Mix the espresso, Marsala and brandy in a jug. Place half the trifle sponges in a layer on the bottom of your serving dish and drizzle half the coffee mix over them – saturating them evenly.

Beat the mascarpone to loosen it up a bit.

In a large bowl, whip the cream. As it approaches the soft peak stage, sieve in the icing sugar to taste – start with about 3 tbsp and go from there. Bear in mind that the cream is then mixed with the mascarpone, so it needs to be sweet enough for them both. Ensure it is whisked to soft peaks – this pic is just before I added the icing sugar

then fold into the mascarpone

Smooth half the mascarpone-cream mixture over the sodden trifle sponges.

Layer the other half of trifle sponges over the top of the cream and evenly drizzle the remaining espresso mix over them. Don’t worry if it looks too wet – it sorts itself out in the fridge.

Smooth the second half of the cream mix over the top. Swirl, ripple or generally interfere with the top if you like.
Mix together the cocoa and icing sugar and sieve that over the top. Maybe grate chocolate instead if you prefer.

Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight before serving for best, greatest, most delicious results.

—–

Tiramisu

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300ml espresso
5tbsp Marsala
4tbsp Brandy
2 pkts trifle sponges (16)
500g Mascarpone
600ml double cream
Icing sugar to taste
1 tsp cocoa+ 1 tsp icing sugar to dust

Mix the espresso, Marsala and brandy in a jug.
Place half the trifle sponges in a layer on the bottom of your serving dish.
Drizzle half the coffee mix over them – saturate them evenly.

Beat the mascarpone to loosen it up a bit.
In a large bowl, whip the cream. As it approaches the soft peak stage, sieve in the icing sugar to taste – start with about 3 tbsp and go from there. Bear in mind that the cream is then mixed with the mascarpone, so it needs to be sweet enough for them both.
Ensure it is whisked to soft peaks, then fold into the mascarpone.

Smooth half the mascarpone-cream mixture over the sodden trifle sponges.

Layer the other half of trifle sponges over the top of the cream and evenly drizzle the remaining espresso mix over them. Don’t worry if it looks too wet – it sorts itself out in the fridge.

Smooth the second half of the cream mix over the top. Swirl, ripple or generally interfere with the top if you like.
Mix together the cocoa and icing sugar and sieve that over the top. Maybe grate chocolate instead if you prefer.

Refrigerate overnight for best results.

This is my friend Julie’s recipe. Her family love it and as I watched Alex tuck into his second slice, it’s fair to say he loves it too. I’ll show my hand as well; it’s a winner!
Incredibly quick to do, with only 6 ingredients, it’s a marvel. Where has this recipe been all my life?
The filling; well, it’s somewhere in the region of a chiffon pie, a light airy unbaked cheesecake, a lemon sharp cream syllabub; delightful. The lemon cuts through the richness so successfully that it is easy to have a smaller second slice. Hooray, for that.

Reduce the biscuits to crumbs by putting them in a bag and bashing them with a rolling pin or in a food processor, then combine it with the melted butter and optional sugar.
Press into a loose-bottomed tart tin

and bake for 8 mins.

Leave the base to cool.
Put the cream, lemon zest and condensed milk into a medium bowl and mix with a whisk or electric whisk. It will still be liquid.

Slowly add the lemon juice as you continue to whisk

and marvel as it thickens to a spoonable consistency.

Spoon it into the biscuit base and chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

It’ll keep for a couple of days in the fridge, so as make-ahead desserts go it’s an invaluable recipe. It doubles easily to feed more than a modest gathering.

Go on. Have a slice.

Julie’s Lemon Tart

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I’ll give you both quantities.

For a 7″/18cm plate/flan dish:

100g digestive biscuits (or use whatever biscuits/cookies you fancy – ginger would be nice)
50g butter, melted
1 tblsp sugar

150ml double cream
175g condensed milk
2 large lemons – zest and juice

For a 24cm loose-based flan/tart tin:

200g digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted
1 tblsp sugar

300ml double cream
400g condensed milk
3-4 large lemons – zest and juice

Heat oven to GM2/150C/300F
Reduce the digestive biscuits to crumbs either in a food processor, or by putting them into a bag and crushing them with a rolling pin.
Stir them into the melted butter and press into the tin.
Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from oven and leave to cool.

In a bowl, put the lemon zest, condensed milk and cream. Stir or whisk to combine.
Slowly trickle in the lemon juice, whisking as you go (I use an electric hand whisk – Julie used her food processor) and watch as it thickens the mixture.
Taste as you add the lemon juice, but bear in mind that it really can take a lot of lemon.

