Desserts and Puddings page 1

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TRIFLE

Probably the best loved of English cold puddings, the trifle has a long and distinguished history, related to the Tipsy Cake. Although it is sometimes regarded as a good way to use up leftovers it was originally a magnificent dish in its own right, using rich ingredients in complex compositions.

100g packet strawberry jelly crystals

300g jam sponge roll

¼ cup sherry

425g can sliced peaches, drained

300m1 carton thickened cream, whipped

CUSTARD

2 tablespoons custard powder

2 tablespoons castor sugar

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Make jelly according to directions on packet, refrigerate until jelly is just beginning to set. Cut sponge roll into 1cm slices, place over base and around side of large glass serving bowl, sprinkle with sherry. Pour partly set jelly over sponge roll, refrigerate until jelly is set. Place peaches over jelly, spread evenly with custard, top with cream; refrigerate. Decorate with fresh fruit or grated chocolate, if desired.

Custard: Blend custard powder and sugar with a little of the milk in pan, stir in remaining milk. Stir over heat until custard boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in essence; cover, cool.

Serves 6 to 8.

It is thought that King Leszczynski of Poland invented the earliest version of this recipe in 1609 when he sprinkled some rum on a Kugelbupf a rather dry yeast cake from Alsace. Apparently he named it Ali Baba after his favouriteliterary character

15g compressed yeast

¼ cup plain flour

¼ cup warm milk

3/4 cup plain flour, extra

2 tablespoons castor sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

60g butter, melted

RUM SYRUP1½ cups castor sugar1 cup water2 tablespoons dark rum

Grease 6 moulds (½ cup capacity). Cream yeast with flour and milk in small bowl; cover, stand in warm place about 10 minutes, or until mixture is frothy. Sift extra flour and sugar into large bowl, stir in yeast mixture, eggs and butter, beat about 3 minutes with wooden spoon until batter is smooth. Place batter into large greased bowl, cover, stand in warm place about 40 minutes, or until batter has doubled in size.

Beat batter again; divide batter between prepared moulds, stand, uncovered, until batter rises three-quarters of the way up side of moulds. Place moulds on oven tray, bake in moderately hot oven about 15 minutes. Cover tops if beginning to darken too much.

Turn babas onto wire rack over tray, pour hot rum syrup over hot babas. Place babas in serving plates, pour syrup from tray over babas until all syrup has been absorbed.

Rum Syrup: Combine sugar and water in pan, stir over heat, without boiling, until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil; boil, un­covered, without stirring, 2 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in rum.

A hearty and very old English recipe that was once a feature of restaurant and cafe menus. Its American cousin is known as Molasses Pie.

1¼ cups plain flour

1/3 cup custard powder

2 tablespoons icing sugar

125g butter, chopped

2 tablespoons milk, approximately

FILLING

1½ cups (l00g) stale breadcrumbs

1 cup treacle

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

Sift flour, custard powder and icing sugar into a medium bowl, rub in the butter. Add enough milk to make the ingredients cling together. Press dough gently into a ball, knead on floured surface until smooth; cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll two-thirds of dough large enough to line 22cm flan tin. Lift pastry into tin, gently ease into side, trim edge. Place tin on oven tray, line pastry with paper, fill with dried beans or nce. Bake in moderately hot oven 10 minutes; remove paper and beans, bake further 10 minutes or until lightly browned; cool.

Spread filling into pastry case. Roll remaining pastry into a rectangle on lightly floured surface; cut into 1cm strips. Brush edge of pastry case lightly with a little extra milk. Place pastry strips over filling in lattice pattern, brush pastry lightly with a little more milk. Bake in moderate oven about 25 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned. Cool tart in pan. Sprinkle with a little icing sugar before serving. Serve with ice-cream.

Filling: combine all the ingredients in a bowl;mix well.

In Elizabethan England, frothing milk was mixed with wine or cider to create this dish. Legend has it that the froth was achieved by milking the cow directly into the bowl of wine. Bub was the Elizabethan term for a bubbling drink and Sille or Sillery, in France, was the source of England's best known wine.

Use fruit of your choice in this recipe.

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup castor sugar

300ml carton thickened cream

250g punnet strawberries, sliced

Combine wine, rind, juice and sugar in small bowl, stir until sugar is dissolved. Add cream, beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Divide berries between 6 glasses. Serve syllabub over berries; refrigerate 2 hours before serving. Serve syllabub with extra berries and lemon rind, if desired.

Serves 6.

This yeast bread, traditionally served at Christmas, comes from Dresden in Germany.

