Category: Dessert Recipes

Follow the links for simple dessert recipes.   Or have a look at the Recipe Index for lots of other brilliant easy recipes!

All my dessert recipes are simple and easy to make from scratch.  Many of them can be made in advance which takes off the pressure a bit when you are entertaining.  As with all my recipes, they are dishes that anyone can make which taste good and look attractive.

In this section you will find lots of traditional puddings and desserts plus loads of ideas for meringues and pavlova and for home-made ice cream and a few sweet tarts.

Puddings and desserts
Ice-cream and Sorbet

Rhubarb Fool

Rhubarb Fool – a delicious, creamy dessert using fresh rhubarb

Rhubarb Fool is a traditional English dessert, with the earliest recipes dating to the 17th century, which combines sweetened, cooked rhubarb with custard or whipped cream. This recipe is made slightly healthier by using a mixture of whipped cream and Greek yogurt. These are combined with Rhubarb Compote which is a simple sauce made from roasting fresh rhubarb with sugar.

I love the taste of rhubarb and believe that that it goes very well with anything creamy or milk-based. You just have to think of Rhubarb and Custard or Rhubarb Crumble with Cream. In this Rhubarb Fool recipe, the sharp, sweet-sour flavour of rhubarb is moderated by the cream and yogurt. This make is a perfect dish for those who are unsure about rhubarb and may even convert them. It is no coincidence that Gooseberry Fool, which uses another astringent fruit, is also a popular Fool recipe.

Other Rhubarb recipes

In addition to this recipe for Rhubarb Fool, and the Rhubarb Compote which is used to make it, many of my other rhubarb recipes are included in this blog. There are recipes for both Rhubarb Curd and Rhubarb and Vanilla Jam. If you are a rhubarb lover – or at least “rhubarb curious” – you might also like to have a look at Rhubarb Roulade, Rhubarb Curd and Rose Ice Cream, Rhubarb Upside Down Cake, Rhubarb Victoria Sandwich Cake and Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding. If you want to save a bit of money and like flavoured gin, you should definitely try making Rhubarb Gin and use it in some Rhubarb Gin Cocktails!

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rhubarb fool

Rhubarb Fool

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 30
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: Serves four
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

Rhubarb Fool is an easy and delicious, creamy dessert using roasted rhubarb, cream and Greek yogurt.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 300 ml double cream
  • 500 ml Greek yoghurt
  • 400 ml of Rhubarb Compote

Instructions

  1. Put the double cream in a bowl and whip until it forms soft peaks.
  2. Then fold the Greek yoghurt into the whipped cream.
  3. Next add 200 ml of the Rhubarb Compote to the cream and yoghurt mixture. and gently fold it in so that it is thoroughly mixed.   
  4.  I  serve the Rhubarb Fool with the remaining 200 ml of Rhubarb Compote in a jug on the table.  This means people can add as much as they want themselves and then swirl it through their Fool.

Notes

  • The timing given for this recipe includes making the Rhubarb Compote.  If you have already made the Compote, it takes less than five minutes to make Rhubarb Fool.
  • You can use this Rhubarb Fool mixture as the base for a great Rhubarb Ice-Cream.  Just put the mixture into your ice-cream maker and follow your user instructions.

Keywords: rhubarb, fool, rhubarb dessert, recipe

Loved this recipe? You may also like the following recipe. Or checkout the Recipe Index.

Rhubarb roulade

Rhubarb Roulade

Rhubarb Compote

Rhubarb Compote

Easy Poached Pears

Easy Poached Pears with Marsala Wine
Easy Poached Pears

Easy Poached Pears

This recipe for  Easy Poached Pears is a fantastic make-ahead autumn or winter dessert.  The cooking time is quite long but the preparation time is very short and extremely simple – basically you just need to peel the pears!

There is something very autumnal about pears.  I love eating them just as they are.  However, it is often quite difficult to get them at just the right stage of ripeness – one day they are hard and unripe and the next day they are soft and squishy!  The beauty of cooking with pears is that you do not need to use ripe  ones.  This recipe is best made with unripe pears which then become beautifully soft and fragranced with Marsala wine, cinnamon and vanilla, during the cooking process.

