Make-Ahead Desserts for Easy Entertaining

14/12/201416/12/2014 Moya5 Comments

For easy entertaining I have pulled a few desserts from the archives that you might like to try over the holiday season. This is a busy time of year for many and you can make each dessert a few days ahead, leaving you with plenty of time to attend to your guests and other preparations. And, if you haven’t made your christmas pudding yet, I have included a last-minute christmas pudding recipe.

Chocolate desserts are always popular and you can make this Squidgy Chocolate Torte two days ahead and keep covered and refrigerated until needed. Decorate with strawberries a few hours before serving. When cutting this dessert for serving, it’s a good idea to run the blade of a knife under warm water and carefully wipe away the excess water with some paper towel. The warm blade should glide through the chocolate torte, leaving you with clean and evenly cut slices.
Christmas Ice Cream Pudding is a delicious way of using left-over christmas pudding and you can make this very easy frozen dessert two or three days ahead. You can make your own vanilla ice cream or make it really easy and buy a good quality ice cream instead. Make individual servings using small pudding moulds or one large family serving.

Since I came across spherical moulds some years back I love using them for my Christmas Puddings. You can make this Last-minute Christmas Pudding a week in advance or even the day before. Store the christmas pudding in the refrigerator until needed. You can also use a regular 600ml pudding bowl with the same recipe.

If you love chocolate and dates you might like to try this ultra rich Chocolate Date Cake with Tahini and White Chocolate, you can make this dessert cake a day or two ahead of time. You can serve the tahini and white chocolate topping as a warm pouring sauce rather than cooling and spreading on top of the cake. If using the topping as a sauce, make before serving, which will only take a few minutes.

Make these Mini Pavlovas a week ahead and store in an airtight container (between sheets of greaseproof paper) and keep refrigerated. Top the pavlova’s with fresh cream and fruit of your choice an hour or two before serving.

Chocolate Date Cake with Tahini and White Chocolate

13/10/201326/08/2017 Moya6 Comments

With Eid Al Adha just days away and with family and friends joining together to celebrate this festive occasion, I thought this would be a good time to post a decadent dessert cake with middle eastern flavors. Recently our cosy Words Bookstore and Café hosted a cookbook signing by Sarah Al-Hamad, author of Sun Bread and Sticky Toffee. Sarah gave a talk on how her cookbook evolved with her journey of date discoveries, which all began when eating a sticky toffee pudding. We sampled some delicious tasters, sticky date sponge with toffee sauce and a date and sesame espresso milkshake from her cookbook, which has sweet date recipes from everywhere. Continue reading “Chocolate Date Cake with Tahini and White Chocolate” →

desserts · food + drink · posts

Crème Brûlée Shooters with Honeycomb

20/02/201229/09/2013 Moya25 Comments

What should I make for the “Love At First Bite” blog hop, many sweet memories came to mind… french macarons, banoffee pie, date and banana shooters, panna cotta, chocolate eclairs, Pavlova… the sweet list goes on! But a firm favourite that stands the ~~test~~ taste of time, is crème brûlée. The words that come to mind when eating this dessert are… rich, smooth, silky, creamy… with a light caramelized crunch… a kind of culinary heaven!

The literal translation of crème brûlée means “burnt cream” by which the sugar topping is quickly caramelized using the grill or a hand-held blow torch.

My crème brûlée has a slight twist, I have replaced the traditional caramelized sugar topping with some home-made honeycomb. If you like Crunchie bars then this easy to make honeycomb is quite similar.

Crème Brûlée Shooters

Ingredients:

3 large egg yolks (whites can be used for Pavlova)
2 tablespoons castor sugar
300ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
crushed honey comb or icing sugar

How to make:

In a heatproof bowl combine egg yolks and castor sugar, whisk vigorously until pale and slightly thickened.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and gently heat until the sides of the cream start to bubble. Remove from heat and gradually pour the hot cream into the egg mixture while whisking.
Place the mixture over simmering water, stir constantly with a spatula until the mixture thickens, this can take about 15 minutes. Pour into 6 or 8 (depending on size) small shot glasses and refrigerate until set which can take a couple of hours or leave overnight. Just before serving scatter over some lightly crushed honeycomb.
If you are not using the honeycomb, dust over a light layer of icing sugar over the set custard and using a hand-held blow torch caramelize the sugar until browned. I would not recommend putting these shot glasses under the grill due to the intense heat unless you use appropriate heatproof dishes!

Honeycomb

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon water
75g castor sugar
60g golden syrup
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

How to make:

In a small saucepan (with high sides) add the water, sugar and golden syrup and place over a low heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves.
Increase the heat to medium and boil the syrup until it turns a more golden colour, this will take about 3 minutes, be careful that it does not burn.
Turn off the heat and immediately add the bicarbonate of soda and mix it in quickly. It will foam like mad and start to bubble up the sides of the pan, quickly pour the bubbling honeycomb onto a slip mat or baking tray covered with baking parchment and allow it to flow level. Leave the honeycomb to cool and crisp up.
Break into large pieces and store (separate with baking parchment) in an airtight container until needed. Can be made a day ahead.

Honeycomb can be served alongside a shot of espresso, crush and folded into some home-made ice cream, scattered over mousse and cheesecakes or just enjoyed as it is!

This post has been part of the “Love At First Bite” blog hop! Click on the badge and check out all the other entries!