White Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

These gourmet cupcakes are the most charming of treats, a little piece of delightfulness to enjoy on your own or share with those that deserve a little. These cupcakes will keep in an airtight container for up to three days and serves 8.

INGREDIENTS:

125 gm soft unsalted butter
110 gm (½ cup) caster sugar
3 eggs
80 gm white chocolate, melted
110 gm (¾ cup) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Raspberry frosting:
250 gm soft unsalted butter
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
150 gm raspberries, puréed and strained

PREPARATION:

Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then add white chocolate and stir to combine. Sift flour and baking powder over cake batter and fold in until combined. Line two 6-hole (1/3 cup-capacity) muffin tins with 8 paper cases, then divide mixture among cases and bake at 180C for 20 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly pressed.

For raspberry frosting, using an electric mixer, beat butter until pale and fluffy, add icing sugar and beat until soft peaks form, then add raspberry purée and beat until combined. Spread frosting over cupcakes and serve.

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Apple Charlotte

The British have an age-old way with bread and hot puddings, as this apple-filled bomb shows. Take day-old white bread, mould slices of it into a round casing, cemented with lashings of butter, fill it with fruit and bake it until the bread is golden and the centre explosively pulpy. Traditionally filled with apple, variations can include almost any fruit, from bananas and berries to pears or pineapples... but nothing beats the classic.

INGREDIENTS:

6 golden delicious apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped
55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar, plus extra for baking
325 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
1 lemon, juiced and rind finely grated
2 cinnamon quills
20 slices (about 1 loaf) day-old white bread, crusts removed
170 gm (½ cup) apricot jam
To serve: pouring cream


PREPARATION:

Combine apple, sugar, 75gm butter, lemon rind and juice and cinnamon quills in a saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes or until liquid has evaporated, then cool.

Preheat oven to 190C. Melt remaining butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Skim scum from top and discard, then pour clarified butter into a bowl, discarding milky solids on the bottom. Keep butter warm until required.

Lightly brush six 1 cup-capacity (6cm-diameter base) dariole moulds with a little butter and dust with sugar. Using a 6cm-round cutter, cut rounds from 6 slices of bread to fit base of moulds, then cut a 3cm-wide strip from the remains of each slice. Cut remaining slices into three (3cm x 9cm) pieces. Brush bread rounds liberally with butter and place in bases of prepared moulds. Brush remaining pieces liberally with butter and line each mould with 8 pieces of overlapping bread, allowing bread to overhang and pressing gently against side of moulds.

Divide apple mixture between moulds, then fold over bread to enclose filling. Place Charlottes on an oven tray and bake for 20 minutes or until bread is golden and crisp. Remove from oven, place another oven tray on top and weigh down with food cans for 5 minutes.

To serve, turn Charlottes onto a lightly greased oven tray, scatter with sugar and bake for another 5 minutes or until golden. Warm apricot jam in a small saucepan over medium heat for 1 minute or until warmed through, breaking up fruit with a spoon and adding water if it becomes to thick. Serve Charlottes drizzled with apricot jam and cream passed separately.


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Fudge Sundae With Honeycomb

Sundaes makes great chocolate desserts. Everyone loves a Sundae, and somehow adding the beautifully simple crunch of the honeycomb makes this even better. Be careful when adding the bicarbonate of soda, as the mixture will bubble up. Allow for this when choosing pot size.

INGREDENTS:
250 ml(1 cup) heavy cream (45%)
3 tsp caster sugar

Honeycomb
160 gm caster sugar
25 gm (¼ cup) honey
62 gm (¼ cup) glucose
7 gm (2 tsp) bicarbonate of soda

Hot chocolate fudge
130 gm good-quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
20 gm unsalted butter
150 gm (2/3 cup) caster sugar
140 gm glucose
1 tbsp cocoa powder

To serve: good-quality vanilla bean ice-cream
To serve: coarsely chopped salted peanuts

PREPARATION:

For honeycomb, combine sugar, honey, glucose and 30ml water in a saucepan. Cook over high heat, stirring to dissolve and brushing down sugar crystals from sides of pan, until light blonde and reaches 150C on a sugar thermometer (8-10 minutes), being careful it doesn’t become too dark. Remove from heat, add bicarbonate of soda, whisking vigorously for about 5 seconds, then pour onto a baking paper-lined tray (work quickly as the honeycomb will continue cooking if left in the pan). When honeycomb has cooled and hardened (20-30 minutes), break into bite-sized chunks and store in an airtight container. Honeycomb will keep for a week.