Marsala is a fortified Italian wine which is generally widely available.  If you do not have any Marsala wine, you could use red wine, port, cider or perry (pear cider) as alteratives.

The recipe is based on Delia Smith’s Pears Baked in Marsala Wine but I cook the pears for a shorter time and do not add arrowroot to thicken the sauce as I prefer it to be thinner.

Easy Poached Pears

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Easy Poached Pears with Marsala

Easy Poached Pears

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 10
  • Cook Time: 120
  • Total Time: 2 hours 10 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 6
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

Easy Poached Pears is a make-ahead autumnal recipe which transforms unripe pears into a sumptuous dessert through slow cooking them with Marsala Wine, cinnamon and vanilla.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 6 unripe pears
  • 600 ml Marsala
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 1 cinnamon stick
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (or a vanilla pod)

Instructions

  1. Set your oven to 250 F/130 C/Gas Mark 0.5.
  2. Remove the skins from the pears using a vegetable peeler.   Take a thin slice of the base of each pear.  This will give it a flat bottom so that it will stand up on the plate when it has been cooked.
  3. Put the Marsala, sugar, cinnamon stick and vanilla essence into a heavy casserole.  Heat until the liquid is simmering and the sugar has dissolved.
  4. Place the pears in the casserole on their sides.    Put the lid on the casserole and place in the oven.
  5. Bake for 1 hour and then turn the pears so that their other side is in the liquid.  Bake for a further 1 hour.
  6. Remove the pears from the liquid and set aside in a dish to cool.
  7. Place the casserole containing the liquid  on the top of the stove and boil rapidly with the lid off for around 10 minutes.   The liquid will  reduce by about one third.
  8. Place both the pears and the liquid separately in the fridge to chill.  When you are ready to serve, place the pears on  individual plates and pour some of the liquid over them.   Good accompaniments are whipped cream or a mixture of half whipped cream and half mascarpone or vanilla ice cream.

Notes

This is a vegan recipe and can be served with non-dairy cream or ice-cream.

If you don’t have Marsala Wine, you can use red wine, port, cider or perry (pear cider) as alternatives.

Keywords: pears, marsala, vegetarian, vegan, dessert

Loved this recipe?  You may also like

Easy Banoffee Pie

 

Easy Banoffee Pie

Easy Banoffee Pie
Banoffee Pie

Easy Banoffee Pie

This really is an easy Banoffee Pie.   I obtained the recipe from my youngest son who made it at Beaver Scouts when he was seven years old.  He made it at camp and then taught me the recipe – clearly with ulterior motives – and it has been a family favourite ever since.  I had no idea where it originated until one day I looked a little more closely at the tin of Carnation caramel – and there was the recipe!

Normally, I am a make-everything-from-scratch kind of cook.  However, this recipe uses ready-made caramel.  It is extremely sweet but tastes great with the bananas and, to be honest, this is clearly not a health-food recipe!  I generally try and cook healthy food for my family, with lots of vegetables. However, I always do a dessert after Sunday lunch, which is often a big family gathering, and my easy Banoffee Pie is always very popular!  Bananas and caramel are a classic combination and the unsweetened whipped cream balances the sugar hit of the caramel.

Due to its simplicity and no-cook method, this is a great recipe for children to try when they are learning to cook.   Younger ones may need a bit of help when melting the butter for the base but if they are over ten, just give them the ingredients and the recipe and let them get on with it!

