Category: Leftovers

Visinata chocolate cherry ice cream

Chocolate and cherries – the adult version.

Sozzled boozy cherries, whipped cream and chocolate – can anything go wrong? Well no not really. This is a recipe that can be made with a machine or without, with or without a blender too.  I used a damson ice cream recipe from the ever inspirational pink ice cream book “Lola’s” by Morfudd Richards.  Its one of those really great cookbooks – quirky, focused and full of information and inspiration. 

Ingredients

450g visinata leftover cherries ie the cherries that have been used to make Romanian visinata liqueur

100g apple or agave nectar or honey (a liquid helps the texture of the ice cream)

600ml 35% cream (“smantana dulce” if you are Romania, whipping cream if you are British and heavy cream if you are North American) 

A bar of dark chocolate (100g) chopped into chunks

How To

Squish the cherries a bit by blitzing on pulse.  Do be careful not to create a puree.  Alternatively chop them finely. 

If you do not have an ice cream machine whip the cream to soft peak stage and fold in the cherries, chocolate chunks and sweetener so you do not lose the peaks and air.  Now freeze this “mousse” in a plastic container and according to Morfudd, always with grease proof paper on top of the ice cream (its an amazing tip). 

If using a machine you don’t need to whip the cream just mix the ingredients in a bowl and place in your ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions. 

Serve with sour cherries just for excess. Don’t eat this alone. 

Very Visinata Tiramisu

A classic tiramisu with a cheeky cherry twist

Ingredients for four very tipsy tiramisu

  • 250g mascarpone
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • dry biscuits such as the traditional “savoiardi” or “boudoir” biscuits or in this version as I forgot to buy them, some leftover dry biscuits – chocolate ones would have worked well
  • a wine glass of “visinata” – home made Romanian cherry liqueur – powerful stuff
  • 2 good cups of leftover cherries which the visinata was made from – stoned (no pun intended)

Good quality cocoa for dusting

Gadgets & Gizmos

2 bowls

An electric whisk or very strong biceps

A sieve or a tea strainer

How To

There are two parts to a Tiramisu: the soggy biscuit part where traditionally expresso is used to moisten the biscuits ( I like to use liqueurs and fruit as here) and the creamy vanilla layer which is eggs and mascarpone and never whipped cream.

Assemble your glasses first. If making “posh” ones then use wine glasses, otherwise plain glass tumblers.  Break the biscuits and intersperse with your fruit. Dribble over the liquer/ syrup so that the biscuits are moistened.

Press the now moist biscuits down. This is important.  You do not want air pockets in the biscuit layer. Add more biscuits , more fruit, more liqueur…  it usually takes two or three rounds. Let them settle down while you make the mascarpone layer.

Whisk the egg whites and 1 tbsp sugar until soft peak stage

In the second bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 1tbsp sugar until white and creamy. Add the vanilla essence. Slowly add the mascarpone and mix thoroughly.

Add one tablespoon of the egg whites to the mascarpone mixture to begin to thin it. Now gently add the mascarpone mixture to the egg whites and fold taking care not to lose air. The idea is to fold in creating a mousse. If your mascarpone mixture is too thick add 1 tbsp of milk before folding in.  Better this and to not lose air than a stodgy dense mascarpone layer that is impossible to “drop” off a spoon into a glass.

The level of “gloopiness” is key – the mix needs to be sturdy enough to hold it as a mousse yet soft and liquid enough to plop down gently into the glasses and envelope the moist biscuit layer.

Gently spoon over the biscuit layer the mascarpone mousse.  You may need to just shake it a little to flatten the surface but try not to bang the glasses as this will destroy air bubbles.

Either dust with cocoa powder through a sieve or cover completely as you prefer.   If you cover completely, the Tiramisu keep for up to 3 days in the fridge as the cocoa forms a protective layer.

The Steve Cake – banana loaf all snazzled up

 

This is my go to banana loaf or banana muffin recipe.  It uses up the sad little brown bananas you cant quite bring yourself to eat on account of them turning brown (dont even think about making it with un ripe ones because you will be making a cake with starch not fruit sugar). Because of the over ripe bananas not much sugar is needed and it is made with oil not butter so overall a pretty virtuous affair.  The method is a one bowl minimal mixing one so simplicity itself.  I always find chocolate and banana irresistible so I sometimes drizzle chocolate over the cake or put chocolate chunks inside. 

Ingredients for 12-16 muffins or 1 loaf cake (Double for the bundt cake)

  • 300g wholemeal flour
  • 3 bananas very ripe  (I freeze them) mashed or blended
  • 2 eggs
  • 75ml olive oil or sunflower oil
  • 100g sugar or 75g fructose
  • 250ml buttermilk or “kefir” or Romanian “lapte batut” 
  • 15g (3 tsp) baking powder
  • 5g (1tsp) baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) 
  • optional 200g walnut pieces/ chopped chunks of dark chocolate
  • if you must…a pinch of cinnamon 

To decorate the above cake, the quantities were doubled and 200g of dark chocolate melted with 2 tablespoons of olive oil to drizzle over, 200g almonds were toasted and chopped to sprinkle over

How To

Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl

Carefully add the wet ingredients

Mix (I use a metal spoon) until the mix just comes together but do not over mix as this creates a tough leathery like cake

Spoon the fairly liquid batter/ mix into your tin/ mould

I bake this cake fairly gently at 160C as I don’t want the crust forming too fast and then blocking the rise. So for the muffins 16-18 mins and the bigger cakes 30-45 mins – until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Tips and Improvs

It is close to a bread so freezes brilliantly. Take out of the freezer and eat the muffins as breakfast on the run.