1 cup (170g) raisins, chopped

¼ cup dark rum

60g compressed yeast

1/2 cup castor sugar

1/2 cup warm milk

4 cups (600g) plain flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

250g butter, melted

1/3 cup mixed peel

½ cup blanched almonds

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

200g roll marzipan

60g butter, melted, extra

icing sugar

Combine raisins and rum in bowl, cover, stand 30 minutes. Cream yeast with 1 tablespoon of the castor sugar in small bowl, stir in milk; cover, stand in warm place about 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy. Sift flour and cinnamon into large bowl, mix in remaining castor sugar. Stir in yeast mixture and butter, mix to a firm dough. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, knead about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Return dough to large greased bowl, cover, stand in warm place about 30 minutes or until dough is doubled in size.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface, knead in raisin mixture, peel, nuts and rind. Divide dough into 2 portions; shape each portion into a 22cm round. Divide marzipan into 2 portions, roll each portion into a sausage-shaped roll, the same length as the dough. Place roll just off centre on dough, fold dough almost in half, flatten slightly with hand. Place onto lightly greased oven trays, stand, covered, in warm place about 20 minutes or until stollen have increased in size by half. Brush stollen with extra butter.

Bake stollen in moderate oven about 35 minutes. Dust with sifted icing sugar before serving warm or cold.

Also called Queen Pudding, this dish, based on a 17th century version, was created for Queen Victoria by her chefs at Buckingham Palace.

Pink sugar gives a pretty finish to this dessert. The easy clean way to colour sugar is to put the sugar in a plastic bag with a tiny drop of colouring, then rub the colouring through the sugar by rubbing and kneading through the plastic bag. Any excess sugar will keep indefinitely in ajar.

2 cups (140g) stale breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon castor sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1 teaspoon grated lemon rind

2½ cups milk

60g butter

4 eggs, separated

¼ cup raspberry jam

3/4 cup castor sugar, extra

2 teaspoons crystal sugar

pink food colouring

Combine breadcrumbs, castor sugar, essence and rind in large bowl. Heat milk and butter in pan until almost boiling, stir into bread mixture; stand 10 minutes. Stir yolks into bread mixture, pour into shallow ovenproof dish (5 cup capacity). Bake, uncovered, in moderate oven about 35 minutes or until set.

Carefully spread top of pudding with warmed jam. Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually add extra castor sugar, beat until sugar is dissolved. Spread meringue over pudding, bake in moderate oven about 10 minutes or until lightly coloured. Tint crystal sugar pink, sprinkle over hot pudding.

Serves 6 to 8.

Apples are baked on top of a melt-in-the-mouth butter cake, then glazed withapricot jam. The cake can be served warm as a dessert with whipped cream.

180g butter

2 teaspoons grated lemon rind

2/3 cup castor sugar

3 eggs

1 cup self-raising flour

½ cup plain flour

1/3 cup milk

2 medium (about 300g) apples

2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon gelatine

2 tablespoons apricot jam, strained

Grease 20cm springform tin or deep 20cm round cake pan, cover base with paper, grease paper.Beat butter, rind and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beat until com­bined. Transfer mixture to large bowl, stir in sifted flours and milk, spread into prepared pan.

Peel, quarter and core apples. Make lengthways cuts into rounded sides of apple quarters, cutting about three-quarters of the way through. Place quarters, rounded side up, around edge of cake. Bake cake in moderate oven about 1 hour or until browned. Stand 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack.

Heat water in pan, sprinkle over gelatine, stir, without boiling, until gelatine is dissolved, remove from heat, stir in jam. Brush jam mixture over top of hot cake; cool before cutting.

While moulded ice-creams have long been known as bombes because of their shape, Bombe Alaska was apparently invented by an American physicist around 1800, and was considered as a wonder of science more than a star of the culinary scene.

Use good quality ice-cream for this recipe. Be careful not to soften it too much, just enough to stir the fruit through quickly. It is important to keep freezing the dessert between the various stages or the ice-cream will melt.

17cm round sponge cake

1 tablespoon brandy

2 tablespoons jam

1/2 cup chopped red glace cherries

1 ½ litres (6 cups) softened vanilla ice-cream

1 1/2 cup chopped glace pineapple

1/2 cup chopped glace apricots

4 egg whites

1 cup castor sugar

Cover wooden board about 25cm square with foil. Place cake in centre, brush evenly with brandy, spread evenly with jam; freeze for 15 minutes.

Line aluminium pudding steamer (5 cup capacity) with foil, allowing 3cm to over-hang edge. Rinse cherries under cold water, pat dry on absorbent paper. Combine ice-cream and fruit in bowl, mix well. Spoon ice-cream mixture into prepared steamer, cover, freeze several hours or overnight until firm. Turn ice-cream from steamer onto top of cake, peel away foil; return to freezer while making meringue.

Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form, gradually add sugar, beat until dissolved between additions. Spread meringue quickly all over ice-cream and cake. Return to freezer for 1 hour. Bake in very hot oven about 3 minutes or until meringue is lightly browned

The tropic-loving banana, of which there are hundreds of varieties, used to be called the ‘apple of paradise’— apparently the Garden of Eden’s infamous serpent is said to have hidden in a bunch. It is certainly hard to resist the temptation of this luscious, cream and coconut smothered tart.

