Hello to the Heatwave.......{Coconut and Lime "no churn" ice cream)

Lovely, lovely sunshine! It's so lovely and warm in Kent and London at the moment it makes it a pity that I have to spend my days working at my desk but such is life! My favourite warm weather food is, of course, ice cream. I love coconut ice cream and there’s a real lack of decent ones available in the shops, so I made it my mission to come up with my own version. This one is no churn which makes it so much more accessible; it’s so easy to make its almost embarrassing. The fresh flavours of the creamy coconut and zesty lime compliment the grilled pineapple perfectly. However, it's great just on its own.

"No Churn" Coconut and Lime Ice Cream with Grilled Pineapple

397g (1 x tin) sweet condensed milk
580ml double cream
160ml coconut cream (Coconut milk would be fine too)
3 TBSP desiccated coconut
Zest of 1-2 limes
Fresh Pineapple, cut in to large slices (or rings if you’d prefer)

In a large bowl, whip the cream to very stiff peaks. Gently fold in the condensed milk, coconut cream, desiccated coconut and lime zest. Pour into a freezer-safe container, cover with cling film or container lid and leave to freeze for about 4 hours. When you are ready for dessert heat up a griddle pan (or any pan if you don’t have a griddle) and lay the pineapple down, cook for about 3 minutes on each side and then serve alongside the ice cream. Told you it was simple!

 

When on dessert duty #2...............{Meringue with raspberry and passionfruit}

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I made two desserts for Easter. One was the key lime pie  the other was meringue with raspberry and passionfruit, in honour of my brother, as he loves meringue. I have worked on my meringue recipe and got rid of the vinegar and corn flour that I use in my pavlova recipe and I'm not sure this is better it's just crispier and works well in this dessert. Don't be scared of meringue - I feel the secret is always, always use and electric whisk and always use a clean bowl!

Meringue with raspberry and passionfruit

4 egg whites (use the yolks to make key lime pie)!

225g caster sugar

300ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

250g raspberries 

2 passionfruit

Preheat the oven to 120C. line a large baking tray with baking parchment. place the egg whites in a clean bowl (my metal one is great for this) and whisk until they form stiff peaks. continue whisking as you add the sugar, one dessert spoonful at a time, until all the sugar is incorporated. the meringue will then become shiny and hold stiff peaks. place the mixture in a large plastic piping bag or spread the meringue into the baking tray in a rectangular shape. bake for 1½-2 hours, until the meringue can be lifted easily off the paper without sticking. turn off the oven, leave the door slightly open and leave until the meringues are cold. before serving, whip together the cream and icing sugar and spread the cream mixture onto the meringue. top with the fruit. serve. 

When on dessert duty.............{key lime pie}

I have exactly four weeks until I jet off to Italy. So excited, although I'm not so excited about wearing the dreaded bikini! Still I'm keeping up with my running (must do an update) and yoga but the healthy eating could be better. Not helped by the fact I was on dessert duty this Easter weekend. I like to do options and one of my options was this traditional key lime pie. Before when I have made "Key lime pie" but this is more of a traditional version and it tastes great -  a great option when you want a special dessert and it helps that it is H's favourite so I get brownie points! This was especially good as it uses egg yolks and my other dessert was meringue which uses egg white!

Key Lime Pie 

300g biscuits - i went for hobnobs but you could use digestives or ginger nuts would be tasty!

75g butter, melted
1 tin condensed milk (about 350g)
3 medium egg yolks
finely grated zest and juice of 4 limes
300ml double cream
1 tbsp icing sugar

crumble the biscuits in a food processor,  mix with the melted butter and press into the base and up the sides of a pie dish (I love my enamel one). bake in moderately heated oven for 10 minutes. remove and leave to cool. put the egg yolks in a large bowl and whisk for a minute with electric whisk. add the condensed milk and whisk for a few minutes until thickened, then add the zest and juice and whisk again for a few more minutes! pour the filling into the cooled base then put back in the oven for 15 minutes. cool then chill in the fridge overnight. when you are ready to serve, whip together the cream and icing sugar, spread over top of pie (piping would make it look so much prettier but who has the time) and finish with some lime zest. indulge. 