Spoon into the cooled biscuit base and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours, or overnight.
Will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

There is a thrilling element of danger about a layered dessert that relies on the power of gelatine and your own patience, but your tense, nervous headache is rewarded handsomely when it turns out to reveal its Summer beauty. Having said ‘summer’,it’s worth remembering for the Winter months because it is a great use for frozen berries.

Into a medium saucepan, put your raspberries (last year’s frozen harvest in my case), sugar and cold water.

Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to simmer for 10 mins. (I put a handful of blackcurrants in there too, in case you were wondering)

With 5 mins to go, soak 7 leaves of gelatine in a bowl of cold water.

Squeeze the now floppy gelatine leaves out

and, one by one (but not taking an age over it), add them to the steaming liquid and stir well to ensure they are incorporated fully.
Leave the jelly to one side to allow it to cool to room temperature – I helped it along by sitting the pan in a sink of cold water and stirring occasionally.

Once sufficiently cooled, pour into your tin and/or individual moulds.

Put into the fridge for two hours to set.

After this time has elapsed, you can start on the pannacotta. Do check first that the jelly has begun to set lest you end up with milky pink soup, but don’t expect a firm set just yet. As long as it has set enough on top to allow another layer, it’ll be great.

Put the cream into a saucepan and bring it up to the boil.

Just as it starts to rise, add chopped white chocolate and the seeds of a vanilla pod.

Turn the heat off and stir diligently to melt it.

Once melted, leave it to one side and see to the gelatine again.
This time, soak 3 leaves in cold water for 5 mins, prepare a bowl with 4 tblsp boiling water in it and stir the squeezed gelatine leaves into it to melt them.
Pour the chocolate cream over this and stir thoroughly to incorporate.

Leave the mixture to cool, but do stir occasionally to avoid getting a skin on it.
Pour the pannacotta over the jelly layer and put back in the fridge to set overnight.

When you’re ready to turn it out the next day, fill the sink with hot water and sprinkle cold water on to your serving dish.
Briefly dip the moulds/tin in the hot water, place the serving dish on top and turn over to release the dessert.

Serve as is, or strew with more berries for a more flamboyant touch.

——-

Raspberry Jelly and White Chocolate Pannacotta Terrine

adapted from a recipe in ‘Delicious’ magazine

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4 small moulds, 1.5lb loaf tin measuring 32x13x7cm (alternatively, just use the loaf tin, or just fill moulds – you’ll need more than 4 though…)

To make the raspberry jelly:

400g raspberries – fresh or frozen (if frozen, don’t defrost)
170g caster sugar
800ml cold water
7 fine gelatine leaves

Put the raspberries, sugar and water into a large saucepan, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins.
5 mins into the simmer, place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water and let them soak for 5 mins.

Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine leaves and drop them immediately into the hot raspberry liquid. Stir very thoroughly.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Once cooled, pour into the tin and moulds. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

For the pannacotta:
500ml double cream
seeds from 1 vanilla pod
75g white chocolate, chopped
3 fine gelatine leaves

Heat the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
Just as the cream starts to boil, reduce the heat to low and add the white chocolate and vanilla seeds.
Stir thoroughly with a whisk, removing from the heat once the chocolate has started to melt.
Continue to stir until you are confident the chocolate has all melted (doesn’t take long).
Leave to one side whist you deal with the gelatine.
Soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 5 mins.
Squeeze the excess water from them and add to a medium bowl with 4 tablespoons (60ml) boiling water. Stir well to dissolve the gelatine.
Add the cream mixture to the dissolved gelatine and stir thoroughly.
Leave to one side to cool, stirring occasionally to avoid a skin forming.

Pour the pannacotta into the tin/moulds on top of the raspberry jelly layer.
Return to the fridge and leave it there overnight.

To serve, dip the tin/moulds into hot water briefly and turn out on to a serving dish. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve with additional berries if desired.

www.creamuntilfluffy.co.uk

Cheesecake! With raspberries from our garden no less! I was hoping this one I slightly fiddled with from Olive magazine would be a very dense cheesecake, but it wasn’t quite dense enough for my liking. Everyone else said it was perfectly dense thankyouverymuch and that the problem laid not with the cheesecake but with my insistence that it should be denser. It was very, very nice though. I inhaled more than one slice and even had a little weep when Alex ate the last sliver. I was so sure that he wouldn’t want it. If you can smell burning, that’s my martyrdom ablaze. No darling, really… you enjoy it.