1 cup plain flour

60g butter

2 tablespoons castor sugar

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon water, approximately

2 bananas, thinly sliced

300ml carton thickened cream, whipped

1 tablespoon coconut

FILLING

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

125g butter

1 tablespoon boiling water

¼ cup cornflour

1 cup milk

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Lightly grease 24cm loose-based flan tin. Sift flour into bowl, rub in butter; mix in sugar and yolk with fingertips, then enough water to bind ingredients together. Knead dough gently on floured surface until smooth, cover, refrigerate for 30 minutes. Roll dough on lightly floured surface large enough to line prepared tin; trim edges. Line pastry with paper, fill with dried beans or rice. Bake in moderately hot oven 10 minutes, remove paper and beans, bake further 7 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned; cool.

Pour filling into pastry case; top with bananas, spread with cream, sprinkle with coconut; refrigerate before serving. Filling: Combine sugar, butter and water in pan, stir over heat, without boiling, until butter is melted and sugar dissolved. Stir in blended cornflour and milk, stir over heat until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in yolks and essence; cover, cool.

Of early French origin, blancmange was made with almond milk and gelatine, literally white food’. However today we use ordinary milk and cornfiour, and add flavourings to our taste.

60g dark chocolate, chopped

1/3 cup cornflour

2½ cups milk

2 tablespoons castor sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Place chocolate in heatproof bowl, place over pan of simmering water, stir chocolate until melted; cool 5 minutes Blend cornflour with 1/2 cup of the milk in bowl. Add remaining milk to pan with sugar, stir until nearly boiling. Remove from heat, stir cornflour mixture into milk mixture; cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in chocolate and essence; stir until smooth. Pour into 4 glasses (1 cup capacity), cover, cool. Refrigerate blancmange several hours or overnight. Serve with cream and chocolate curls, if desired.

Eclair meaning lightning orfiash of light, is the traditional name for a French choux pastiy-cake. Cream puffs are also made from choux pastry.

Both can be filled with cream flavoured to suit your taste.

80g butter, chopped

1 cup water

1 cup plain flour

4 eggs, lightly beaten

125g dark chocolate, melted

60g unsalted butter, melted

CHANTILLY CREAM

300ml carton thickened cream, whipped

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons icing sugar, sifted

Combine butter and water in pan, bring to boil. Add sifted flour all at once, stir vigorously over heat until mixture leaves side of pan and forms a smooth ball. Transfer mixture to small bowl of electric mixer, beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating well between additions. Mixture should be glossy.

Using piping bag fitted with 11/2cm plain tube, pipe 11cm lengths of pastry about 3cm apart onto lightly greased oven trays. Bake in hot oven 10 minutes, reduce to moderate, bake a further 10 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned and crisp. Cut eclairs in half, remove any soft centre. Return to moderate oven for a few minutes to dry out; cool on wire rack.

Dip top half of each eclair in combined chocolate and butter, then join halves with chantilly cream just before serving.

Chantilly Cream: Combine all ingredients in small bowl, cover, refrigerate 30 minutes. Beat cream mixture with electric mixer or rotary beater until thick.

VARIATION

Cream Pufts: Make pastry as indicated above. Drop 2 tablespoons of mixture about 5cm apart onto lightly greased oven trays. Proceed as for eclairs. Split cold puffs in half, join with chantilly cream just before serving. Dust lightly with a little extra sifted icing sugar.

The secret to making a perfect custard tart is to make sure the pastry case is withoutcracks and joins and you will have a perfect tart every time.

1 1/4 cups plain flour

¼ cup self-raising flour

¼ cup castor sugar

90g butter

1 egg

2 teaspoons water, approximately ground nutmeg

CUSTARD

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 tablespoons castor sugar

2 cups milk

Sift flours and sugar into bowl, rub in butter. Add egg and enough water to make ingredients cling together. Press dough into ball, knead on floured surface until smooth, cover, refrigerate 30 minutes. Roll dough on lightly floured surface large enough to line 23cm pie plate, trim edges. Lift pastry into pie plate, gently ease into side of plate, trim edges. Use scraps of pastry to make a double layer of pastry around edge of plate, join pastry strips with a little water. Trim edges, pinch a frill around edge of pastry.

Place pie plate on oven tray, line pastry with paper, fill with dried beans or rice. Bake in moderately hot oven 10 minutes, remove paper and beans, bake further 10 minutes or until pastry is lightly browned; cool pastry. Pour custard into pastry case, bake in moderate oven 15 minutes. Sprinkle custard evenly with nutmeg, bake further 15 minutes or until custard is just set, cool. Refrigerate until cold.

Custard: Whisk eggs, essence and sugar in bowl until combined. Heat milk until hot, quickly whisk into egg mixture.