Dessert Night

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Simple Lemon Puddings

I have been making these puddings for many many years and I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to share them with you. I think I know why. This is my go to recipe for all of those ‘it’s 8pm and all of a sudden I feel like dessert’ moments. But alas, moments like these are not conducive to food photography as there is no natural light, so that probably explains why it has taken me a long time to share this favourite with you.

No fancy cooking skills are needed for these luscious little lemon puddings. The ingredients are generally pantry staples and hopefully you have a lemon sitting in the fruit bowl.

My lemon trees are bursting with green fruit, hues of yellow slowly starting to appear. I am super excited that my favourite baking season, Autumn, is here at last. There will be lemons for days soon and hopefully these puddings can become a staple in your house, as they are in mine.

I have on more than one occasion, turned up to a friends house with a container full of ramekins filled with this pudding batter, all ready for baking in the oven and then eating on the lounge, with a dollop of cream and a hot cup of tea. Who needs a fancy restaurant when you can eat food like this on your friends couch?

This recipe is from Instant Entertaining, by Donna Hay.

Ingredients

  • 100 grams butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup castor sugar
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup almond meal

Method

  • Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius
  • Place the butter, sugar and rind in a bowl and using electric beaters, beat until light and creamy.
  • Add all the other ingredients and mix well.
  • Spoon into 4 lightly greased individual ovenproof dishes (approx 3/4 cup capacity).
  • Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and cooked when tested with a skewer.
  • Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar, with cream or ice cream.
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Baked Strawberry and Quinoa Custard (gluten free, low sugar)

If you like a good old fashioned Baked Rice Pudding, then you will love this. 

It’s not often you find a high protein, low sugar dessert that’s easy to make and yum to eat. 

The original recipe is from chef Michael Moore’s cookbook, Quinoa and Healthy Living, which was a part of his Blood Sugar cookbook series. A talented chef who was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in his 30’s, followed by a stroke in his 40’s, he is now helping educate people in how to eat well to manage diabetes and overall good health.

There’s something quite lovely about enjoying a warm dessert in winter time and knowing it’s not too bad for you after all. 

E x

Baked Strawberry and Quinoa Custard
Serves 8
A baked custard pudding, with whole strawberries and quinoa.
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 15 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
1 hr
Total Time
1 hr 15 min
Ingredients
  1. 3 large eggs
  2. 60 ml (1/4 cup) rice malt syrup or agave syrup
  3. 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
  4. 1/2 a lemon, zest and juice
  5. 2 tablespoons quinoa flour
  6. 250 grams cooked white quinoa (approximately 1/2 cup of raw quinoa will give you this quantity)
  7. 250 ml (1 cup) cream
  8. 250 ml (1 cup) milk
  9. 350 grams (approximately 1 1/2 punnets) strawberries
  10. a handful of flaked almonds (optional)
  11. icing sugar to dust (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. Using whisk attachment of electric beaters, whisk eggs, syrup, vanilla, zest and lemon juice.
  3. Whisk in quinoa flour.
  4. Stir in cooled cooked quinoa.
  5. In a small pan, heat cream and milk to a simmer. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
  6. Stirring constantly, pour the cream mix over the quinoa mixture.
  7. Place strawberries that have been trimmed over the base of the baking dish.
  8. Carefully pour the custard mixture over the strawberries.
  9. Scatter flaked almonds over the top, if desired.
  10. Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour, until the custard is set and lightly golden.
  11. Serve warm, with cream or ice-cream.
Adapted from Quinoa and Healthy Living
Adapted from Quinoa and Healthy Living
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Caramel Apple Pudding

A perfect Autumn dessert, this ‘self-saucing’ beauty is  a mixture of soft apples, buttery sponge and caramel sauce. 

Made with pantry staples, this dessert will feed up to 8 people, making it a great option when having people over at this time of year. 

Thanks to Delicious Magazine, July 2005, it’s been a family favourite for a long time. 

You’re welcome. 

Caramel Apple Pudding
Serves 8
Caramel sauce and soft apples topped with a buttery sponge cake.
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Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
40 min
Total Time
55 min
Prep Time
15 min
Cook Time
40 min
Total Time
55 min
Ingredients
  1. 5 large apples, peeled, cored and cut into approx 1cm thick slices
  2. 1 2/3 cups plain flour
  3. 2 teaspoons baking powder
  4. 1 cup (200gm) castor sugar
  5. 200ml milk
  6. 150 grams unsalted butter, melted
  7. 2 eggs
  8. 1 cup brown sugar (you could reduce this to 1/2 cup to make it less sweet)
  9. 1/2 cup golden syrup
  10. icing sugar to dust
  11. custard, cream or ice-cream to serve
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. Grease a 2.5 litre (large) baking dish
  3. Place cut apples in the bottom of the dish
  4. Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, milk, butter and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and mix till combined, thick and pale.
  5. Spread this mixture over the apples.
  6. Combine sugar, golden syrup and 300ml of water in a small saucepan and over low heat, stir until the sugar is dissolved.
  7. Bring to the boil, and then pour gently over the top of the pudding.
  8. Bake for 30-40 minutes in the oven till golden and puffed on the top.
  9. Serve warm with custard, cream or ice-cream.
Adapted from Delicious Magazine July 2005
Adapted from Delicious Magazine July 2005
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Chocolate Nutella Pudding

It was around this week last year that I posted my favourite Soft-Centred Chocolate Pudding recipe. For those who missed it, you can find it here.

It’s no surprise then, that as the weather has cooled and the Easter weekend looms close, I find myself thinking of chocolate and warming desserts once again. 