I will tell you this though. I have a new favourite ever in the whole world alcoholic beverage. My heart truly belongs to Muscat de Beaumes de Venice, but there is a contender for the crown. A serious contender. Chambord. Black raspberry liqueur.
I can’t rave about this enough. It is the most intensely flavoured liqueur; it’s heady with fragrance and every single person I have forced to sniff the bottle has said ‘mmmmmmmmmmmm!’. I rarely let them taste it because it is so expensive, but a fingerdip usually has them reeling. I defy you not to run out and buy an orb-shaped, golden belted bottle should you be offered a sniff.
Anyway, I added a mere 1 tablespoon of Chambord to the cheesecake and it seriously propped up and enhanced the raspberry flavour; next time I might even add two. Scandalous.

No, what really is scandalous is that when I added the tablespoon to the cheesecake and flung the spoon to one side to be washed up, there was a microscopic film of it covering the spoon so I licked it clean. Better than necking it straight from the bottle, but barely.

Buy a bottle and rave about it with me would you? Please?

The usual base of digestive biscuits and melted butter. Yum.

Pressed into the base of an 8″ springform tin and baked for 5 minutes then cooled.

Blend the cream cheese and add a couple of tablespoons of flour and the sugar

then add the eggs

*clouds part to reveal the blazing sun, the sound of a heavenly chorus and a shaft of light falls upon the bottle of Chambord*

A tablespoon of the liqueur and some soured cream

Then add 100g of raspberries (grew them I did – grew them!)

Then pour it on top of the cooled base and bake in the oven for around 40 mins

Golden around the edges and a bit jiggly in the middle. The cheesecake too.

Cooled… and cracked. I always wanted to see the Grand Canyon – don’t need to spend all that money on travelling now, luckily.

Oooooh squidgy!

By this time, the family are telling me to hurry up and pass the slices round before they snap at me like a teased dog.

Very, very nice.

—–

Raspberry baked Cheesecake
(adapted from an ‘Olive’ magazine recipe)

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8 digestive biscuits
50g melted unsalted butter

600g cream cheese
2 tbsp plain flour
175g caster sugar
2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk
142ml pot soured cream
1-2 tbsp Chambord liqueur
100g raspberries

Preheat oven to GM 4/350F/180C
Base line an 8″/20cm springform tin.

Crush the biscuits and mix with the melted butter.
Press into the base of the tin – and just slightly upwards to create a tiny edge.
Bake for 5-10 mins until (more) golden, then remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

Beat the cream cheese until smooth, then add the flour and sugar. Combine.
Beat in the eggs.
Add the liqueur and soured cream. Combine.
Fold in the raspberries.

Bake for around 40 minutes. It should be golden around the edges and still a bit jiggly in the middle – not sloshing liquid – just jiggly.
Cool in the tin for 5 mins then carefully run a spatula around the edge. Leave in the tin to cool completely, then transfer the tin to the fridge.

Run the spatula around the edge again once chilled and ready to serve, then unspring the tin.
You can transfer it it to a plate still on the tin base, or have a go at removing it. I had very little problem getting it off the base – even managing to leave the parchment lining at the base behind, but don’t panic about it. FYI, I used a large fish slice and as I lifted it, could peel back the parchment base.
Having said that, at the first sign of doom, I wouldn’t have hesitated to lower it back on to the base.

Serve – with additional raspberries on each plate if you wish.

—-

Quickity quick, sweet, smooth, lemony cheesecake with not the merest hint of an oven to preheat.  I made the cheesecake with Splenda (one of our Sunday luncheon guests has diabetes) and made the sauce with maple syrup (for the rest of us sugar eaters). I’m all about personal responsibility, me.

Puddings are a challenge when one has to limit the sugar in them. You have no idea how tempted I was to just slap an apple on each placemat. Turns out that apples aren’t that great either – it’s all about the berries, you know? Just not the berries with maple syrup on them.

I made another berried dessert that he could eat, but that will have to wait for the next blog entry…

Line the bottom of an 8″ springform tin with a circle of baking paper.
Combine 125g vanilla butter biscuit or digestive biscuit crumbs and 75g melted butter together and press them onto the bottom and (very) slightly up the side – just enough to make a little biscuit lip.

Beat together 300g cream cheese, 60g icing sugar or 5 dessertspoons Splenda, 1 tsp vanilla and the juice and zest of 1 lemon, until smooth.

Smoooooooooooooooth

Lightly whip 300ml double cream, adding another 2 dessertspoons Splenda when it’s nearly there.

Fold the two mixtures together and spoon over the base,

level with a spatula and refrigerate overnight.

Whilst that’s chillaxing (*cough*) in the fridge, put a 200g punnet of blueberries and 125 ml (1/2 cup) maple syrup in a saucepan

You don’t need a picture of maple syrup being poured over blueberries, but I liked the picture, so here it is.

