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Old Fashioned Cream Swiss Roll

29 October 2012 in Baking, Desserts, Easy to prepare, Economical

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Whenever I go to England there is one shop I never fail to visit and that’s Lakeland. I can spend hours and many English pounds there very easily. One of the items I bought on this last visit was this….

 

Initially I was going to use it to neaten up the family favourite pud of rolled pavlova and then I realized that I have never ever made a Swiss Roll. I was surprised at how easy it was and even with the purchase of a tub of cream, how economical. Add a fruit coulis and you’ve got a perfectly acceptable dessert that will go a long way.

I used a recipe from The Blue Ribbon Book that I’ve had for years.

Swiss Roll

 4 XL eggs separated

2/3 cup (165 ml) castor sugar

4 Tsp (50 ml) water

1 cup (250 ml) self raising flour

Pinch of salt

Jam – strawberry or raspberry are best for this

1 x 250 ml tub of fresh cream – whipped (The cream is optional, the original recipe just used jam…..boring!)

***

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

Line a swiss roll tin (30cm x 20cm, mine was slightly bigger but it still worked)

Whisk egg-yolks until thick (about a minute) then gradually add the castor sugar, whisking all the time.

Add the cold water and continue mixing.

Whisk the egg whites until stiff, but not too stiff and add them alternatively with the sifted dry ingredients to the egg mixture, fold in gently.

Pour the mixture onto your tin, smooth it out and bake for 20 minutes.

Turn out immediately onto baking paper sprinkled with castor sugar.

Peel off your paper lining and roll up cake with another piece of paper in between to make a roll.

Cover with a damp cloth and cool slightly.

Unroll and spread with jam and then the whipped cream.

Roll up again and allow to cool on a cooling rack.

Trim the ends for presentation – cooks perks!

Dust lightly with icing sugar.

 

 

 

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Economical Chocolate Bread Pudding -feeds 6 for under R15.00

1 August 2012 in Baking, Cheap and cheerful, Desserts, Easy to prepare

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I was recently given this recipe (thanks Dominque) and incorrectly assumed that it would be your usual bread-and-butter-type pudding, how wrong was I?! This is a great pud for the family  it uses everyday ingredients that we all have in our cupboards and it is both economical and easy to make, it ticks all the boxes.

Chocolate Bread Pudding

500mls of milk

6 slices of bread cubed

125ml sugar

85ml cocoa

2 egg yolks, lightly beaten

30ml softened butter

5ml vanilla

2 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks

***

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees and grease a 20cm (8 inch) square dish

Put the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil, remove from heat

Add the bread cubes and whisk until quite smooth (I used my mixer)

Add sugar, cocoa and yolks, mix well

Add butter and vanilla

Fold in the egg whites

Pour into your dish

Place inside a bigger dish with boiling water, the water needs to come about halfway up the smaller dish

Bake for 30 minutes or until firm

Serve with custard, cream or ice cream

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Budget Chocolate Mousse – serve 8 for under R30.00

19 July 2012 in Budget Beater, Cheap and cheerful, Desserts, Easy to prepare

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Like most people I have a repertoire of tried and tested hairy old favourite recipes that I have used for years, this chocolate mousse is one of them.  It’s easy to make, feeds 8 and doesn’t break the bank.

You will have to buy two bars of chocolate as they are 90g each, you can either eat the remainder (cooks perks) or use it for decoration like I did (see below)

125g Cadburys Bournville dark chocolate (R8.99 per bar = R17.98)

4 eggs (R7.99 for 6 = R5.40)

2/3 of a 250ml tub of cream (R8.99 for tub, R6.00)

Total: R29.38

1 cap of whisky or spirit of your choice (optional)

toasted almonds (optional)

*****

Separate the eggs and place the yolks in a largish mixing bowl.

Break the chocolate into squares and place in a microwaveable bowl, melt on high for 2 minutes, check and give it another minute, check again, and so on until it is melted. Give it a little stir if it needs help.

Whisk the melted chocolate into the egg yolks and add the whisky if using.

While that is cooling whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks.

Fold half the egg whites into the chocolate mix and then the remainder.

Spoon into 8 ramekins (mine are 8cm in diameter) or one large bowl.

Place in the fridge to set, allow at least 2 hours.

