dessert – Page 3 – From Helena's Kitchen

December 31, 2018December 16, 2021

Helena’s Italian truffles

These sweet and creamy no-bake mascarpone truffles are my go-to dessert for a special occasion like Christmas or New Year or Valentine’s Day or when I just want a bite size lusciousness to make my day special. One note of advice, make sure you get mascarpone. Don’t substitute with regular cream cheese which is a bit tangier than mascarpone. It would not taste right.

prep time 15 min Freezing time 10 min

ingredients for 36 truffles

450 g (1 lb) mascarpone
1 package Gentilini biscotti (butter cookies, maybe lady fingers…)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 bottles/packets of sprinkles (3.5 oz) of your choice

1. Crush cookies with a rolling pin or food processor.

2. Mix mascarpone, cocoa and cookies by hand.

3. Form quickly into balls and roll in sprinkles.

4.Put in the freezer for 10 minutes and keep in the fridge until 10 minutes before serving.

BUON APPETITO!

December 22, 2018February 18, 2020

Pineapple upside-down cake

This is a recipe that I got from a friend at least 25 years ago. It is truly a retro cake! We usually make it at Christmas time but it is a cake for every season since it doesn’t have any particular Christmas spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cardamom or cloves.

prep time 15 min cook time 35 min

ingredients

for the topping

7 pineapple rings in syrup, drained and syrup reserved
50 g sugar
50 g butter, melted
7 glacé cherries
handful of almonds, finely chopped

for the cake

100 g butter, melted
100 g sugar
200 g flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder (1 bustina lievito Bertolini)
50 g sambuca
50 g pineapple syrup

1. Preheat the oven to 170-180C

2. For the topping, beat 50g melted butter and 50g sugar together until creamy. Spread over the base and a quarter of the way up the sides of a 22cm round cake tin. Arrange 7 pineapple rings on top (reserving the syrup for later), then fill in the spaces with finely chopped almonds. Place the glacé cherries in the centres of the rings.

3. Using an electric whisk beat sugar and eggs until light and creamy. Add flour with the baking powder mixed in, then sambuca, pineapple juice and finally the melted butter. Mix gently with a spatula.

4. Pour the batter over the fruit and smooth it out with a spatula so it’s level.

5. Bake for 30-35 min until a toothpick or a cake tester comes out clean.

6. Let cool for 10 min. Invert a serving plate over the cake pan and, using kitchen towels or oven mitts to grasp onto both the plate and the cake pan, flip both the pan and the plate over so the pan now sits on top of the plate. Slowly lift the cake pan away.

7. Serve the cake warm or cool with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

8. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

here the cherries are placed after baking the cake

BUON APPETITO!

November 24, 2018February 18, 2020

Apple crumble

Cinnamon laced baked apples are a must in fall and winter. Try them with this crunchy and nutty topping to make a perfect dessert. Serve it warm with vanilla ice cream and you are in heaven!

prep time 15 min cook time 35-40 min

ingredients for 6-8

1 kg (2.2lbs) apples, I used Granny Smith and Annurca Apples*
30g (1oz) granulated sugar**
cinnamon to sprinkle
1/2 dl (1/8cup) water

crumble

70g (2.5oz) white or wholemeal flour
70g (2.5oz) rolled oats
50g (1.75oz) brown sugar
150g (5.3oz) of roughly chopped walnuts***
50g (1.75oz) sunflower seeds
100g (3.5oz) butter

topping

scoops of vanilla ice cream

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

2. Peel, halve, core and cut the apples into chunks.

3. Place the apples in a slightly buttered 20 cm x 20 cm (8″x8″) glass baking dish and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon (I put A LOT of cinnamon). Add 1/2 dl of water.

4. Put the dry crumble ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well. Chop the butter into small cubes and add these to the bowl. Mix and rub in with your fingertips until the mixture has formed small clumps.

5. Cover the fruit with this crumble mixture.

6. Bake for 35-40 min until golden and crisp.

7. Spoon warm crumble into bowls and serve with vanilla ice cream.

*Annurca Apples are grown in Campania region. They have a smooth, waxy, thick greenish-yellow skin ripening to streaked red, with russetting around the stem area. Inside, they have firm, crispy, white juicy flesh. They have a very good flavour that is neither overly sweet nor sharp. Having said that, I would go with any cooking apples or winter apples for this dessert.

** I found a world of sugars ploughing through apple crumble recipes. While I understand that not all sugars are created equal and that different types have very specific uses, I honestly don’t think that substituting granulated sugar for caster sugar or brown sugar for light muscovado sugar will make such a huge difference in a home baked apple crumble. I also used considerably less sugar compared to many recipes found on the internet because I just don’t care for overly sweet.

*** I used a mix of walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds

BUON APPETITO!

November 2, 2018May 30, 2020