Bring to the boil (as per the picture), but then reduce the heat to simmer for about 3 minutes

Decant to a bowl and serve either warm, at room temperature or chilled.

Then take your cheesecake and run a spatula around the edge and un-spring the tin to release.
Hopefully, the baking paper will allow you to get under the base with a metal spatula to remove the bottom of the tin – and the paper.

Put on a pretty (weird) stand or plate and cut into slices… ahem, this is not a slice – this is all that was left after the slicing.

… and spoon the maple blueberry over each sugar-eater’s slice,hoping Goodness to Aunt Betty that you’ve given everyone the correct slice.

————————-

Unbaked Lemon Cheesecake with Maple Blueberry Sauce

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The Unbaked Lemon Cheesecake

(adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe)

125g vanilla or digestive biscuits, reduced to crumbs
75g unsalted butter, melted
300g cream cheese
60g icing sugar OR 5 dessertspoons Splenda
1 tsp vanilla extract
juice and zest 1 lemon
300ml double cream, whipped
2 dessertspoons Splenda

Line the bottom of an 8″ springform tin with a circle of baking paper.
Combine the biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press them onto the bottom and (very) slightly up the side – just enough to make a little biscuit lip.

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar or Splenda, vanilla and lemon juice and zest, until smooth.

Lightly whip the cream, adding the extra 2 dessertspoons Splenda when it’s nearly there.

Fold the two mixtures together.

Spoon over the base, level with a spatula and refrigerate overnight.
Run a spatula around the edge and un-spring the tin to release.
Hopefully, the baking paper will allow you to get under the base with a metal spatula to remove the bottom of the tin – and the paper.

Serve slices as is or with a spoonful of the maple blueberries.

Maple Blueberry Sauce

(Nigella Lawson – recipe originally as a sauce for pancakes)

200g punnet blueberries
125ml (1/2 cup) maple syrup

Put the blueberries and maple syrup into a small pan.
Bring to the boil and simmer for about 3 minutes.

Decant to a bowl and serve either warm, at room temperature or chilled.
Will keep in the fridge for a few days.

Intensely lemony, satin creamy pots with sweet, buttery shortbread. This recipe, adapted from one of Nigella Lawson’s (How to Eat) is pure joy; rich enough to satisfy but with enough zing that you don’t feel overloaded.
Once you had made the mixture it needs to sit in the fridge to steep. 2 – 3 days is the recommendation and I would definitely concur.

Before we start, let me say that when we eat these, we like the lemons to punch you in the face and call you names; hence I have increased the recipe to 4 lemons from the original 3. It is an intense recipe there’s no doubt, but if you wish to be cautious, start with 3 lemons and once you’ve added the cream, taste the mix. If you can take some more lemon, go ahead and add the zest and juice of the 4th one. Are you man enough?
Here we go.

Zest all 4 of the lemons into a bowl.

Juice them and add the juice and 285g sugar to the bowl

Add 6 eggs to the bowl, using a hand whisk, whisk them until they are well incorporated.

Add 300ml cream and combine that.

Transfer the contents to a large jug, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 2, but preferably 3, days. Yes, DAYS. It gets the flavour steeped in.
You now have 2-3 days to find at least 8 ramekins of 150ml capacity and a roasting tin that will hold them all. I often get about 10 ramekins ready – it’s better than scrabbling around for jam jars whilst sobbing hysterically.

When 2 or 3 days have passed, remove the jug from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for an hour.
Preheat the oven to GM2/300F/150C. Put the kettle on.
You don’t have to do this all at once, you know – take your time.

Give the mix another swipe with the whisk – just to combine, not to get air into it – and pour into the ramekins that you have sitting neatly in a roasting tin.
Once you have evenly distributed it, leave it to sit a bit longer. I go through this procedure to try and lose the fridge coldness from everything because once, something happened. I have a scary tale to share. Sit down with me and hold my hand.

Once after making and serving this, we were washing up and 2 ramekins had cracked, then broke in my hands. Cut me, it did. CUT my hands. Claret all over the place.  Can you imagine if they had finally given up the ghost during dessert? Eeek. Luckily, they held on until the washing up water finally did them in. Better than a mouthful of glass though.  Sorry about that near miss, Bob and Maria, but at least you never knew anything about it.

Oops.

Anyway. Pour hot – not boiling – water into the tin to come about halfway up the ramekins.

Bake for 20-30 mins.
They should be set, but with some wobble, rather than sloshing, in the middle, bear in mind they will set more as they cool.

