As heard on the Brendan O'Connor Show on RTÉ Radio 1.
Ingredients
Three quick and easy desserts
- Fold mashed strawberries through sweetened whipped cream then spoon into cups and place in the fridge for a few hours for a quick & easy mousse.
- Ripple melted chocolate (not hot) through cold whipped cream to create chocolate mousse. Spoon into cups and chill, serve with crushed digestive biscuits on top.
- Split a medjool date & fill with peanut butter - tastes just like a Snickers.
Burnt Basque Cheesecake
A cake from Basque region of northern Spain. The beauty of this cake is that you have to burn it. Everything is mixed in one bowl and poured into the tin to cook. The flavour is incredible, like creme brûlée mixed with baked vanilla cheesecake. Serve with cold softly whipped cream or fresh strawberries etc.
Serves 8-10
- 500g cold cream cheese
- 500ml cream
- 200g caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1-2 tsp vanilla extract
- 30g plain flour
Chester cake
The traditional Cork Chester cake, this is my mother's recipe. Can be called donkey's gudge or gur cake because little gurriers skipping school could buy a big chunk of it and it would keep them going all day. Traditionally made with day olds bread that the bakery had but can also be made with old cake crumbs (not as nice but depends on what you’ve grown up eating). Pure comfort food & nice autumn spices.
- 340 g (12oz) good quality white bread
- 1 pot cold tea (chai, earl grey or normal)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 90 g (3oz) plain flour
- 225 g (8oz) brown sugar
- 54 g (2oz) butter
- 2 tblsp mixed spice
- 225 g (8oz) sultanas
- 2 eggs
- 0.25 pint milk
- 2 tblsp marmalade
- 1 lb readymade shortcrust pastry
- For the icing …
- 200 g icing sugar
- Juice of a lemon
Method
Burnt Basque Cheesecake
-
Preheat the oven to 230C.
-
Line a 22cm 9" tin with removable base with a piece of greaseproof paper. Blend all of the
ingredients till smooth then pour the mix into the tin. -
Tap the tin on the countertop to remove any bubbles.
-
Bake for 30-40 mins till almost black on top. Leave to cool completely then cover and place in the fridge in the fridge overnight. When ready to serve remove from the tin and serve with softly whipped cream.
-
Any seasonal fruit is amazing with this cake. I poached gooseberries for a few minutes till
they burst in a few tbsp of elderflower syrup or you can stew chopped rhubarb in a few tbsp
of marmalade.
Chester cake
- Cover the stale bread with the cold tea. Leave to soak for an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180C.
- Squeeze the bread dry by pressing the mixture in a sieve over the sink.
- Sift the flour with the baking powder, add the sugar. Rub in the butter and add the spices.
- Add sultanas to the bread and mix well. Turn into the flour mixture and combine well.
- Beat the eggs with the milk, add the marmalade and mix well with the bread.
- Roll one half of the pastry to fit into the buttered baking tin (a rectangular 20.5x 32cm)
- Prick the pastry base with a fork.
- Spread the bread mixture over the pastry. Cover with the remaining pastry and pinch the
- edges together to seal. Prick the top with a fork.
- Bake for 1 hour and 45mins until golden.
- Leave to cool.
For the icing
- Mix the lemon juice with the sugar until thick. Add more icing sugar or hot water depending on how thick the icing is. Spread generously over the cake and slice once set