Today I'm linking up with the lovely Miriam at Farm girl

A Simple Sweet Tooth......{cheesecake sandwiches}

When wining and dining friends pudding is always my last thought. I think about flavors and cheese and meats way before I think about what's going to finish of the food. This is probably because we are not sweet eaters in my house - I'd rather have cheese. Cheesecake is a good choice for me because it contains cheese (did i mention I love cheese?) an usually a citrus fruit. These are great, they are the easiest pudding in the world and they taste fab, your guests really won't mind that you have gone to so little trouble because the taste is there and you have more time to talk.... and that my friends is the rally reason for gathering around the table to taste and to talk

I have made these with lemons but you can just as easily substitute this for limes and call them key lime pie sandwiches. Just make sure you leave them for those 20 minutes so the biscuits soften slightly - it makes the whole affair a lot less messy!

Cheesecake sandwiches

one pack ginger nuts, or other ginger biscuit of your choice
250g full fat cream cheese
2 - 3 tbsp icing sugar
zest one lemon
juice 1/2 lemon

soften the cream cheese in a bowl, add the icing sugar zest and juice and mix, taste and add more sugar/ lemon juice if needed. if its a bit loose put in fridge to thicken for 30mins or so. take a biscuit and add a dollop of the cream cheese mixture. sandwich another biscuit on top. repeat until all biscuits are used. leave for around 20 minutes so that the biscuits soften slightly and they are easier to eat. devour them.  

A Cheesecake of the chocolate variety......... {Chocolate Cheesecake}

Fact # 1 - I am not great at making puddings look pretty

Fact # 2 - I do make great tasting puddings, so yes, there's that

I made this for a friend's dinner party we went to at the weekend. I always offer to do dessert if I am going to a dinner party. Or the starter. An I always take a bottle or two of wine and some flowers / chocolates for the host. Because it's not easy to host dinner parties but they are such wonderful occasions. I add the baileys because it tastes good but you can leave it out if so wish. The inspiration for this recipe came  from Lorraine Pascale's Home Cooking Made Easy 

Chocolate Cheesecake 

450g chocolate digestives or oreo cookies, crushed 

75g butter, melted 

800g cream cheese 

5 TBSP baileys liqueur 

2 TBSP icing sugar

500g milk chocolate 

100g white chocolate 

vegetable oil 

take the crushed biscuits and the melted butter and combine in a bowl. press the mixture in greased spring form tin, cover and place in fridge for half an hour. combine the icing sugar, cream cheese and baileys in a bowl. melt 350g of the chocolate in a bowl (a little vegetable oil helps) and spoonful by spoonful add the cream cheese mixture in the melted chocolate until combined and you have a silky smooth chocolate mixture. pour on top of your biscuit base, level off and then refrigerate for a further hour or so. melt the remaining milk chocolate and white chocolate (separately) and spread the milk chocolate on top of the cheesecake. take the white chocolate and pipe thin lines on to the cheese cake and use a cocktail stick to drag the pattern - this is where I struggle to make things look pretty, but who cares, everyone loved the taste! 

Today I'm linking up with Fitness Blondie - I know this isn't healthy but it's great as a treat! Happy Hump Day!

A broken birthday cake of sorts ..... {Fruit Pavlovas}

Today we celebrated my brother's birthday. I love having a big brother and I'm lucky to have such a wonderful one; lucky to have such a shining example of what a good man is and how they should behave, lucky that I have always had his unfailing support and his infinite knowledge of films. Pavlova is his favourite and pavlova is what I made him. in fact I made him two as the first one was a bit flat. I could have made three as the 2nd one broke a bit. But the joy of pavlova is once you've dolloped cream and fruit on it will always look good, so just relax and go with it and realise that two pavlovas will always be preferable to one and there is beauty in all imperfections.....Happy birthday dear brother of mine, the best of all the brothers. 

