Let’s make winter sweet! I’ve gathered together some of my favourite puddings, pies, desserts and cakes for you here. Make them for a special occasion, as a fun cooking project or because you DEFINITELY deserve a treat. There are a few different pastries to try in the recipes below. The Tarte Tatin includes made-from-scratch puff pastry, there’s the simple pasta dough for the sweet ravioli, and a wonderful, versatile olive oil pastry for the plum and macadamia tart. Also have a look at the sherbet with this plum tart recipe – it’s wonderful!
Steamed Pecan Pie Puddings
The buttery sweetness of pecan nuts has made them a favourite pie filling, especially in the US, which makes sense because pecans originate in North America. I love eating them by the handful and tossing them through salads but I must confess I go absolutely weak at the knees when thinking about pecan pie.
Chocolate Volcanos
The hardest thing about making this video was not eating the mixture! These Chocolate Volcanos are delicious, indulgent and surprisingly easy to make.
Steamed Orange Pudding with Almond Milk Ice Cream
It’s not just the gentle flavours and playful textures of this two-part dessert that make me love them. It’s also the way the recipe allows me to show you a few great techniques. Firstly, we make nut milk, in this case almond milk but the technique can be used for any nuts. Next, we make a dairy-free ice cream base using the nut milk we’ve just made. Then, we move onto the puddings. Once you’ve made steamed puddings in the Varoma, you will never look back!
Apple Clafoutis
Clafoutis (say ‘clah-foo-tee’) is a classic French dessert that is more or less a baked custard with fruit. It’s so easy! Saffron farmer Gamila MacRury shows us a version with saffron. It takes this simple dessert to the next level, but you can leave the saffron out if you don’t have it.
Chocolate Ravioli with Orange & Apricot Sauce
It’s pasta. And dessert. With chocolate. Plus liqueur! Suffice to say, it’s got all the good things going on. This playful recipe takes complementary ingredients – chocolate, apricot, orange and almond – and combines them in an impressive dish with texture and flavour aplenty.
Tarte Tatin
Tarte Tatin is an upside-down French apple tart named after Stephanie and Caroline Tatin, sisters who ran a hotel in the Orléans region, about 150 kilometres south of Paris, in the late 19th century. Various origin myths accompany this classic dessert.
Chestnut, Macadamia & Plum Tart with Olive Oil Pastry
There are many reasons I love this luxurious fruit tart:
- it uses plums but can be made with any fruit!
- we use a vegan olive oil pastry base, which is very crisp, rich and very versatile – use it as a sweet base as here, or for savoury tarts.
- the filling is a spin on frangipane, a sweet almond cream. We use macadamias and chestnuts which are both beautifully sweet and creamy.
- the tart partners brilliantly with my Plum Sorbet with Davidson Plum Sherbet.
- you can make the tart ahead of time.
Oh, and did I mention how delicious it is?
Black Rice Pudding
This black rice pudding is such a bright, sunny and sustaining dish. No matter the weather and no matter what’s in the diary, eating this pudding for breakfast makes me feel like I’m about to step out of my front door and onto a tropical beach for a day in the sunshine.
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