Easy Banoffee Pie

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Easy Banoffee Pie

Easy Banoffee Pie

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 8-10 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This easy Banoffee Pie is a no-cook dessert that only requires five ingredients.  Popular with children and adults alike, it brings together bananas, caramel, whipped cream on a buttery biscuit base.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 250 g digestive biscuits
  • 100 g butter
  • 397 g tin of Carnation caramel
  • 3 ripe bananas
  • 500 ml double cream
Easy Banoffee Pie
Biscuit base for Banoffee Pie

Instructions

  1. Crush the digestive biscuits into crumbs.   I do this either by putting the biscuits in a metal bowl and then using the end of a wooden rolling pin to crush them or by putting them in a plastic bag and using the side of a wooden rolling pin.  Either way, it is a great way of getting rid of a bit of stress!
  2. Melt the butter – I generally do this by putting it in a small bowl and giving it a quick blast in microwave.
  3. Put the biscuit crumbs and melted butter in a bowl and stir to combine.  Then pour the crumb mixture into a 23 cm loose-bottomed cake tin and press down with the back of a spoon to form a smooth layer.
  4. Put the tin containing the crumb mixture in the fridge for around 15 minutes.  This will allow it to cool and harden so that it is easier to add the layer of caramel.
  5. When the crumb mixture has cooled, spoon the caramel on top of it to form the next layer.
  6. Peel and slice your bananas and place the slices on top of the caramel.
  7. Whip the cream and smooth this on top of the banana layer.
Easy Banoffee Pie
Put the banana slices on top of the caramel layer

Keywords: banoffee pie, bananas, caramel

Love this recipe? You may like

Rum Banana Bread

Summer Pudding recipe

Summer Pudding recipe

This Summer Pudding recipe is an English classic which was developed specifically to make use of stale bread. It was an imperative not to waste food and products had a shorter shelf-life due to lack of preservatives.   In the winter, Bread and Butter Pudding, was a popular way to use up bread that was past its best. In summer,  when berries were in season, Summer Pudding was the answer!

Slices of bread, dipped in berry-flavoured syrup, are used to encase a mixture of summer berries.   One of the great things about this Summer Pudding recipe is that it can be adapted to the ingredients that you have available.  You can use any berries that are in season but make sure that you include some currants – either redcurrants or blackcurrants – as they are needed to produce the flavourful syrup.

Other easy dessert recipes

If you are looking for an easy, make-ahead summer dessert, you might also like some of my other recipes.

Summer Pudding recipe
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Summer Pudding recipe with redcurrants, raspberries and strawberries

Summer Pudding recipe

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Pudding
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

An easy to make, no-cook,  traditional English bread pudding recipe using fresh seasonal berries.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 kilo mixed fresh berries (NB: the mix should include some currants but otherwise use whatever you have available from: redcurrants, blackcurrants, raspberries, loganberries, tayberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries etc)
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 170 g caster sugar
  • 6 slices of white bread (crusts removed)
Summer Pudding recipe
Fresh berries

Instructions

  1. Place the currants in a saucepan together with the water and sugar. Heat until the currants have softened.  This will take about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the other berries to the saucepan with the currants and stir to combine.
  3. Use a sieve to separate the berries from the juice.
  4. Take a sheet of cling film and use it to line the inside of a small pudding basin.    This will make it easier to get the pudding out of the basin!
  5. Dip the slices of bread in the juice and use it to line the bottom and sides of the small pudding basin. You can fill in any gaps with small pieces of juice-dipped bread.
  6. Pour the berries into the bread-lined pudding basin.
  7. Cover the top of the basin with juice-dipped bread to enclose the berry mixture.
  8. Put a piece of cling film loosely over the top of the pudding basin. Put a small saucer on top of it and use something heavy (a can of beans is perfect!) to weigh it down.
  9. Leave the pudding basin in the fridge overnight.
  10. When you are ready to serve, remove the cling film from the top of the pudding basin.  Invert the basin onto a plate. Give it a sharp shake and remove the basin leaving the pudding on the plate.   Take off the cling film that you used to line the basin.
  11. Serve chilled.   Whipped cream is a good accompaniment.
Summer Pudding recipe
Summer Pudding

Notes

  • Use whatever berries are available but make sure you include some redcurrants or blackcurrants as you need these to make the flavoured syrup.
  • You need to make this recipe a day in advance of when you wish to eat it as it needs to be kept in the fridge overnight to ensure that it stays in shape when turned out.
  • This is a vegan recipe.

