet tooth: cinnamon sugar, bananas, fresh berries, peanut butter,ice cream, chocolate spread, Milo.... the list is endless- if you have it in your cupboard you can put it in a pancake!

This recipe was given to me by a friend and colleague - Sandra. She has since moved on and opened her own,very successful pancake wagon, using liters of this mixture every day.

The nice thing about this pancake batter is that it can be mixed and doesn't need to stand for longer than 15 minutes.In fact, if I don't have a lot of time I don't even wait that long. The best thing is every single pancake is a success - I have never had a flop yet!

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Dessert Spoon Oil
• 2 Tsp Vinegar
• 3 Cups Water

Method

Beat eggs and water together. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat together. Let the mixture stand for 15 minutes. Fry pancakes in a good frying pan and use Spray and Cook to grease the pan.

Tip

Place cooked pancakes on a plate and cover with a clean cloth to keep warm until serving. Stand guard over them with a spatula and beat anyone who tries to steal them!