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.
What can you do if you have three over-ripe mangoes? Make ice-cream, of course! This recipe for Mango and Lime Ice-cream is based on one included in Delia Smith’s Winter Collection – a cookery book I go back to year after year – but I include the lime zest as well as the lime juice as I like a stronger lime flavour. Also, I generally make it with cream rather than crème fraiche as I am more likely to have this in the house. Luckily for me, this ice-cream is better if your mangoes are very ripe as this gives it a stronger flavour.
This is a lovely ice-cream – exotic mango and zesty lime – and very easy to make. It makes a great dessert following a spicy meal (thai green curry anyone?) but is also very nice eaten straight from the tub in the garden on a hot summer’s day (don’t ask me how I know this!)
Equipment
Liquidiser, mixing bowl, freezer proof dish, Ice Cream Maker (although you can make it without this – see below)
This ice-cream combines the fruity deliciousness of mango with a zing of fresh lime.
Ingredients
Scale
120 g caster sugar
3 large, very ripe, mangoes
4 limes
200 ml double cream
Instructions
Put the sugar into a small saucepan together with 150 ml of water. Heat slowly until the sugar is dissolved. Then simmer uncovered for around 15 minutes until the mixture has reduced and looks thick and syrupy. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Peel your mangoes, remove the flesh, put it into your liquidiser and blend into a smooth puree.
Put the mango puree into a bowl and add the cooled sugar syrup and the juice and grated zest of the limes.
In a separate bowl (or food processor) whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.
Fold the mango mixture into the whipped cream.
Put the combined mixture into the fridge and allow to get completely cold.
If you have an ice-cream maker, put the mixture into it and process according to instructions. Once the ice-cream has thickened, transfer it to a freezer-proof container and keep in your freezer until you wish to eat it.
If you do not have an ice-cream maker, you can transfer the mixture straight into the freezer-proof container, freeze for one hour, then stir and return to the freezer.
Keywords: mango and lime ice-cream, mango ice-cream
This recipe for Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding is very easy to make and is a great starting point for someone who is new at dessert-making. Traditional Bread and Butter Pudding consists, as the name suggests, of slices of buttered bread set in a simple baked custard.
This recipe combines the lovely creamy custard with golden crispy bread and tangy sweet-sour rhubarb. It is an easy way of providing the classic combination of rhubarb and custard. It is really easy to make – no messing about making pastry or sponge cakes for pudding – and should please those who like a traditional pudding and those who like something a bit different.
What you need to know about Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding
It is extremely easy and can be assembled with the absolute minimum of skill. Just butter bread, add jam and put it in a dish with some eggs and milk. Cook for half an hour in the over and that is it.
You can use home-made Rhubarb Jam. I have an easy recipe for this if you want to try it. However, you can make it with shop-bought jam and it will still taste good. You can also make it with other jam flavours. Any flavour would be good but I would recommend using one with a stronger, tart flavour such as gooseberry or maybe blackcurrant.
You can eat this pudding either hot from the oven or at room temperature. If you have some left over, you can cover it with clingfilm and keep it in the fridge for up to three days.
I love making traditional old-fashioned puddings which can be made quickly from ingredients that are available in most households (bread, milk, eggs). These puddings fell out of fashion, partly due to the focus on French cordon bleu style cooking in the 1970s. However, they had a renaissance in the 1980s when they began to appear on restaurant menus.
In addition to this recipe for Rhubarb Bread and Butter Pudding, I also have one for Marmalade Bread and Butter Pudding which is another twist on a traditional Bread and Butter Pudding recipe. That recipe is also known as Osborne Pudding as it was allegedly a favourite of Queen Victoria. It has a great combination of bread-filled custard and orange and slightly bitter marmalade.
If you are looking for another kind of easy pudding recipe, then crumbles (or crisps as they are known in North America) are another good option. You could try a traditional Apple Crumble or maybe a Rhubarb Crumble?
This Rhubarb Ice Cream is made from rhubarb curd flavoured with rosewater. It is a really quick and easy ice-cream which manages to taste both familiar and exotic and its soft pink colour looks wonderful! Rhubarb and rose go very well together and each enhances the flavour of the other. The sharpness of the rhubarb, the sweet floweriness of the rose plus soft billowing cream is a winning combination. Don’t overdo the rose flavouring as you want it to balance and not over-power the taste of the rhubarb. The ice-cream should make you think of an English summer garden – with a whisper of rose-water giving a hint of exotic Arabian Nights rather than a full-on Fry’s Turkish Delight flashback!
You can make this recipe with home-made Rhubarb Curd or with the shop-bought variety. If you have never made Rhubarb Curd, it is very easy and a lot cheaper than buying ready-made!
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.
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.
Roasted Cherry Ice Cream – juicy fresh cherries with a bit of booze make this a rich and indulgent dessert (you can leave out the alcohol if you really want to)
Coffee Ice Cream – quick and easy, store-cupboard recipe using instant coffee which has an amazingly rich coffee flavour
Cranberry Ice Cream – if you have any left-over cranberry sauce, you know what to do with it
Elderflower Ice-cream – easy recipe using elderflower cordial – delicious floral taste of summer!
Lavender Ice-cream – another gorgeous floral ice cream (bit of a theme here at tastebotanical…) made with fresh or dried culinary lavender
Lemon Curd Ice Cream – this tangy, three-ingredient recipe is probably the simplest ice cream recipe you will find
Rose Ice-cream – made with culinary rosewater, this ice cream is the essence of an English summer garden
Strawberry Balsamic Ice-cream – strawberry ice cream given a lift with a dash of balsamic vinegar to bring out the sweetness
This is a lovely ice-cream to make in early summer which combines the flavours of rhubarb and rose.
Ingredients
Scale
600 g (1.5 lbs) Rhubarb Curd – you can either make your own (See my recipe for homemade Rhubarb Curd) or you can buy it in good supermarkets or food stores
Add a few drops of pink food colouring if you feel the mixture needs to be pinker! This won’t be necessary if you have already added colouring to home-made Curd.
Put the ice-cream mixture in your ice-cream maker, process until thickened and transfer to a freezer-proof container and store in your freezer until required. Alternatively, as outlined above, you can put the ice-cream mixture straight into the freezer if you don’t have an ice-cream maker.
Keywords: rhubarb ice-cream, rhubarb and rose ice-cream
