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Feeling fruity today, I decided to make some fresh desserts for my family. I wanted to make small tartlets (using individual tartlet moulds), but creating a different kind of pastry. I also wanted to combine fruit, with coconut, and some kind of cream, because the contrast is always interesting. I really enjoy creating different textures and tastes in a dessert so here we have crunchiness and sweetness in the base, creaminess but not too sweet for the filling, and then soft sweetness and tanginess in the fruit! To start, have a look in your breakfast draw and see what you can find. Some oats or granola and any kind of seeds (sunflower, linseed, chia, pumpkin...) is great. I found a jar of some "healthy" granola oats which no one eats at home so I thought I could make good use of it. I added some almonds for taste, and also some rice krispies! (not sure how that would turn out but it was pretty interesting) Next, add a loaaaad of honey, and some butter or coconut oil, to bind the whole mix together so it sticks. Get your tartlet moulds ready, or any other kind of small dish could also work. These moulds are useful because of the removable base which makes it easier to push the tart bases out once they are cooked. Grease them up with some vegetable oil or spray so they don't stick! Fill up the moulds with the granola mix and push with the back of a spoon to press in as much possible. Pop these in the oven at about 200C for 15mins, but keep checking that they aren't going too brown. For the cream: I combined a tub of mascarpone cream with a small tin of coconut cream. Whisk until smooth and creaaaaamyyy. Have a taste and feel free to add a hint of vanilla extract (which I did), or anything else you think could work. I would imagine, depending on the fruit you put on top, you could add different types of extract such as rose, orange blossom, coffee... Once the tarts are golden and baked, take them out of the oven and again, using the back of a spoon, press into the moulds so the tart bases stick well together and won't fall apart. Then leave to cool down. Add a big spoonful of cream to each tart base. Fruit time! I went for a combination of passion fruit, mango and raspberry because they work well together, with the sweetness of the raspberry, tanginess of the passion fruit and softness of the mango. But you can choose whatever fruit you like, get creative! I also placed the tarts on a sheet of baking paper as the bases were very sticky. Maybe something to work on so they are a little more dry... These tarts can also be served for breakfast! Make a batch of bases and keep in a tupperware box. Add yogurt or the cream mix and fruit in the morning for a fresh start to your day! Enjoy!
Panna cotta, the easiest creamiest dessert that goes with everything. Of course, living now in Italy I am starting to learn and appreciate all the national delicacies. This Easter weekend I am back with my family in London and I decided to make the dessert for lunch on Easter Sunday. I wanted to make something light but very tasty and that require some slow cooking. I had never made poached pears before and thought I could give it a go! (Also one of the easiest things to do, so tasty!) All you need is some pears. Then you have to make a simple syrup (equal parts of sugar and water, maybe add a little more sugar). Add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, honey, ginger... I then pealed the pears and poached them in a saucepan with the simple syrup and spices. Once they were cooked, I placed the lot in a tupperware and in the fridge overnight. The panna cotta is simply a combination of equal parts of whole milk and double cream. Boil the cream mix and then add 3 sheets of gelatin per 500ml of liquid. Pour in a nice bowl and place in the fridge overnight. To serve, I re-heated the poached pears in a sauce pan with some of the syrup, and served it all with the panna cotta. Yum!! There was quite a lot of panna cotta and syrup left over, so I saved it in the fridge for later. I decided to use it for a dessert for dinner tonight, and had some apples which needed cooking.
I wanted to combine the apples in a cake/muffin type thing, as well as a crumble. So I made a typical crumble mix of flour, cold butter and sugar (I used coconut sugar here, which has a sweet caramel taste). I placed a little bit of the mix in each hole of a muffin tin and made a sort of bowl shape for the base. I then used this recipe for the sponge (I only made 2/3 of this for my proportions, which fit in a 6-hole muffin tin): - 115g butter, softened - 115g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling - 100g flour - 75g ground almonds - 3 medium free-range eggs, beaten - baking powder I poured equal parts of the mix into each hole of the muffin tin and then baked at around 180C for 15mins until fluffy and golden. To serve, I made little holes with a skewer into the muffins and poured the syrup from yesterday (re-heated) to soak them. And with a little (or large) spoonful of panna cotta, VOILA! With the weather getting warmer, staying hydrated is always important. Plastic water bottles are really useful as they are light and you can carry them around everywhere to keep you hydrated on the go, at work, at university, in the tube or the bus... I recently discovered these infusion water bottles, in which you can put fruit and vegetables into a filter container which then infuses the liquid in the bottle. These ones from Infruition come in two sizes and cost around 15£ for the big one: I bought a big one a few months ago but unfortunately forgot it in a taxi when I was travelling... I was so annoyed! When finding myself in a Tiger store (as you do), I found a similar one for 4€, it's a little less good in quality but works the same! Here are a few creative ideas of recipes to use with your infusion water bottle.
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