Keywords: summer pudding, english, berries, strawberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants

Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

This recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream uses strawberries that have been macerated in balsamic vinegar.   The end result does not taste sour or vinegary at all.   The balsamic vinegar enhances the flavour of the strawberries and cuts through their sweetness.  Sometimes it is hard to get hold of really tasty strawberries and the addition of the vinegar can help you create super-tasty ice cream from average tasting berries.  Essentially, it is strawberry ice cream but with an extra flavour boost.

What you need to know about this Strawberry Ice Cream
  • As I am keen on using seasonal, local produce, I generally make this ice cream in late May to September when it is strawberry season in England. However, you can make it all the year around.
  • You need to make sure that you use balsamic vinegar rather than ordinary vinegar to make this recipe. Balsamic vinegar has a rich sweetness which offsets its sharpness and really brings out the flavour of the strawberries.
  • Although you can make this recipe without an ice cream maker, it is a lot easier if you have one. You can buy a basic ice cream maker fairly cheaply.
  • It is best to start this recipe the day before you eat it. This will mean that once you have made the basic custard, it will have time to chill down before you put it in the ice cream maker the next day.
  • You can also make this ice cream well in advance if that is more convenient. I generally make double the quantity and keep it in the freezer where it will last for up to three months.
  • As with most home-made ice creams, it helps to remove the container from the freezer about ten minutes before serving as this will make it easier to scoop.

Other home-made ice cream recipes

I am a great home-made ice cream enthusiast. I make it in the summer, of course, but am happy to eat it in winter too! There are some brilliant, shop-bought ice creams available but it is so easy to make your own. I like to experiment with flavours and some of my other ice cream recipes are listed below.

Other strawberry recipes

I love strawberries. I like to eat them just as they are but I also have a few recipes too. They are great as the topping for a Strawberry Pavlova, a Strawberry Roulade or as a filling for a Strawberry Cream Cake. I also have a great recipe for Strawberry Jam which is flavoured with rose geranium.

Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream recipe

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Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

  • Author: Tastebotanical
  • Prep Time: 15
  • Cook Time: 5
  • Total Time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: for 6 people 1x
  • Category: Ice-cream
  • Cuisine: English
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Description

This ice cream uses strawberries that have been macerated in balsamic vinegar.  This cuts through the sweetness of the berries and enhances their taste.   When you try the ice cream, you would not guess that it contains vinegar.

Ingredients

Scale
  • 500 g fresh strawberries
  • 55 ml balsamic vinegar
  • 110 g caster sugar
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 425 ml double cream

Instructions

  1. Wash the strawberries, remove the green stalks and roughly chop.
  2. Place the chopped strawberries in a bowl and add the balsamic vinegar.  Allow to macerate for around 30 minutes.
  3. Put the sugar in a saucepan with 55 ml of water.  Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.  Set the sugar syrup aside to cool slightly.
  4. Set aside 150 g of the macerated strawberries.  Place the remaining 350 g of the macerated strawberries in a blender together with the sugar syrup.  Blend to form a thick puree.
  5. Put the cream in a saucepan and heat gently. Do not allow to boil – it will be the right temperature when you are just about able to bear to dip a finger in it!
  6. Put the egg yolks in a bowl and add the heated cream, whisking all the time.
  7. Transfer the combined mixture into a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or, ideally a double-boiler, as you need to reheat it very gently.
  8. The mixture will gradually thicken until it looks like a custard (which is what it is).  Stir regularly to make sure it does not stick while it is thickening.
  9. Remove the thick custard from the heat and transfer into a bowl.  Add the strawberry puree to the custard together with the 150 g of macerated strawberries that you set aside (see point 4).
  10. Allow to cool to room temperature and then transfer to the fridge to become thoroughly chilled.
  11. When you are ready to make the ice cream, transfer to your ice cream maker and use according to your machine’s instructions.  If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can place the mixture in a freezer-proof container, put in the freezer for several hours until half-frozen.  Whisk the mixture and then return to the container and replace in the freezer until totally frozen.

Notes

Although the preparation time and cook time totals 20 minutes you will need to allow additional time for the ice cream mixture to become completely cold before you freeze it.

Keywords: stawberry, ice cream, balsamic