For hot chocolate fudge, melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Combine remaining ingredients, 160ml water and 1 tsp sea salt in a saucepan, bring to the boil, then add chocolate mixture. Return to the boil and cook over high heat, shaking pan to dissolve any lumps, until well emulsified (3-5 minutes). Set aside in pan and keep warm.

Whisk cream and sugar until firm peaks form. Set aside in refrigerator. Reheat chocolate fudge over high heat until warmed through. Scoop ice-cream into 6 serving glasses, followed by a generous dollop of whipped cream. Scatter with pieces of honeycomb and peanuts, drizzle chocolate fudge over and serve immediately.

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Easy Cherry Tartufo

Tartufo is an Italian ice cream dessert that usually is made of gelato, and is somewhat like a large ice-cream truffle. You can make this from different flavors of ice cream and fruit - try pecan praline ice cream with peaches, or fudge ripple ice cream with dried blueberries.

INGREDIENTS:
3 cups chocolate ice cream
1 cup frozen pitted cherries, thawed and chopped
15 chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed
1-1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup finely chopped peanuts
2 tsp. oil

PREPARATION:
Mix chopped cherries into the ice cream. Scoop ice cream mixture into six balls using an ice cream scoop. Roll in crushed cookies. Place on wax paper-lined cookie sheet and freeze until firm, about 2 hours.

In small saucepan, melt semisweet chocolate chips with oil, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in milk chocolate chips, stirring constantly until chips melt and mixture is smooth again. Cool to lukewarm.

Place frozen ice cream balls on a wire rack. Spoon melted chocolate over each ball, coating the top and sides. Sprinkle on chopped peanuts. Freeze again until firm, at least 1 hour. Remove from freezer 10 minutes before serving. Serves 6

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Peanut Butter Pie - Reduced Fat

Make this special and delicious recipe for any occasion. Using reduced fat ingredients for the milk, cream cheese, peanut butter and whipped topping makes far healthier than the full-fat version.

INGREDIENTS:

1 2/3 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs (about 8 1/2 cookie sheets)
7 tablespoons sugar, divided

2 large egg whites, lightly beaten

Cooking spray

1 1/4 cups fat-free milk

2/3 cup reduced-fat crunchy peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup (4 ounces) fat-free cream cheese, softened

1 (8-ounce) container frozen fat-free whipped topping, thawed

3 tablespoons finely chopped salted, dry-roasted peanuts

1/4 cup shaved milk chocolate (about 1 ounce)

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350°. Combine crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar, and egg whites; toss with a fork until moist. Press into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate coated with cooking spray. Prick crust with a fork before baking. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; cool on a wire rack.

Combine milk and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a heavy saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves, stirring constantly; transfer mixture to a bowl. Add peanut butter and vanilla, stirring with a whisk until combined. Cover and chill 30 minutes.
Place cream cheese in a large bowl, and beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Add milk mixture, beating on low speed until combined. Fold in whipped topping; pour mixture into prepared piecrust. Freeze, uncovered, 8 hours or overnight or until hard. Sprinkle with peanuts and shaved chocolate. Transfer pie to refrigerator 30 minutes before slicing.

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Cognac and Hazelnut Affogato

The name Affogato means “drowned in coffee” - referring to the ice cream. This elegantly quick recipe simply involves taking a scoop of ice cream and pouring over some espresso; this recipe adds Cognac and Hazelnuts, but Caramel sauce or Chocolate sauce are also popular additions. This is a superb recipe for a very simple yet classy dessert.

INGREDIENTS:

120ml Cognac

1 litre vanilla ice-cream

50 grams (1/3 cup) roastd hazelnuts, peeled and halved.

1 tbsp finely ground coffee beans

6x 50 ml shots of freshly brewed espresso

PREPARATION:

Scoop ice-cream into small bowls or glasses. Pour Cognac over and sprinkle with combined hazelnuts and coffee. Serve immediately with shots of espresso to the side to pour over.

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Cashew-dates

Cashew-date is a pure, natural treat, and has particularly been a long tradition in Hyderabad region of India. A favorite at tens of small shops specializing in dates, dates with cashews is prepared by stuffing sweet, moist dates with fresh cashews. When you take a bite, first you would get the caramel-like date and then the cashew, which balances and enhances the tastes. This is perhaps the simplest recipe we have done at Easy Desserts - but its also makes a very delicious, very simple after dinner sweet!

INGREDIENTS:
Cashews

Dates

PREPARATION:

Stuff the dates with the cashews. Eat.

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