Sometimes, even on weeknights, it is nice if you can finish your meal on a sweet note with a small dessert, such as a cheesecake, pudding, chocolate cake, tart, sorbet or at least a cup of ice cream. But the issue is, making dessert takes a lot of time. And it is hard to spend time preparing a dessert when you also have to cook for the main event. That is why we thought of sharing a couple of dessert recipes that are easy to make and can be made very quickly.
CHOCOLATE, PISTACHIO & NOUGAT SEMI-FREDDO (30 MINS)
This is a traditional Italian ice cream, which is the ideal solution for an easy frozen, creamy dessert.
INGREDIENTS
-Butter
-Eggs – 4
-Golden caster sugar – 75g
-Finely chopped dark chocolate – 250g
-Double cream – 450ml
-Hard nougat or torrone – 140g (chop into 0.5cm chunks)
-Pistachios – 50g (roughly chopped)
METHOD
-Use a cling film and butter, and line a small loaf tin.
-Fill a pan with water and heat until it comes to a gentle simmer.
-Put the eggs and sugar in to a bowl (make sure it is heatproof), then place it over the simmering water and beat until thick, pale and the volume doubles.
-Sink the base of the bowl in cold water and keep beating until the mixture gets cool.
-Put the microwave on Low and melt the chocolate, and then fold the liquid chocolate into the egg mixture.
-Whip the cream till the peaks become soft and the nougat and pistachios to the chocolate egg mixture.
-Pour the mixture back into the loaf tin, cover and freeze until it becomes firm. (You can keep it like this for up to 2 weeks)
To serve – take out the cling film, keep in the fridge for 15 mins and slice.
CHOC-CARAMEL ICE-CREAM TARTS (40 MINS)
Irresistibly delicious and looks impressive; what more can you ask of a triple-chocolate dessert?
CHOCOLATE PASTRY:
INGREDIENTS
-Plain flour – 225g
-Butter – 150g (chopped, chilled)
-Icing sugar mixture – 2 tablespoons
-Cocoa powder – 2 tablespoons
-Milk – 3-4 tablespoons
METHOD
-Put the butter, flour, cocoa powder and icing sugar into a food processor and process until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs.
-Add milk and process until combined.
-Turn onto a lightly floured surface and smooth using a spoon.
-Shape it into a disc then cover with a plastic wrap.
-Keep in the fridge for 30 mins.
-Take it out and divide the dough into 8 pieces.
-Roll out each portion until it gets 3mm thick.
-Line a fluted tart tin (2.5cm deep), with a removable base, with the pastry and trim the excess.
-Pierce all over the bases using a fork and place in the freezer for 20 minutes.
-Preheat the oven to 200° C and bake the 8 pastry cases for 15 minutes or until they feel dry and crisp to the touch.
TARTS
INGREDIENTS
-72g Snickers bars -4 (coarsely chopped)
-Thickened cream – 2 1/2 tablespoons
-Creamy Choc Caramel & Peters Light & Vanilla Swirl ice cream – 8 scoops
-Shaved dark chocolate (to decorate)
METHOD
-Add the cream and Snickers into a saucepan and mix over low heat for about 5 minutes or until all the Snickers bars melt and the mixture is smooth.
-Spoon between the tart cases and set aside until completely cool.
-Top the tarts with ice-cream and decorate using shaved chocolate.
Author Bio : Sophie Taylor is an experienced writer. She loves her work and is always concerned on something new, currently she’s writing about cots.