Chow Times » Dessert

Orange Poached Pears

Suanne — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:32 +0000

For dessert, Minoo prepared Orange Poached Pears. This dessert is best served chilled. You may served the Orange Poached Pears with some vanilla ice-cream, leave out the syrups. The pears can be cut into smaller pieces and serve with your favourite yogurt along with some granolas for breakfast.

This Orange Poached Pears recipe serves 6.

Ingredients

2 cups orange juice
2 cups water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
zest of 1 orange, cut in strips
3 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick
6 ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored, and quartered lengthwise

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Toffee Apple Cake

Suanne — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:00:19 +0000

Chris shared this Toffee Apple Cake recipe with the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors as dessert. According to Chris, this cake is tops. The best part is we can make most out the local apples in the fall.

This Toffee Apple Cake is very moist and almost custard like. The toffee bits topping add some crunch to it. This is certainly not a dietary kind of dessert. Well, it’s ok to let ourselves indulge for a treat once in a while.

Chris and Paul worked on this dessert. This recipe serves 24.

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Apple, Cake, Community Kitchen, Recipe, Toffee

Raisin Tea Muffins

Suanne — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 14:00:08 +0000

For dessert, Minoo prepared a Raisin Tea Muffin recipe. Muffin is great for breakfast, lunch box, after school snack or tea time. It is easy to make, easy to transport and quick to bake. All you have to remember is to combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another bowl and combine them without over mixing. Over mixing will yield tough muffin.

This Raisin Tea Muffin has just the right sweetness and has a mild tea flavour with hint of spices. Perfect with a cup of chai tea.

Ingredients

1 teabag

1/2 cup boiling water

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 egg, beaten

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

a pinch of cinnamon, nutneg, cardamon and cloves.

This recipe yields 6 muffins.

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Raisin, Restaurant Review, Tea

Peach Cobbler with Oat Scones Topping

Suanne — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:00:47 +0000

We have Peach Cobbler as dessert in the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors. Cobbler toppings take on many forms. Some resemble sugar cookie dough while some are like pie crusts. This topping is a tender oatmeal scone, which bakes up crisp, nubbly, and slightly sweet.

A scoop of vanilla ice-cream will make this dessert perfect.

This recipe is adapted from America’s Test Kitchen and Cooking Light and it serves 6.

Ingredients

2 pounds peaches

2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1/3 cup brown sugar

pinch of nutmeg and cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Oat Scones Topping:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (1 stick)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg, beaten to blend

Christina and Chris made this dessert.

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Peach, Recipe

Strawberry Banana Cream

Suanne — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:00:47 +0000

Besides the Beef Tacos with Salsa and Guacamole, Blanca also prepared a dessert for the South Arm Community Kitchen. It is called Fresas and Platanos con Crema which translated to Strawberry and Banana in Cream.

Strawberry and Banana Cream is so simple to prepare and yet it’s so delicious. This is a great item for potluck.

Ingredient

strawberries, cut into quarters

few bananas, sliced

chopped pecans

condensed milk (you may substitute half with yogurt if you do not want it too sweet)

Instructions

Just combine all ingredients in a large bowl and toss to mix well. Love the sweetness of the fresh fruits and the crunchiness from the pecans.

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Banana, Community Kitchen, Condensed Milk, Recipe, Strawberry

Onde-Onde

Suanne — Sat, 02 May 2009 14:00:21 +0000

I shared a dessert called Onde-Onde in the Gilmore Park Community Kitchen. We had a sweet treat day as we have two desserts on the same day. Onde-Onde is a popular street food in South East Asia.

Onde-Onde is very similar to the various Chinese Tang Yuan like Glutinous Rice Ball with Sesame Peanuts Filings, Hong Kong style Tang Yuan and Taiwanese Tang Yuan. The only difference is those Tang Yuan are served in a sweet syrupy soup while Onde-Onde is served dry with shredded coconut coating. It is more like a finger food.

This Onde-Onde recipe is flavoured with pandan leaves. Pandan leaves (also known as screwpine leaves) are used commonly in the South East Asia in making desserts. You can find pandan leaves in the frozen section of some Filipino groceries stores here and even fresh ones from Vancouver Chinatown.

Pandan leaf is used to impart it’s fragrance into the dessert. It is normally discarded after the dish is made like this Sweet Potato Soup. Pandan leaves are also used as a natural green food coloring.

Ingredients

10 pandan leaves

5 tablespoons water

few drops of green coloring (optional)

400g glutinous rice flour

2 tablespoons tapioca flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup of water (more if needed)

Filling:

100g gula melaka (plam sugar)

Coating:

150g grated coconut

1/4 teaspoon salt

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 9 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Dessert, Glutinous Rice Flour, Kuih, Recipe, Shredded Coconut

Mango with Chocolate Meringue

Suanne — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:00:18 +0000

It was mango season and Minoo made a dessert with mango in the Gilmore Park Community Kitchen. We are very lucky to have abundance of fresh fruit in Vancouver. When a fruit is in season, the price is so affordable. So, enjoy them while they are the cheapest and when they are the freshest.

