HHDD#21 - Tiramisu

I am barely getting my entry in for this round of Hey Hey it's Donna Day, literally by the skin of my teeth. I've been thinking about this all month and I've had so much stuff on with family and friends that I've hardly managed to do any cooking at all.

So seeing as today is a very beautiful day and it's supposed to rain tomorrow we decided to dine al fresco tonight a.k.a sitting inside the french doors as we were too lazy to get the patio table and chairs out. So homemade beef burgers and salad with goats cheese it was followed by a very deconstructed and simple tiramisu flavoured with orange, chocolate and honey. This was gorgeous, mascarpone is so good and I managed to get organic mascarpone too, lovely organic oranges slightly reduced to make a syrup, and the best chocolate - Cadburys flake!!!


So here's what you'll need for 2 people:

12 lady fingers/savoiardi biscuits, 6 per person
125g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp honey
juice and zest of 2 oranges
cadburys flake or similar crumbled
1tsp galliano (or vanilla extract)

Zest the 2 oranges and then juice them. Put the juice in a pot and bring to the boil. Boil the juice for 2-3 mins until thickened very slightly. Cool.
Mix the mascarpone with the honey and galliano.
Place 2 biscuits on a plate, soak with the orange syrup and top with a dollop of the mascarpone.
Place another 2 biscuits on top, soak and top with mascarpone.
Do this a third time finishing with a dollop op mascarpone.
Sprinkle with orange zest and crumbled flake.

This was gorgeous, I was marginally worried it wouldn't be but it was light and sweet and perfect to enjoy sitting in the evening sun.

Hay Hay it's Donna Day #19 - The Clafoutis Edition Event - Caramelised Apple Clafoutis at that!!!!

So every time Hay Hay it's Donna Day is on I look at the event on Is My Blog Burning, think oooooo yes I'll definitely do that and then never get around to it!!! This month I was determined to do it cos I LOVE CLAFOUTIS!!!! or anything with a batter/cake like consistency, am easily pleased when it comes to desserts.

I have amalgamated 2 recipes, the batter mix from Donna Hay as posted on Bron Marshalls blog (and the lovely Bron is also this HHDD's host) with a couple of moderations and an idea from a Bill Granger recipe for a puffed apple pancake so this is a Caramelised Apple Clafoutis and let me tell you - 'tis divine!!!

So for the batter you'll need:

200ml milk (I used low fat but whatever milk you prefer)
100ml cream (this is to make up 300ml in total but Bron's original recipe used 300ml full fat milk)
4oz caster sugar (In the original recipe 4 tbsp sugar is kept back to sprinkle over the fruit before the batter is poured on but I just didn't use this as there's brown sugar on the apples)
1tsp vanilla extract
I used 1 large, 1 medium and an egg white I had left over from the Daring Bakers challenge but the original recipe uses 3 free range eggs
pinch of salt
8oz plain flour

Mix all the batter ingredients together using a whisk or in a mixer/processor. Heat the oven to 190/Gas 5.


For the caramelised apples you'll need:

50g butter
4 tart apples, (I used Braeburns but Granny Smith's would be lovely too) cored, peeled and cut into eights (or smaller if you apples are very big)
3tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put whatever dish you're using in the oven to heat it.
Melt the butter in a pan and add the apples.
Cook on a medium heat for about 5 mins
Sprinkle over the sugar and add the lime juice and vanilla extract and cook until the sugar is melted and caramelised.
Take the dish out of the oven and put the apples and caramel in the bottom.
Pour over the batter and put the dish in the oven and cook for 35-40 mins until browned and puffed up.



Seriously this dessert has taken over from Bread and Butter pudding as my favourite dessert, it's cakey and battery and there's a lovely hint of lime off it along with the creaminess of the batter and the apples are lovely and tart. I served with unwhipped cream poured over in my new GIANT cups I got for my birthday from my wonderful auntie T!!! DIVINE!!!! We also had the wonderful cannelloni that Lorraine blogged about this week, twas also gorgeous and the husbag ate half a dish of it!!!!