The wonderful thing about living in this part of the world is that despite being winter, the strawberry season has just started and will continue until November. Even the early strawberries are tasting great, the ones pictured came farm fresh from a local grower not far up the road.

This recipe was one bought to my attention by a friend and the original can be found at the Taste.com website. As their recipe suggested, I substituted lemon juice with liqueur (I don’t need much prompting to use a bit of grog in my cooking) and I also changed the granita biscuits for choc ripple. I made the cheesecakes the day before and the biscuits went a little soggy, but in a good way, the choc flavour mellowed and went really well with the strawberry filling. I also use raw sugar (I think it tastes way better than white sugar). To make it ‘castor’ give it a quick wizz in a coffee grinder or blender.

The recipe is for six, but I found I could get eight out of this recipe, nine if I hadn’t licked the spoon, although I think I used regular sized muffin tins. I don’t have electric mixers, I found this recipe only takes five minutes even beating with a wooden spoon.

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This is a slice recipe I found in an old magazine. I made this for Mother’s Day. My mum reminded me that she used to make this all the time, but with peanuts, which is probably why I can’t remember as I’m not a fan of peanuts in deserts.

This slice is very sweet (anything that involved a can of condensed milk is going to be sweet), but quite moorish nevertheless. And it got gobbled up before I got a chance to take a picture.

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This was one of my Christmas day contributions, an old fashioned English Trifle. Always a hit, there are endless variations to a trifle, basically it’s just layers of yumminess.

I nearly did morrello cherries and kirsch, but stuck with the traditional after all.

Make this one day ahead to allow for the liquid to be absorbed by the cake.

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Love to indulge in chocolate? Yep, me too! And what better desert for Valentine’s Day than a rich and creamy mousse. Sorry about the lack of photo, I was going to make this again for Valentine’s Day, but forgot I’m not supposed to eat uncooked egg at the moment.

To get the best flavoured mousse, splurge on the best quality chocolate you can find. Valrhona is a popular brand when it comes to making these things, but I’ve never seen it anywhere (I don’t think it’s a supermarket staple) so I use Lindt when I want good chocolate. And don’t spoil it by using any non-fat light cream stuff! Use the real deal.

Vary this mouse with the type of liqueur you add (or leave it out altogether (DH is not a rum fan). Cointreau or it’s alternative will give a nice Jaffa flavour, whiskey actually makes a nice accompaniment to chocolate, Tia Maria or Kahlua will give a mocha flavour, or Frangelico for a hazelnut flavour. Alternatively, you could use white chocolate instead of dark (I’d probably ditch the added sugar though).

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I threw this quick apple crumble together the other night while I was cooking dinner, had it in the oven in 10 minutes and it was ready just after we had finished dinner. Cooking from scratch doesn’t need to take a long time or be complicated. And of course it tastes better and is healthier than the store bought alternative.

The measurements are given as a guideline but I didn’t measure as I cooked this so taste as you go and adjust to suit how you enjoy your crumble. You may need to adjust the sugar level with the apples anyway depending on what variety of apples you have and how naturally sweet they are. If you don’t have lemon leave it out, it adds an extra dimension to the flavour, but isn’t necessary, substitute the cinnamon for nutmeg or cardamom or allspice if you prefer.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C
2. Core, peel and chop the apples. In a saucepan add apples, sugar, lemon and cinnamon.
3. Simmer apples until soft or to the texture that you prefer.
4. Meanwhile combine the flour, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon and rub together with your fingers to get a ‘breadcrumb’ like consistency.
5. Pour apple mixture into greased oven dish or individual dishes, sprinkle with crumble mixture and bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is golden.

Variations

• Add sultanas or other dried fruit for variety
• You can use any fruit that you have on hand like berries (fresh or frozen) pears, peaches, plums etc.
• To make this dish even quicker, use tin fruit. No need to cook just drain.
• Add rolled oats or crushed nuts to the crumble mixture for more texture. You may need to add a little extra butter to get the right consistency.

Method

1. Line a pie dish or flan tin with pastry. Blind bake and cool.
2. Whisk eggs and sugar until well combined. Add cream and whisk to combine. Add lemon juice and zest. Whisk well to combine.
3. Pour into prepared pastry base. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes at 150°C.
4. Cool and serve

The bigger the tart tin, the thinner the filling, but it is a very rich and ‘tart’ tart so a little goes a long way. Using a store bought pastry case will mean that this dish will take less than 5 minutes to prepare.