This Mango with Chocolate Meringue has a base of succulent mango slices infused with orange zest and is topped with an airy topping of chocolaty meringue and nuts. Since the meringue is made of just egg whites, this dessert is good for people who is watching their cholesterol.

Ingredients

2 medium-sized ripe mangoes

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

Whites of 3 large eggs

a pinch of salt

125g or 1/2 cup caster sugar (superfine granulated)

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

15g or 1 tablespoon chopped hazelnuts

Mango is considered as a superfruit for its phytochemicals nutrients. It is rich in prebiotic dietary fiber, vitamin C, polyphenols and carotenoids. Mango also contains essential vitamins and minerals like vitamin A, B, B6, E and potassium, copper, 17 amino acids.

The pulp of mango is also a rich source of pectins and is great for making pudding.

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Chocolate, Community Kitchen, Dessert, Mango, Recipe

Phyllo Cup

Suanne — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:00:45 +0000

Minoo demonstrated a dessert made with phyllo dough in the South Arm Community Kitchen. It was an eye opener for some of the members of the South Arm Community Kitchen as they have never use a phyllo dough before. The dessert Minoo made is called Phyllo Cup.

The Phyllo Cup can be filled with various fillings. Minoo choosed to fill the Phyllo Cup with honey filling with berries. Other alternatives are lemon cheesecake filling and espresso coconut macadamia filings.

The Phyllo Cup is very crunchy and light. You really need a plate to eat this Phyllo Cup as the crumbs keep falling off the Phyllo Cup when you bite into it and you can hear the crunch every bite.

Ingredients

8 sheets frozen Phyllo dough, thawed

4 teaspoons sugar

butter & milk to brush on the dough or you may just use Pam spray

Filling

3 oz softened cream cheese

2 to 3 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup whipping cream

one teaspoon vanilla extract

fresh strawberries or other berries

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Cream Cheese, Dessert, Phyllo Dough, Recipe, Strawberry

Pavlova Roll with Passion Fruit Cream

Suanne — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:00:07 +0000

For dessert, Sydney and Joyce made a Pavlova Roll with Passion Fruit Cream for the the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors. This is a less guilt dessert as the Pavlova is made with egg whites only.

My first tasting of a pavlova was at Sweet William’s Dessert during one of the cake meet with Polly.

The Pavlova Roll with Passion Fruit Cream is delightfully light and fragrant. The passion fruit seeds give a surprising crunch to this light cake.

Passion fruit is native to South America and widely grown in India, New Zealand, the Carribbean, Brazil, colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia, California, southern Florida, Hawaii, Australia, East Africa, Israel and South Africa. No wonder I saw a twinkle in Sydney’s eyes when he knew he is making this dessert. Sydney is borned in South Africa.

The passion fruit comes in yellow or dark purple at maturity. It has a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous edible seeds. It has a very fragrant aroma, almost like guava to me.

The purple varieties have traces of cynogenic glycosides in the skin, and hence are mildly poisonous. However, the thick, hard skin is hardly edible and if boiled to make jam, the cyanide molecules are destroyed at high temperatures.

Ingredients

Pavlova:

8 egg whites (about 1 cup)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 tablespoon white vinegar (we substituted with cider vinegar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 tablespoon icing sugar

Filling:

3/4 cup whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon icing sugar

1/3 cup passion fruot (or pulp from 2 passion fruits)

Garnish:

1 mango, peeled and cut in matchsticks (or 1 cup sliced strawberries)

Please note that the whipping cream was left out in the photo above as it was kept cool in the refrigerator.

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© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Dessert, Passionfruit, Pavlova, Recipe

Fruit Ice-Cream

Suanne — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:00:52 +0000

On the day we made the Taro Cake in the South Arm Community Kitchen, it was an exceptional cold spring day with temperature as low as -5 degrees Celsius on the day low. Guess what, Lorna was demonstrating how to make Fruit Ice-Cream on that day. It is certainly a very cold treat for a very cold day.

Lorna brought some ice-cream which she made earlier for us to try. Look at this cute hello kitty strawberry ice-cream. It’s not only pleasant to the eyes, but it is creamy and taste wonderful. Many of members were asking Lorna on the cost of the ice cream maker and I think this demonstration has inspire some of the members to have the desire to get an ice-cream machine this summer, that includes me.

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups sliced strawberries

2/3 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup homogenized milk

250ml whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Fruit Ice-Cream (219 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Dessert, Ice-cream, Recipe