Posts for 'Desserts' Category

Deepest summer goes hand in hand with ice cream, but as the product gets fancier, with more bits and bobs added to it by commercial manufacturers, the pure pleasure of an old-fashioned vanilla ice becomes all the more precious. One lick and you are six years old againThe recipe

Serves 6

600ml milk
1 fat vanilla pod
6 egg yolks
150g caster sugar

Pour 600ml milk into a saucepan. Slice a fat vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape the sticky black vanilla seeds into the pan with the point of a knife. Drop the scraped pod in, too, then bring the mixture almost to the boil. Turn off the heat just before it boils. Leave for 30 minutes or so, for the vanilla to flavour the milk.

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What is in a name? Sometimes, more than you would want to know. I started out trying to research the difference between a "betty" and a "crisp."

To simplify it, a betty is baked fruit in a buttered crumb mixture, whereas a crisp topping can be made from flour, butter, sugar, oats, and nuts.

I am also of the belief that if there is baked custard involved then it is a betty, not a crisp. I can find many examples to back up my beliefs and just as many to make me wrong.

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INGREDIENTS

    * 200g (7oz) butter
    * 250g (9oz) caster sugar
    * 3 free-range eggs
    * 100g (3½oz) shelled pistachio nuts
    * 100g (3½oz) ground almonds
    * Grated zest of 1 lemon
    * 60g (2¼oz) self-raising flour

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Let this scrumptious dessert be the centrepiece of a relaxed lunch or dinner party. You can use other fruit such as chopped bananas and oranges, or small cubes of sponge cake to dip into the fondue mixture.Scrumptious: Dark chocolate fondue with marshmallow and strawberry dippers

SERVES 4-6

INGREDIENTS

* 400g (14oz) dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
    * 30g (1oz) unsalted butter
    * 150ml (3½fl oz) double cream
    * 50ml (2fl oz) milk
    * Strawberries and marshmallows for dipping

METHOD - Place the dark chocolate, butter, double cream and milk into a small saucepan, then heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and the sauce is glossy and smooth. Place whole strawberries and marshmallows on the ends of forks, or thread onto skewers, and dip in the fondue and eat straight away.

This is one of the many Irish variations on fruitcake, moistened not with the usual whiskey, rum, or brandy, but with rich brown stout. The recipe is Darina Allen's.

Makes one 9in / 23cm cake

1 cup / 220g butter, plus more for greasing
1½ cups/300g brown sugar
8 oz/120 ml Guinness stout

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Dishes served at Wardell Quezergue's 80th birthday luncheon included: Grilled Asparagus Spears; Diabetic Friendly Coleslaw; Rose's Decadent Sin-Less Devil's Food Cake.

Easy Heart-Healthier Yellow Cake Fruit Tart and Bethany's Herbal Iced TeaYou can use green cabbage or half red and half green cabbage in this recipe.Diabetic Friendly Coleslaw.

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Makes 250g

1. Gently melt 120g milk chocolate squares with 80ml groundnut oil in a bowl set over a pan containing a little simmering water.
   2. At the same time, place 30g caster sugar with 1 tsp cocoa and 5 tbsp milk in a small pan and gently bring to the boil, whisking together until smooth.
   3. Transfer both mixtures to a liquidiser and whiz together to a rich dark sauce.

  4. Grind 80g chopped roasted hazelnuts in a coffee grinder (to the texture you like for a smooth or chunky spread), then stir these through the chocolate mixture. Spoon into a jar or small container, cover and leave to cool.

You have an amazing variety of foods that you can gorge on but the question is whether these delicious foods are all perfect for your health.

In other words how nutritious are these yummy treats. Do they provide any sort of nourishment to the body or do they simply cater to the taste buds?

There can be two answers to all these questions and the point is that both these answers are contradictory to each other.

There are some foods that are really yummy but aren’t much healthy and prolonged consumption of these foods might lead to obesity or other stomach related issues but then again there are those delicious foods that are amazing to taste and also are good for the health.

We are talking about delicious and healthy things like chicken sandwiches or fat free pizzas that can be consumed by all. So go ahead and consume to your heart’s content but also keep the ‘health factor’ in mind.

I just had to share this amazing Christmas Cake recipe that I am going to try this year -- just in time to celebrate my first Christmas!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 stick butter
1 cup of water
1 tsp baking  soda
1 cup of  sugar
1 tsp  salt
1 cup of  brown sugar
Lemon juice
4  large eggs
Nuts
2  bottles wine
2  cups of dried fruit

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Christmas is incomplete without the traditional chocolate cookies. Try out this easy to make recipe.
 450 gm Semi sweet Chocolate
• 1-1/2 cups Packed Brown Sugar
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 2 tsp Baking Powder
• 10 tbsp Butter
• 2 tsp Instant Coffee Granules

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