Fruit Pavlovas 

3 egg whites 

175g caster sugar

1 TSP cornflour

330ml double cream

2 TBSP icing sugar

fresh fruit - I used raspberries for one and strawberries and kiwis for the other

Heat oven to 150C. Using a pencil, mark out a circle on baking parchment - I use a dinner plate to draw round. Whisk the egg whites in a clean metal bowl until they form stiff peaks, then whisk in the sugar, 1 tbsp at a time, until the meringue looks glossy. Whisk in the cornflour. spread the mixture into the circle to make a nest. Cook for around 1 1/2 hours and once it's finished leave to dry out in the cooling down oven.Whisk the cream and icing sugar until whipped and then pile onto the meringue tumble the fruit on top. Looks amazing but is oh so simple.

Linking this recipe up with #CookBlogShare hosted by Super Golden Bakes 

Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy ... {aka Lemon Posset's}

Dessert. Something to be enjoyed and lingered over, preferably whilst coffee is brewing in the background. I don't have a great sweet tooth though and I always lean toward citrusy and slightly tart tastes when it comes to pudding. We had a friends over for dinner the other day and this is what I served, Little pots of lemony cream. Simple but effective

  

Lemon Possets

600ml Double cream

150g Caster Sugar

2 large lemons, zest and juice

On a low heat warm the sugar and cream in a saucepan and bring to the boil slowly. Boil for approximately three minutes, before taking of the heat and cooling for a while. Whisk in the zest and juice and then pour into 6 dishes / glasses (they look lovely in little espresso cups) before refrigerating. I served these with little Ameretti biscuits but they also taste great with homemade shortbread!   

....... I said it was easy!



I'm linking up this post with Alesha for Delicious Dish Tuesday

 

And  Supergolden bakes!  

Let them have cake........ Autumn style cake

My first attempt at photo editing!

Autumn is, it's really hard to miss it in blog world, I'm embracing it all - i love autumn.  One of my favourite scents that reminds me of my favourite season is cinnamon.......... and then that leads me on to Apples! Because Apples and Cinnamon are as perfect for one another as Salt n Pepper (Group or seasoning you wonder). In the past I’ve always gone for my favourite Autumn double act in puddings such as pie and crumble but I decided they would work perfectly in a cake. I did quite a bit of research across the tinternet and found all kinds of variations which included golden syrup and cream cheese in the ingredients list?! All that inspiration and here’s my own little recipe I came up with. It’s lovely and moist and crumbly and best served warm from the oven with a glug of cream…. Autumn on a plate

Apple and Cinnamon Cake

275g self-raising flour
125g butter, diced and best straight from the fridge

125g cinnamon sugar (if you don’t have this just use caster or light brown sugar with two tsp. of ground cinnamon

2 medium eggs (beaten)
6-8 tbsp. milk
2 - 3 Bramley apples, peeled, cored and diced (granny smith would work here as well and maybe Golden delicious
2 handfuls of sultanas or as many – little as you want
Demerara sugar (optional)

 Preheat oven to 180C/ 160C fan and grease a cake tin (you can line it as well but I didn’t bother – I am a lazy baker).

Put flour into bowl (I didn’t bother sieving, again Lazy baker me) Add butter and rub until it looks like breadcrumbs, as if you were making a crumble.

 

Stir in the cinnamon sugar. Beat in egg and combine. You want to achieve a smooth thick batter and so add as many tablespoons of milk it takes. Then add in your apple and sultanas and make sure it’s all combined. Dollop into your tin and level it out. Sprinkle a layer of  Demerara sugar over (this will add a lovely crunchy topping to your cake.

 

Bake for around 40 mins, I checked mine after 30 with my knife and it defo needed those extra 10 minutes. Let it cool down a little, I think I lasted about 5 minutes before I had to get it out of the tin and serve it up to my hungry housemates!

 

P.S Your whole house will be filled with lovely cinnamon and apple scents when you bake this, it’s rather lovely and homely perfect when you’re home and its cold and wet outside. I LOVE British weather

Whilst cooking this cake I listened to Seasons of love from the fabulous musical Rent and a bit of David Grey including Babylon and This year’s Love (I have to be chilled when baking)