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Dessert Recipes

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Quick Fruit Cobbler

This is a very simple dessert. When cooked it has a cake-like topping with fruit underneath. The consistency varies depending on the variety of fruit used and the amount of juice, but it always tastes delicious. Serves about 6

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

Combine in a bowl

½ cup sugar
½ cup self-raising flour (or plain flour with 1 teaspoon baking powder)
½ cup milk

Pour into a greased 23 cm square ovenproof dish (a cake tin is fine and you can also use a round container with similar capacity).

Add, distributing it fairly evenly over the batter:

2 cups fruit - fresh, frozen or canned

Bake for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown and springs back into shaped when pressed lightly in the centre.

Spice can be added to the batter mixture - ½ teaspoon of whatever you like eg cinnamon tastes nice with apple or peaches. Cloves also taste good with apple, but ¼ teaspoon is heaps.

Serve with custard, yoghurt, cream or icecream if liked. Keeps well in the refrigerator and might also freeze, but I've never tried it.

Bread and Butter Pudding

Serves 4-6 people depending on how hungry they are and what else is being served with it.

4 slices bread (can be stale but not mouldy)
butter or margarine
1-2 tablespoons sugar
2-3 tablespoons sultanas or other dried fruit (optional)
2 eggs (large or use 3 small) 500 ml milk (can use 1/3 cup powdered milk in 2 cups water - this is cheaper)
nutmeg or cinnamon (optional)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence (optional)

  1. Turn oven on to 160°C (325°F)
  2. Heat milk on moderate heat until fairly warm - not boiling
  3. Meanwhile, spread bread fairly thinly with butter or margarine - fairly thinly and cut into cubes. Place in ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sultanas.
  4. Beat eggs and add sugar and vanilla then pour in warm milk and mix until well combined and pour over bread. Sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon
  5. Stand in a baking dish and pour in hot water until it comes about half way up the sides of the dish with the custard in it.
  6. Bake until a sharp knife inserted in the centre comes out without an obvious coating of milk. This will take 40-60 minutes depending on how hot the milk was, how cold the eggs were and how deep the dish is.

Notes

  • This can be served hot or cold, with or without extra fruit, cream or icecream. It is also possible to leave the dried fruit out, and it can be poured on top of drained stewed fruit or pie pack fruit and cooked like that.
  • This recipe is a good way to use up stale bread and contains all five food groups, although I wouldn't recommend it as your sole food for an extended period! You can use any type of bread, including fruit bread and English-style muffins. Dark rye bread might taste a bit odd, but would still work.
  • If you leave out the bread, you just have baked custard.

Fruit Crumble

Serves about 6

2-3 cups stewed or canned fruit (1 large can pie pak apple, peach or apricot)
½ cup flour (can be plain or self-raising, wholemeal or white)
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup desiccated coconut
½. cup sugar (white, brown or raw)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
½ teaspoon spice (optional) - use cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger or mixed spice

  1. Turn oven on to 180°C (375°F). Place fruit in an ovenproof dish or cake tin and put in oven to warm while making topping.
  2. Put flour in medium sized bowl and rub through butter or margarine with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
  3. Spread topping evenly over the fruit (which you have removed from the oven and place on a heat-resistant surface, not the bench top) and cook until golden brown about 30 minutes.
  4. Serve with custard, cream and/or icecream.

Notes

  • Keeps in the fridge for several days. Can be frozen.
  • To stew fruit: peel, slice, core or stone as necessary and cut or slice into evenly sized pieces. Place in a saucepan so that there is at least three cm between the top of the fruit and the top of the saucepan. Add about ¼ cup water, cover the saucepan and bring to the boil over medium high heat. Turn down to low and simmer until tender. This will take about 10-20 minutes, depending on the type of fruit and how large the pieces are. If you are cooking your own fruit, you can make the topping and put the oven on to heat while it is cooking.

Custard

Serves 4

2 cups milk (can use skim) or ½ cup powdered milk dissolved in 2 cups water
2-3 tablespoons custard powder
1-2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence (optional)

  1. Put the custard powder and sugar in a bowl and add about ¼ cup of the milk. Stir until smooth.
  2. Meanwhile, heat the rest of the milk in a saucepan over slightly more than moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until very hot, but not boiling. (If it comes to the boil, take it off the stove and allow it to cool for a few minutes before continuing.)
  3. Stir the custard powder mixture again briefly, then gradually pour in the hot milk, whilst stirring constantly.
  4. Return the liquid to the saucepan and return to the stove. Turn the heat down to somewhere between medium and low and stir until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from the stove and add the vanilla if you are using it.
  5. Serve with tinned fruit, sliced bananas etc.

Notes

  • If you heat milk on high it will stick to the bottom and burn. It is not worth trying to hurry the process because it won't work.
  • If the custard becomes lumpy (this will happen if the milk is boiling when you add it to the custard powder, or if you don't stir it enough) beating it with an egg-beater or whisk will usually take the lumps out.
  • This basic recipe can be turned into chocolate custard by substituting cornflour for the custard powder and adding 1 tablespoon of cocoa. Adding 1 teaspoon of instant coffee to the chocolate custard will give you mocha. If you're making chocolate custard, you really need to use vanilla essence. Drinking chocolate will also work, but you need to use twice as much and only half the amount of sugar. You can also add sultanas or chopped walnuts.
  • You can also cook custard in a microwave. Mix the custard powder with a small amount of milk and add the rest of the ingredients. The standard recipe says to cook on high for 3 minutes and then beat well with a wooden spoon. Cook another 2 minutes or so until thickened and boiling. I find it is better if you stir after about 90 seconds and then again after another 90 seconds, then cook for another 2 minutes - you are less likely to get lumps this way. Make sure you do this in a very big bowl or it will boil all over the microwave and make a disgusting mess. Watch carefully once it begins to thicken.