Whip the  cream and either pipe or spoon a blob on each ramekin, decorate with leftover grated chocolate or scatter a few toasted almonds, add a cherry even. Or you can have a go at making shards……..melt the remaining chocolate and pour onto a cold surface, allow to set and with a sharp knife held at a 45 degree angle shave off some circular shards. Clearly I need to practise!

 

 

Last time I mentioned that I bought fresh cream for R8.99 I got the feeling that some of you didn’t quite believe me, so here’s my slip :)

UPDATE: A fellow blogger has told me that Checkers currently have the 180g Cadbury slabs are available @ R12.99 – so if you can get one of those it makes the recipe even cheaper! :)

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Budget Creme Brulee

23 May 2012 in Cheap and cheerful, Desserts, Easy to prepare

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Last year for my birthday my daughter gave me a blow torch, which has languished in the drawer ever since. I finally got around to using it and I was delighted with the crust on my creme brulees. It produced the required crunch when the spoon entered and the custard was creamy and delicious.

My cream cost R8.99 and the two eggs R2.70 so this is a very economical pud.

1 x 250ml tub of fresh cream

125mls milk

1/4 cup castor sugar + 1/3 cup for the topping

2 jumbo egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract or essence

Heat your oven to 160 C

Beat the egg yolks until very pale and they look like this….

Beaten egg yolks

In a saucepan combine the cream, milk, sugar and the vanilla, heat until little bubbles start appearing on the outside.

Add to the beaten egg in small amounts whisking to combine.

Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins (mine are 7.5cm in diameter)

At this point if you have any bubbles on the surface, use the back of a spoon to disperse them.

Place the ramekins into a container deep enough to pour boiling water until it is halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

In their water bath, about to go into the oven

Cover loosely with foil

Place in the oven for 40 minutes

Cooked

When cool place in the fridge to set

For the topping:

In a thick bottomed saucepan melt 1/3 cup of sugar over a low heat, be patient and don’t be tempted to stir it, although you can tilt the pan a little to help it along.

Pour the the melted sugar onto foil and leave to harden.

Melted sugar poured onto foil to harden

Once it is hard, peel off the foil and break it into smaller pieces and blitz in a blender or a coffee grinder until it resembles sugar.

Sprinkle over the ramekins (I used a tea strainer to catch any bits) You can of course just use castor sugar but the toffee sugar gives a really good crust and doesn’t take as long to brown.

Ready for the blow torch or grilling

Using a blow torch melt the topping and leave to harden. If you don’t have a blow torch then pop them under a grill, but keep your eye on them!

Serves 4

Ready to eat!

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Bun & Butter Pudding

9 April 2012 in Desserts, Easy to prepare, Sous Chef

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So there went Easter, Friday we enjoyed a nice long lunch at a friends house, Saturday we just pottered around and on Sunday our children and our dudes (grandsons) came for lunch. I kept the lunch simple as both my son and daughter-in-law are on Weigh Less, so it was spit roasted chickens, salad and crispy roast potatoes….I know, I should have boiled some new potatoes but heck, I’m not on a diet! :)

I made this easy and delicious hot cross bun and butter pudding for pud  served with my homemade vanilla ice cream, listen,  the dieters could have said “no thanks” you know!   If you have some hot cross buns lingering then this recipe is perfect for using them up, otherwise you could use regular current buns or Chelsea buns. The result is an unpretentious pud with a lovely soft underbelly and a crispy top, such a nice combination.

I don’t know about you but I’ve a penchant for buns…… both edible and watchable!

Bun & Butter Pudding

8 hot cross buns

butter ( I forgot to measure how much I used….I was generous)

1 TBS raisins

1 TBS sultanas

1/2 tsp mixed spice

1 2cm knob of preserved ginger chopped

1/2 cup toasted nuts

425ml milk

50ml cream (optional)

3 large eggs

1 TSP sugar plus an extra 1 TSP

1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat your oven to 180 degrees.

Grease or spray your container, mine measures 300 x 240mms.

Cut the buns in half and butter each half, then cut each half diagonally across so you get triangles.

Layer in your dish, sprinkle over the all spice, raisins, sultanas, nuts and ginger.

In a good sized bowl beat the eggs and the sugar until pale and fluffy, like this…

In a thick bottomed pan heat the milk and cream to almost boiling.

Pour the warmed milk into the egg mix and beat to combine.

Pour the mix over the buns and sprinkle with the remaining TSP of sugar.

Bake uncovered for about 45 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream or cream, serves 8.

 

 

 

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