I’m not a dessert cook, so when I make sweets they need to be relatively quick and easy. It is nice to end a meal with a simple dessert or to produce something delicious to serve with a cup of coffee when friends drop by. Sweet treats make great gifts too. Here are some of my favourite easy sweet recipes.
Black Truffle Ice Cream Like this recipe? You’ll love my online French cooking class! One of the best ice creams I’ve ever tasted was made by Tim Pak Poy at Claude’s in Woollahra in the early 2000s when Australia’s first truffles were harvested. It was flavoured with violets and black truffle. Inspired by the memory […]
Poached Quinces Master Kitchen Basics & Explore New Cuisines & Ingredients with My Online Cooking Classes Quinces are a wonderful old-fashioned winter fruit. Unlike their sweet cousins – apples and pears – they’re virtually inedible raw. They come into their own when they’re slow-cooked, turning a beautiful rosy colour. The longer they’re cooked, the deeper […]
Crème Anglaise (Vanilla Custard) Master Kitchen Basics & Explore New Cuisines & Ingredients with My Online Cooking Classes Crème Anglaise (a.k.a. vanilla custard) is a versatile pouring custard that’s typically served with fruit desserts, such as crumbles and pies, and often poured into sweet soufflés at the table. As the name suggests, French speakers consider […]
Date Ma’amoul Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Lebanese cooking class! I love these Ramadan date cookies, also called qrass bil-tamr. They’re similar to shortbread with a date filling and are an essential part of Ramadan feasts in Lebanon. And I love how easy they are to make. The dough can be filled with […]
Manx Fruit Bonnag Like this recipe? You’ll love my online British cooking class! If the Isle of Man can lay claim to a ‘best known dish’, it would be bonnag. The name probably comes from the same root as Scots bannock and I believe it would originally have been a simple soda bread or griddle […]
Sop Buah Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Indonesian cooking class! This refreshing Indonesian fruit soup is especially popular on hot days. When it’s in season I like to make dragon fruit the star of my sop buah because it’s so colourful, but use any tropical fruits you like including mango, papaya, watermelon, lychees, […]
Bensone Ripieno Taste Bensone in Modena on my Small Group Italian Food & Wine Tour Bensone is a specialty of Modena, where it’s also called balsone or ciambella Emiliana. Ciambella means donut in Italian and also refers to any ring-shaped cake. Ciambelle appear all over the country with different flavourings and textures, there are even […]
Mostaccioli Calabrese Sometimes called mustazzoli or mustazzuole, depending on the dialect, mostaccioli are super hard biscuits that are popular at Christmas and often shaped like fish (an ancient symbol of Christianity). They come in many other shapes, some quite elaborate, including baskets, horses and hearts as well as a simple S. These simple Calabrian honey […]
Armando’s Panettone with Berries Armando’s panettone with berries is a festive dessert made with Italy’s traditional Christmas cake, panettone. Chef Armando Percuoco created it to add a bit of moisture to this brioche-like bread, which some people find a bit too dry. We’ve used berries and mint for a red and green Christmas theme but […]
Apom Berkuah with Pengat Pisang Apom berkuah with pengat pisang is a popular Singaporean dessert. Apom comes from the word ‘appam’, a southern Indian fermented rice pancake popular in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, and berkuah (also written bokwa or bengkua) means to accompany a thick sauce or gravy, in this case the delicious banana-studded coconut […]
