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.
Nectarine Fruit Crumble Like this recipe? You’ll love my online British cooking class! I think fruit crumble may be the world’s easiest dessert – and one of the yummiest! The only trick to making a great crumble topping is that the butter has to be cold. I still remember the best crumble I ever had, […]
Apple & Almond Pies Like this recipe? You’ll love my online French cooking class featuring the food of Provence! These simple apple and almond pies looks impressive because of the plaited pastry (a trick I learnt years ago from an Australian Women’s Weekly cookbook), but are quick and easy and can be assembled up to […]
Pecan Pie with Maple Cream Like this recipe? You’ll love my online cooking class featuring the food of America’s Deep South! As an Aussie, I’ve never been convinced about putting pumpkin, a vegetable I associate with Sunday roasts, into a sweet pie; but I do love pecan pie, another American classic. Pecans are grown widely […]
Palmiers with Strawberries & Crème Fraîche Like Palmiers? You’ll love my online French cooking class Inspired by Damien Pignolet! These easy French palm leaf shaped pastries are quick, versatile and delicious. The secret to palmiers is to use good butter puff pastry, not one made with margarine or other commercial fats; Carême brand is available […]
No-bake Passionfruit Cheesecake Like No-bake Passionfruit Cheesecake? You’ll love my online Australian cooking class inspired by Matt Moran! Desserts often evoke nostalgia and this no-bake passionfruit cheesecake certainly does for me. My father loved cheesecake and I wish I’d made it for him more often, especially this simple version which only takes 15 minutes or […]
Tiramisu Join my food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Desserts don’t get much easier than this delicious combination of coffee-dipped sponge biscuits layered with mascarpone lightened with beaten eggs. Meaning ‘pick me up’ in Italian, tira-mi-su is a relatively new creation, first appearing in Treviso (near Venice) in the […]
Sticky Date Pudding Like this recipe? You’ll love my online Australian cooking class inspired by Matt Moran! Also called sticky toffee pudding, this dessert is pure comfort food and, assuming you keep a packet of dates in the pantry, is quick and easy to whip up without any special shopping. The Grand Marnier in the […]
Mocha Self-saucing Pudding Like this recipe? You’ll love my online British cooking class! For me recipes, especially desserts, have to be quick and easy. And it doesn’t get much easier than this mocha self-saucing pudding. This is a grown-up pudding with a hearty shot of coffee in it to balances the sweetness – use boiling […]
Carrot Cake with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting Like carrot cake? You’ll love my online cooking class featuring the food of America’s Deep South! I don’t know where the original recipe for this carrot cake came from – perhaps a flatmate, or an ex-boyfriend’s mother. I only know I’ve been cooking it for over 25 years, […]
Affogato Join my small-group food & wine tour to Italy to discover more Italian regional specialties! Depending on the ratio of ice cream to coffee, affogato appears on either coffee or dessert menus in cafés and Italian restaurants everywhere. Affogato means “drowned” in Italian, and in its simplest form it hardly needs a recipe: just […]
