in need of a little help

peachyprice · 3 February 2013 at 11:04PM

Bakewell tart is so easy too. I make tartlets for OH's lunch, but there's no reason why you can't serve them for dessert with custard.

Line a 12 hole fairy cake tin with pastry
put a dollop of jam in each one

Mix together:
100g ground almonds
100g caster sugar
100g softened butter
1 egg
1 tbs SR flour
1/2 tsp almond essence

Just mix in a bowl until smooth and put a spoonful in each tartlet and top with flaked almonds. Bake at 200c for 20 mins.

I'm sure you could use the same the same recipe to make a large tarf, but that might need blind-baking first? The tartlets keep really well too if you don't use all of them.

scottishminnie · 3 February 2013 at 11:09PM

This is another great recipe for using up stale bread in the form of breadcrumbs and is good comfort food.

My staple dessert recipes are:

Apple crumble (or any fruit) - recipe here

Jelly with fruit in (don't use kiwi fruit or pineapple as they have enzymes which affects the jelly setting)

Grilled peaches with mascarpone (you can do this with plums, pears or any stoned fruit) - recipe here. I don't use the white wine - sometimes add a shot of any type of liquer to the mascarpone (great for using up stuff lying around or vanilla extract if there is nothing else on offer!)

Lemon tart - here

and a bit of an Easter theme - hot cross bun pudding. I didn't use marmalade though I used jam. Foolproof! Here

Will have a think about some more easy ones. Enjoy

BitterAndTwisted · 3 February 2013 at 11:11PM

Bread and butter pudding is pretty hard to ruin as is a baked rice pudding.

If you're totally cack-handed and not to be trusted in a kitchen then equal quantities of a decent thick, plain youghurt, whipped double cream and some mashed fruit like raspberries or banana. Yummy

ciderwithrosie_2 · 4 February 2013 at 11:23AM

How about Waffle Berry Pudding? - bit of an upmarket bread and butter pudding and fairly foolproof. We had it last night with vanilla icecream.

2 packages (250g each) sweet waffles
150g(5 1⁄2 oz) white chocolate (I use a bit more than this, because I like it!)
300g (101⁄2 oz) frozen raspberries
55g (2oz) caster sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
500 ml (18 fl oz) creme fraiche or sour cream
3 eggs
1⁄2 tsp vanilla essence

Method
Preheat oven to 200C / 400F / Gas 6.
Cut waffles roughly into inch squares. Coarsely chop white chocolate. Place half of waffles in a deepish oven proof dish
Sprinkle with half of chopped white chocolate and half of raspberries; repeat layers. Combine sugar and flour in a bowl or jug add creme fraiche/sour cream, eggs and vanilla essence. Whisk together. Spoon mixture evenly over the waffles/raspberries and chocolate. Bake 30-35 mins or until golden brown and set in centre.

aliama · 4 February 2013 at 11:39AM

I'm going to take a slightly different tack and say take heart. It's only been 5 weeks, and presumably you've only tried each recipe once (?).

While it's worth having a few easy recipes to fall back on (bread and butter pudding, nom nom nom), I actually think you might be better off figuring out what went wrong with the recipes you've already made. Often I think you learn more from your mistakes, and knowing why the recipes messed up will help prevent the same thing happening in the future.

So what went wrong with the steamed sponge? If the cheesecakes were baked, did you use full-fat products or substitute something lighter?

maman · 4 February 2013 at 3:58PM

winniepooh wrote: »

Thanks sweeme. My son does like eaton mess so that will be a good one to try. X

I've served this up sort of DIY in the summer. Put bowls of strawberries and raspberries on the table with cream/Greek yogurt and meringues for people to help themselves. It meant someone who I knew was dieting could choose.

bluebag wrote: »

Trifle is pretty easy to pull off too, some jelly with sponge in topped by a good custard, packet stuff works well but not the instant stuff, then topped with some whipped fresh cream with a dash of chocolate sprinkles.

I use an Asda SP jam swiss roll in the jelly, much cheaper than buying sponge cakes and smearing with jam.

Bread pudding is really easy to make. Here's the first recipe I found but I've never bothered with any fancy sugars (just use granulated)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/13355/bread-pudding

I love it cold, like moist fruit cake. Mmmm!

snowleopard61 · 4 February 2013 at 4:46PM

Not healthy, but absolutely dead easy: dip chocolate chip biscuits in sherry, break into pieces and stir into slightly sweetened whipped cream. Pile into sundae glasses and top with grated chocolate.

snowleopard61 · 4 February 2013 at 4:55PM

Or, for that matter, any sort of sundae concoction of your own, involving layers of fruit, jelly, ice-cream and/or cream - maybe topped with grated chocolate, hundreds and thousands, chocolate sauce etc. It almost literally can't go wrong.

You could also try chocolate refrigerator cakes from lots of recipes online (e.g.rocky road), which are basically mixtures of melted chocolate with butter/syrup and anything suitable you choose to put in. They can't fail to hold together. The trickiest thing is melting the chocolate, which has to be done very slowly without the bowl touching the simmering water, or it will go grainy. Some people do it in a microwave, though I don't trust myself.

Just until you get your confidence back and stop feeling disheartened, though I'm inclined to agree with Aliama that it's a good idea to go back and make the thing that went wrong last time and improve on it. (Having said that, I'm never making honeycomb again, as I did yesterday! - the sugary sort you find in the middle of Crunchie bars rather than the actual 'bee' variety. It did work, i.e. it produced an edible result, but with so much inconvenience and mess that it really wasn't worth it.)

bearcub · 4 February 2013 at 4:56PM

bluebag wrote: »

Trifle is pretty easy to pull off too, some jelly with sponge in topped by a good custard, packet stuff works well but not the instant stuff, then topped with some whipped fresh cream with a dash of chocolate sprinkles.

You can add fruit, fresh or tinned, to this - just don't use pineapple, as it won't set!

Another cheesecake recipe - St Clements

5 oz crushed digestive biscuits
3 oz melted butter
Small can of mandarines or mandarine pieces, drained.
Lemon jelly
rind and juice of a lemon (vital!)
6oz cream cheese
Large can of evaporated milk, chilled

Mix biscuit crumbs into the melted butter, and press into the base of a greased tin (I use a loose-bottomed cake or flan tin). Lay some mandarine pieces randomly on the base.
Dissolve the jelly in 1/4 pint of boiling water, pour into a mixing bowl or processor. Add grated rind, juice, and cream cheese, and whisk until smooth. Add evaporated milk, and whisk until thick. Pour SLOWLY onto the base (so that mandarines don't float). Chill for 30 minutes, then decorate with more mandarine pieces. Chill again until needed.

Very moorish!

shays_mum · 4 February 2013 at 5:06PM

Only got into baking v.v recently (last week lol!!), this is proper fool proof & compliments galore!. I used self raising flour instead of plain (hence you don't need the baking powder) & half cup of semolina to mess about with - everyone loved it

.
Also used greek yogurt as its all i had in that day.

http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/1683/childrens-yoghurt-cake

PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING

in need of a little help

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