So what do you need?

• 4 bananas, frozen for at least 3 hours
• 3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• ground cinnamon, a couple of sprinkles
• almonds flakes or slivers

In a food processor, pulse all ingredients, except for the flakes until smooth and creamy. Scoop into individual ice cream cups and sprinkles with almond flakes and enjoy!

This is so versatile and easy. I’m already excited about the many possibilities, this frozen treat can be flavored.

Happy experimenting!

Photo courtesy of H

For my BDesserts day, I created desserts that were no-fuss and simple, tiramisu were one of them. Traditionally, to make tiramisu, raw egg whites are whipped with the mascarpone cream but since I don’t trust eggs in Kuwait, in fear of salmonella, I came up with a simple recipe that does not require eggs.

You can whip this up in no time and forget it in the fridge for hours so the flavors develop. The longer it stays in the fridge, the better it tastes! Trust me.

What you will need: 

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 3/4 mascarpone, room temperature
• 2 bags ladyfingers
• 1 cup strong coffee, cooled
• cocoa powder

In a bowl, mix the the whipping cream and the icing sugar until soft peaks. Add the mascarpone and mix until combined.

Place the mascarpone cream, the lady fingers, coffee and cocoa powder with a sieve in front of you. Dip the ladyfingers in coffee and arrange a layer in a serving bowl of your choice, preferably with a flat bottom. Spread half of the mascarpone cream and then dust cocoa powder. Add a second layer of ladyfingers, mascrpone and cocoa powder, and that’s it!

Cool in the fridge for at least four hours, preferable overnight.

Since I still had many meringues left from my previous order and my mother wanted a dessert to take to her friend’s, I made something I always wanted to make, the Eton mess.

All you need:

• A trifle or glass bowl
• a packet of strawberries, thinly sliced
• meringues, crushed, enough to cover the bottom of the bowl
• 1 cup cream, whipped and sweetened with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Arrange the crushed meringues at the bottom of the bowl and then scatter the thinly sliced strawberry on top.

Spoon the whipped cream and swirl for an effect. Lastly, arrange whole meringues to decorate.

My mother also melted some chocolate and swirled the melted chocolate on top. She did this while I was already out so I didn’t take a picture of the final look. She said it looked beautiful, so I trust her on that.

I used this recipe for reference and substituted the milk with rice milk and the whipping cream with a vegan whipping cream, both found in Sultan Center and selective Co-Ops. The sponge cake turned out light and airy. The whipping cream does taste a little different from regular dairy whipping cream but it whipped beautifully.

Oh and I didn’t really make a make charlotte cake because I almost never eat the ladyfingers. I opted for a strawberry mousse cake instead, which is exactly the same as the charlotte cake but without the soaked ladyfingers.

I think I want to experiment with other dairy-free cakes so stay tuned!

One of the cakes I used to make for BDesserts. I stopped making this a long time which is a shame. It’s such a great high noon tea cake. I’ll remake and post the recipe soon.

Since today was my family’s weekly dinner, I decided to put the chestnut cream to good use and be creative with it. One thing led to another and so the chocolate and chestnut tart was created.

To recreate, you will need:

Crust:
100 grams cold butter
170 grams flour
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons salt sugar
2 tablespoons ice water mixed with 1 egg yolk

In a food processor, pulse the flour with cold butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add salt and pulse again. Sprinkle the water mixture and pulse a few times. Continue working with dough on tabletop, sprinkle more water if its too dry. Make sure not to overwork it. Form the dough into a disc and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 1 hour or until firm.

Remove from fridge and roll pastry to fit a 9 inch buttered tart pan. Line the pan with the pastry dough and fridge for another hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Line the tart crust with parchment paper and baking beans or uncooked rice and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and beans and bake for additional 10 minutes, until light golden brown. Leave the crust to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees Celsius.

For the filling:

• 500 grams of chestnut cream
• 200 gram good quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 1 egg
• vanilla extract
• fresh chestnuts
• simple syrup*

Bring to boil the whipping cream and add to the chocolate. Mix until velvety smooth. Cool for 5 minutes and then add the egg and vanilla extract and mix.

Once the crust is cool add half the chestnut cream and half the chocolate mixture, and then add the rest of the chestnut cream and end with the chocolate mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes until firm around the edges but slightly jiggles in the center.

Leave to cool completely before removing from tart mold. Meanwhile, make the candied chestnuts. Bake the chestnuts until their done in a high oven, for around 30 minutes. Peel and add to a small sauce pan. Add enough simple syrup to cover the chestnuts and cook until the syrup is thickened and the chestnut has absorbed the syrup. Leave to cool completely and then chop roughly.

Decorate the cooled tart with the chopped candied chestnut and icing sugar. Slice and enjoy!

* To make simple syrup bring to boil equal quantity water and sugar for 15 minutes and then remove from heat to cool completely.

Last Friday for my uncle’s futoor gathering, I created a kanafa with a creamy semolina filling.

This is the easiest kanafa with the shortest prep time.

All you need is:

• 1 shredded kanafa packet (500 grams), defrosted
• 1.5 sticks butter (150 grams), melted
• 1/2 cup fine semolina
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup thick cream

I asked her if her mother would agree to be a guest blogger on The Oven Experiments and she did!

I drafted a couple of questions to send to her mother about the cake.

What is the name of the cake?

• German Apple Cake

Did you find the recipe in a book? On a website? TV? Or did your come up with the recipe?

• I found the recipe in a cookbook by Lucinda Scala Quinn. I bought it after watching her cooking show on TV. The book is called Mad Hungry. 

If taken from somewhere, how did you modify the recipe to make it yours?

• I haven’t modified the recipe, I follow the same one that’s in the book

Why did you choose this cake?

• I wanted to try a new dessert and this one seemed easy to make. The end result turned out to be very good.

Any memories attached to it? Or a story behind it?

• I liked Lucinda’s simple way of cooking healthy, homey food for her family and I enjoyed watching her show because she would
  sometimes turn cooking into a family activity where her boys and mum would help her out in the kitchen.

Would you like to add anything?

• The only thing I think that is missing in her book is that there aren’t a lot of pictures so you would have to imagine what the dish
  is going to look like.

Kindly list the ingredients and clear steps for making the cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp coarse salt
• 8 tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 & 1/3 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 to 4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, Cortland, or Winesap

Method:

• Preheat oven to 375F (190 degrees Celsius). Butter an 8 inch square pan or equivalent size baking dish
• In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup of
  the sugar. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. 

• Add the flour mixture and beat until combined. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared pan.
• In a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/2 cup sugar with the cinnamon. Squeeze lemon juice into a medium bowl. Peel, core,
  and slice the apples into the bowl. Add the cinnamon-sugar mixture and toss to thoroughly coat each apple slice. 

• Arrange the apple slices on top of the batter in overlapping rows, pressing lightly into the batter.

• Bake for about 45 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Thank you Friend’s Mom for sharing this wonderful recipe with us! It looks like the perfect weekend treat. I will definitely try it once Ramadan is over.