Remove from the water bath and leave to cool. You can eat them when they’ve cooled, or once cool, refrigerate them until the next day. Get them out of the fridge 2-3 hours before eating them.

Now to the shortbread.

Put 150g softened, unsalted butter and 75g icing sugar into a food processor and whiz to combine. Scrape to get all the bits.

Add 150g plain flour and 75g cornflour and a pinch of salt and process again to combine, scraping to get any stray streaks of flour back in.

Remove and lightly knead briefly to combine, from this

to this in about 3 kneads

You have 2 options now.
1st option.
Form into a cylinder, put in the fridge until firm, then slice and bake. I refrigerate it hard and use a very sharp knife to cut thin slices, but that’s because I like the contrast between the firm shortbread and the unctuous, silky lemon creams. Obviously, the thinner the slice, the firmer it will be. Dredge shapes with caster sugar if you wish.

2nd option.
Put a piece of clingfilm on the work surface, put your dough on top and cover with another piece of clingfilm.
Roll the dough out and cut out shapes with cookie cutters (I found some that were spoon shaped – that was cool).

Bake them straight away. You could gather up the remainder, and roll that into a cylinder, fridge it and cut slices – best of both worlds.

Spoons are a-bakin’

Cooled spoons (I baked them longer than I normally would, just to get them a bit harder)

Cooled slices

Here’s the finished combo.
See how the shortbread dips in nicely? Lovely.

Lemon Creams with Shortbread
(adapted form Nigella Lawson’s ‘How to Eat’)
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Lemon Creams:
4 juicy lemons, washed and dried
285g caster sugar
6 eggs
300ml double cream

* Before we start, let me say that we like the lemons to punch you in the face and call you names, when you taste this; hence I have increased the recipe to 4 lemons from the original 3. It is an intense recipe there’s no doubt, but if you wish to be cautious, start with 3 lemons and once you’ve added the cream, taste the mix. If you can take some more lemon, go ahead and add the zest and juice of the 4th one. Are you man enough?*

Zest all 4 of the lemons into a bowl.
Juice them and add the juice, sugar and eggs to the bowl. Using a hand whisk, whisk them until they are well incorporated.
Add the cream and conbine that.
Transfer the contents to a large jug, cover with clingfilm and leave in the fridge for at least 2, but preferably 3, days. Yes, DAYS. It gets the flavour steeped in.

You now have 2-3 days to find at least 8 ramekins of 150ml capacity and a roasting tin that will hold them all. I often get about 10 ramekins ready – it’s better than scrabbling around for jam jars whilst sobbing hysterically.

Remove the jug from the fridge and leave it at room temperature for an hour.

Preheat the oven to GM2/300F/150C. Put the kettle on.

Give the mix another swipe with the whisk – just to combine, not to get air into it – and pour into the ramekins that you have sitting neatly in a roasting tin.
Once you have evenly distributed it, leave it to sit a bit longer. I do this to avoid the ramekins cracking in the oven – quite an important point really.

Pour hot – not boiling – water into the tin to come about halfway up the ramekins.
Bake for 20-30 mins.
They should be set, but with some wobble, rather than sloshing, in the middle, bear in mind they will set more as they cool.

Remove from the water bath and leave to cool. You can eat them when they’ve cooled, or once cool, refrigerate them until the next day. Get them out of the fridge 2-3 hours before eating them.

Shortbread:

Preheat oven to GM3/325F/160C

150g unsalted butter, very soft
75g icing sugar
150g plain (all purpose) flour
75g cornflour (corn starch)

Put the butter and icing sugar into a food processor and whiz to combine. Scrape to get all the bits.
Add the flours and a pinch of salt and process again to combine, scraping to get any stray streaks of flour back in.

Remove and lightly knead briefly to combine.

1st option.
Form into a cylinder, put in the fridge until firm, then slice and bake. I refrigerate it hard and use a very sharp knife to cut thin slices, but that’s because I like the contrast between the firm shortbread and the unctuous, silky lemon creams. Obviously, the thinner the slice, the firmer it will be. Dredge shapes with caster sugar if you wish.

2nd option.
Put a piece of clingfilm on the work surface, put your dough on top and cover with another piece of clingfilm.
Roll the dough out and cut out shapes with cookie cutters (I found some that were spoon shaped – that was cool). Bake them straight away. You could gather up the remainder, and roll that into a cylinder, fridge it and cut slices – best of both worlds.

Either way, place shapes on to a parchment lined baking tray and bake for 20-30 mins. Check that the top is dry and that the bottom isn’t still doughy.
Cool on a wire tray. Store in a tin; they keep well.