Dessert is usually the sweet course that concludes a meal. The dessert course includes but is not limited to sweet foods and varies to fruits, cookies, ice creams, puddings, fried foods etc. Fruit is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its natural sweetness.
Desserts usually contain sugar or a sweetening agent. Desserts contain a range of ingredients which makes the end product differ. Some of the more common ingredients in desserts are flour, dairy, eggs, nuts, honey and spices. Sugar gives many desserts their “tempting and addictive sweetness”.
In earlier times, desserts were made using locally available ingredients and sweeteners like nuts and honey comb till sugar was manufactured and found its way in most of the desserts at that time and now also.
Vanilla also plays a large role in many desserts, including ice cream. Vanilla was mostly grown in Mexico where they discovered if the vanilla pod was picked and dried then vanillin was produced which can be sweetened into a dessert on its own.
Dessert can come in variations of flavours, textures, and looks and can be broadly classified as cakes, pies, puddings, frozen desserts, chocolates, candies, custards.
Tiramisu
Tiramisu is an Italian dessert which means “pick me up”. It is made of ladyfingers (Italian-Savoiardi) dipped in coffee, layered with a whipped mixture of egg yolk and mascarpone cheese, and flavoured with cocoa.
The simplicity and subtle taste of tiramisu makes it one of the most popular desserts in the world. And tiramisu easily finds its way in most of the restaurant and coffee shop menus and chefs have been always experimenting with newer ways to make and present this dessert to their guests.
Tiramisu is a layered dessert, consisting of alternating layers of coffee-soaked Savoiardi biscuits and sweet mixture of mascarpone cheese, eggs and sugar.
Tiramisu fruit shots
Ingredients
(Serves 4)
Mascarpone cheese 1 cup
Whipped cream ½ cup
Sugar ¾ cup
Eggs 3 no
Espresso coffee 2 cup
Savoiardi 12 no
Cocoa powder 2 tbsp
For toppings
Kiwi 1 no
Cookies 4 no
Papaya slice as required
Method
1. Separate the egg yolks and beat with sugar for 2 minutes.
2. Add mascarpone cheese and 1 tbsp of espresso continue till combined.
3. Whisk egg whites separately till stiff peak and whip cream separately.
4. Combine egg white and whipped cream, do not over mix otherwise the tiramisu will not be light and fluffy.
5. Combine egg mixture with whipped cream using a spatula.
6. Fold in whipped cream and fill in piping bag.
7. Pipe the mixture into serving glass or dish of choice.
8. Dip the Savoiardi in the remaining espresso and arrange on the mixture in glass.
9. Pipe on top of the soaked Savoiardi and sprinkle with cocoa powder and arrange slice fruit.
Almond zafraan kulfi
Kulfi is a popular frozen dairy dessert from the Indian subcontinent. It is often described as “traditional Indian ice cream”. There are many ways of making kulfi from using regular milk to condensed milk and some evaporated milk or cream are also added.
Making kulfi is a long and tedious process and requires continuous stirring. Kulfi was traditionally prepared by evaporating sweetened and flavoured milk via slow cooking, with almost continuous stirring to keep milk from sticking to the bottom of the vessel where it might burn, until its volume was reduced by a half, thus thickening it.
It is garnished with ground cardamom, saffron, or pistachio nuts. Kulfi is also served with falooda (vermicelli noodles made from starch). In some places, people make it at home and make their own flavours. Some exotic flavours available in the market include betel nut, pineapple, chocolate, candy and many more.
Ingredients
(Serves 4)
Milk full fat 2 litre
Almonds ¼ cup
Zafraan few strands
Sugar as required
Cream 1 cup
Method
Heat milk with saffron in a heavy bottom pan and bring to boil.
Lower the heat and stir continuously to avoid burning of milk.
Once the milk is reduced to one fourth of its original volume remove from flame.
Allow to cool for 30 minutes and stir in heavy cream and adjust the sweetness.
Allow to cool to room temperature and pour into desired molds and freeze for 3 hours.
Remove from kulfi mould and roll into sliced almonds and serve immediately.
Note: You can also use condensed milk instead of heavy cream and can reduce the sugar quantity. Also when adding sugar to kulfi keep the quantity low as when you freeze the kulfi the sweetness increases.