Some cute mini pavlovas for you to enjoy vicariously

 

We can buy the base ready made and just put toppings on - easy peasy

A sweet Treat for you all today

 
 

Thanks to Angie of Big Bear's Wife I found this great Triple Chocolate Pie – head on over to her post to find out how she made it.

Mascarpone stuffed poached apricots

 

 

These poached apricots were based on a Michel Roux recipe but he used dried apricots and I used fresh.

 

Ingredients:

Apricots

100g castor sugar

200g water

100g mascarpone cheese

Vanilla essence

 

Method:

Take the stones out of the apricots by doing a slit on just one side.

 

Dissolve the sugar in the water and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and pop the apricots in.  I did mine for 4-5 minutes and right at the end the apricots started to fall apart.  So I think 2 minutes would have been fine.

 

Set the apricots and liquid aside to cool.  When just warm chill in the fridge.

 

Drain the liquid into a pot – reduce it by about a third – mine took quite a while.  Cool your syrup and then chill it.

 

Mix the mascarpone with some good vanilla extract.  Fill each apricot with it.  Chill again.

 

Serve with a drizzle of your syrup – mine almost had a jelly like consistency.

 

Delicious.

Cute Mini Pavs

 

Many of you were curious about buying pavlovas in the store.  So I thought I would show you the other common size you can get here in New Zealand.  Which I almost prefer.

 

 

I took a pic of the packaging for you.

So I decorated each one with sweetened and vanillaed whipped cream and popped some chocolate sprinkles and fruit on top.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Cherry Log

 

 This Christmas treat was inaugurated by my mother years and years ago.  My version is a bit different but equally indulgent.

 

Ingredients:

Packet of Chocolate Chip biscuits (cookies)

1 cup of cream (double)

2 tblsp icing sugar (powdered sugar)

200g or so of mascarpone

Cherry Brandy (you could substitute brandy and cherry essence)

Vanilla essence

Chocolate for decoration

 

Method:

Whip the cream and the icing sugar with the vanilla essence – when softly whipped mix in the mascarpone.  My mother's version just used cream which was nice but stayed really soft even after being in the fridge.  The mascarpone meant that the coating was a bit set.

 

Dip your biscuits into cherry brandy.  This is the only bit of the log that is at all tricky.  You want to dip each one for long enough that it takes up the brandy but not so long that it goes mushy.  I erred on the shorter side which was a bit of a mistake – given that my biscuits were quite thick ones.

 

You then stick each biscuit to each other with your cream mixture – I did mine vertically before putting it onto its side – this is how you form the log.

 

Then cover the outside of the log with the rest of the cream mixture and ut your chocolate decorations on.  Traditionally we would have just had grated chocolate but I saw these fabulous little stars and bought them (and they were expensive too)

 

You can't serve this log straight away – it needs at least 4 hours in the fridge for the cherry brandy to work its way through the biscuits.

 

Not diet food but great as a Christmas treat.

 

PS  If you want to make a kid friendly version of this you could use cherry juice/ essence or dilute the cherry brandy with water.

Pavlova – the cheat's way

 

 

Here is another festive food that can't with honesty be described as a recipe.

 

Ingredients:

 

Store bought pavlova

Cream

Icing sugar

Vanilla essence

Strawberries

Blueberries

 

Method:

 

Whip your cream (plus vanilla and sugar) to softly mounding. Slather it on top of your pavlova.

 

Add your slices, chunks of berries – and that's it.

 

The pavlova was crunchy on the outside and soft and marshmallowy in the middle.  Very sweet but then it's a treat.

Coconut Milk Banana Pancakes with Maple Syrup & Bacon

I don't make pancakes often.  I didn't have milk so I decided to use coconut milk – and it worked out just fine.

Ingredients:

½ cup flour

1 tblsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 egg (at room temperature)

½ cup coconut milk (shake the can first)

1 tblsp olive oil

Splash of vanilla

1 mashed banana (an overripe one from the freezer)

¼ cup of cooked rice

Maple syrup

Bacon

Method:

Have a bowl for the dry ingredients – mix together

Have a jug for the wet ingredients (minus the banana and rice) – and whisk together

Add the wet to the dry slowly at first.  Add the mashed banana and rice.  Let the batter sit for 10 minutes.

Cook in a hot pan, turning over when bubbles appear on top.  My first one was a mess but the others turned out ok.

Serve with cooked bacon and maple syrup – the real stuff!

Need Some Inspiration? Try Desserts and Cakes!

Greek Yoghurt Tangerine Cake

Food on Friday: May Edition was another little gem – with emphasis on little. I know we all have lots of things to worry about these days. Here are some sweet delights to inspire you today. 

The pic at the top was brought over by  Dorothy from Shockingly Delicious – her stunning Greek Yoghurt Tangerine Cake

Christoph of James & Everett contributed this Rhubarb and Berry Crisp

And to finish with a flourish here is Alecia from Vegetarian & Cooking – Mulled Wine Chocolate Cake with Orange Mascarpone Cream

For other desserts and cakes head over to this Desserts Pinboard and/or this Cakes Pinboard

Food on Friday: May 2020

It's the second Friday of the month so here is Food on Friday. 

As you can see, there are 2 new themes – Desserts/Cakes & Pizza.  I hope you'll find some great stuff in your archives to share.

Feel free to add a number of things under each category and come back later in the month to add more if you would like to.   

To add your dishes, just put the name of the dish together with your blog name/name into the first Mr Linky box you will find below.  Then paste the url for your post about it into the second box. Mr Linky now makes you tick a compliance box which I always forget first time!

I'll be pinning your creations to the relevant Pinboards –  Desserts, Cakes and Pizza

Have fun and stay safe!