It was while my boys were snuggled on the lounge watching the Grand Prix and the rain was softly falling, that I was drawn to the kitchen and started to muck around with the good old classic Chocolate Self-Saucing pudding recipe that I am sure many of you have either made or eaten before. 

IMG_8161

On a side note, it was my first day out of bed after succumbing to the flu and I was completely over lemon and ginger tea and not being able to taste much of my food. 

So with limited energy to spare and 4 sets of hungry eyes looking at me from the lounge, I thought of this SUPER easy, mix-and-bake-in-the-one bowl dessert.

The best way I can describe it in relation to the Soft-Centred Pudding recipe above is using the analogy of shoes. 

The Soft-Centred Puddings are your black high heels. They are perfect for enjoying with guests, table cloths and candles and a well-thought out dinner party menu. 

This Chocolate Nutella Self-Saucing pudding are your ugg boots. You pull them out when you are tired and the weather is cold and you want to eat something with your family, preferably in your PJ’s and in front of a good movie. 

The best bit about this recipe, apart from the taste, is that you mix it all in the bowl you bake it in, a big tick for the minimal washing up.

Serve it with cream, custard or ice-cream…..and in your ugg boots. 

Chocolate Nutella Pudding
Serves 6
A chocolate and hazelnut pudding, that creates it's own rich sauce as it bakes.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
50 min
Total Time
1 hr
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
50 min
Total Time
1 hr
Ingredients
  1. 1 cup self raising flour
  2. 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
  3. 1/4 cup castor sugar
  4. 1 egg
  5. 1/4 cup nutella
  6. 1/2 cup milk
  7. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  8. Topping
  9. 2 tablespoons nutella
  10. 1/2 cup brown sugar
  11. 1 3/4 cup boiling water
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
  2. Pour the flour, cocoa and sugar into a round baking dish (approx 4 cup/2L size) and whisk with a hand ballon whisk until combined.
  3. Make a hole in the centre of these ingredients.
  4. In a small jug, mix all other ingredients, (except the topping) with a fork and then pour into the hole in the dry ingredients.
  5. With a wooden spoon, stir until smooth and combined.
  6. For the topping - in a small bowl, mix nutella and brown sugar together. It will become clumpy.
  7. Sprinkle this mix over the top of the pudding.
  8. Pour the boiling water gently over the top of the pudding.
  9. Bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the top of the pudding is cooked and spongy but you can see the sauce bubbling up the sides.
  10. Cool for a few minutes and serve with cream, custard or ice-cream.
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Frozen Chocolate Cherry Mousse

With only 2 sleeps till Christmas, I am just scraping in with one more recipe.

A little similar in theme to the semifreddo, this is a 4 ingredient, ‘super easy to prepare’ dessert.

You’ve got just enough time to add it to your menu, or keep it in mind when entertaining through the rest of the summer season.

You just can’t go wrong with a pairing of chocolate and cherries.

The original recipe was found in a TASTE.com.au Christmas magazine in 2011, but I left out the liqueur to make it more kid-friendly and changed the milk chocolate to dark, as we are dark chocolate lovers in our house.

As the year draws to a close I want to say THANKS for cooking along with me this year.

When I started this blog almost a year ago, I was totally prepared for my family and a few close friends to be a tiny bit interested and maybe follow along occasionally.

I have been more than surprised that both family, friends and strangers have stopped by, read and cooked with me.

I do hope you may have learnt just one new thing or tried just one new recipe, that feeding your family at 6pm on a Tuesday night may have become just a little easier with some quick dinner ideas.

Most importantly, I hope that whether you are a passionate foodie or not, that you keep finding joy in sharing a table with those around you; family, friends and strangers alike.

The extract below sums up so much of how I feel. It is one of many gems of wisdom I found in a beautiful book called Bread and Wine, a love letter to life around the table, by Shauna Niequist.

“It’s not actually strictly about the food for me. It’s about what happens when we come together, slow down, open our homes, look into one another’s faces, listen to one another’s stories.

It happens when we leave the office and get a babysitter and skip our workouts every so often to celebrate a birthday or an accomplishment or a wedding or a birth, when we break out of the normal clockwork of daily life and pop the champagne on a cold, grey Wednesday, for no other fact that the faces we love are gathered around our table.

It happens when we enter the joy and the sorrow of the people we love, and we join together at the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it’s strictly not about the food, it doesn’t happen without it. 

Food is the starting point, the common ground, the thing to hold and handle, the currency we offer to one another.”

Wishing you and your family a precious Christmas as you celebrate Jesus birth.

Until next year….

E x

Frozen Chocolate Cherry Mousse

Created by on December 23, 2015

  • Prep Time: 15m
  • Cook Time: 5m
  • Total Time: 20m

Ingredients

  • 200 grams dark chocolate, chopped
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 1 1/2 cups (375ml) thickened cream, whipped
  • 400 grams jar of pitted morello cherries, drained
  • Fresh Cherries, grated chocolate or icing sugar to serve.

Method

  1. Line a loaf tin with glad wrap, leaving enough hanging over the edges to cover the top later.
  2. Melt chocolate in the microwave, on high for 1 minute. Remove and stir and if it needs more time, microwave in 20 second bursts, stirring in between. This means you won\'t burn your chocolate.
  3. Set aside to cool a little.
  4. Stir in the egg yolks, cream and cherries.
  5. Using electric beaters, beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. This means when you remove the beaters, the mixture will stand in tall, straight 'peaks'.
  6. Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture in two batches.
  7. Spoon into the loaf tin and smooth over the top. Cover with glad wrap and freeze over night until firm.
  8. Turn mousse onto a serving platter, top with cherries and grated chocolate or dust with icing sugar.
Source: cook fast eat slow