Trio of desserts... (Don't worry it's simple to make!)

Apologies for lack of action on here! Time does not seem to be my pal at the moment however I've kicked my ass into gear to get this blog back up and running. Recently I've been doing A LOT of cooking and baking.
Most recently, I've done these cute wee desserts which include Rhubarb panna cotta, meringue (with leftover roast rhubarb) and vienesse biscuits (dipped in leftover dark Easter egg chocolate!). These were for a dinner which I was making for my family and they only took me a few hours to do all three (this includes chilling time!) Plus i even had enough time to make Hollandaise sauce with the leftover egg yolks from the meringue for an asparagus and Jersey Royal potato bake thing (recipe to follow!)

Right so let's get our apron on and get started!! :)

Rhubarb Panna Cotta

serves 4

You'll need for the roasted rhubarb:

500g/1lb 2oz rhubarb
2tbsp caster sugar
4tsp apple juice

and for the panna cotta:

75g/2oz caster sugar
150ml/5fl oz double cream
2 leaves of gelatin (soaked in cold water til soft)
300ml/11 fl oz buttermilk (the buttermilk they sell here is around 284ml so i topped up the rest with normal milk)

Preheat oven to 200oC/180oC Fan/400F/Gas 6. Cut up rhubarb into 1" pieces and place in a roasting tin along with the sugar and the apple juice. Roast for around 8-10 minutes or until all soggy and yummy looking. Using about 125g of this, blend to a puree and place the rest aside for later.

Mix the sugar and the double cream in a saucepan and bring to a simmer (at about a medium heat so they don't burn - YUCK!) just til all the sugar has dissolved. Squeeze out all the water from the gelatin leaves and throw in the pan and stir about until they've completely dissolved. Add the puree then remove from the heat and leave to cool for about 5/10 minutes or until you get impatient! Stir in the buttermilk then it's ready to pour into dishes!

I used these little plastic dishes you get with these meals for a tenner from markie parkies! However you can use little ramekin dishes or whatever else you can find that resembles a little dish :)
Place some of the roasted rhubarb you done earlier into the bottom of the dishes then pour over the mixture (I used a measuring jug for this to save mess!). Pop in the fridge for about 1-2 hours (or longer if you're making them the day before). If you want to be fancy (and have time) and want to turn them out onto a plate, dip the dishes (alliteration!) into some boiled water to loosen the sides and run a knife round the edges. Spoon some of the rhubarb over the panna cotta for some uber awesome taste!
I just served the panna cotta in the dish as it was and spooned some of the rhubarb over it.
So there you go! Something super fancy and super tasty and it literally takes you less than half an hour to make the mixture. I think the only difficult part is the waiting coz it's SO GODDAMN DELICIOUS!

So while we're waiting for the panna cotta to set we're going to do some...

Vienesse Biscuits

Makes LOADS!

These are always easy to do and the ingredients are always stuff that I have in the cupboards. What you'll need is:

100g/30z softened butter

25g/1oz icing sugar

100g/3oz plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

50g/2oz dark chocolate

Heat oven to 190oC/170oC Fan/Gas 5. Grease baking trays or cover in grease-proof paper.

Beat the sugar and butter together until it looks pale and it's quite a fluffy texture. Using a sieve, add flour and baking powder to the mixture and mix until well blended.

Fill a piping bag with the dough (as it's quite gooey!) and pipe about 2" lines on the baking tray. Bake for about 10 minutes or until the biscuits are golden brown around the edges.

Leave the biscuits to cool on the tray for about 5 minutes. If you try to lift them off while they're still hot then they'll just fall apart and you'll be left with broken biscuits! Yummy none-the-less but still broken! Transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of boiling water. Then, carefully, dip half of each biscuit it so half of it is coated in chocolate. Place back on the wire rack and leave to set (this normally takes about an hour or so).

We made these while we were waiting on the panna cotta setting and we still had time to make...

Meringues

PHEW! *mops brow* We're nearly there! By now you'll be feeling like Delia Smith/Gordon Ramsay/Michel Roux Jnr (or possible senior) depending on your kitchen temperament!

Meringues have always been something I have wanted to try but have just been that little it too impatient to make them ever since i lost my electric whisk (seriously I have no idea where it went and I could have done with one for this!).

I was looking through loads of recipes to try and find one that sounded easy and yet had a photo to prove that it looked impressive, and came across the easiest theory for a meringue: For every egg yolk used, use 50g caster sugar. Tada! That's the trick so they're not too chewy and have just the perfect amount of crispiness!

I had used 2 egg yolks so used 100g sugar for this. This made about 9 decent sized meringues.

Heat your oven to 150oC/130oC Fan/Gas 2

Now remember I've lost my electric whisk - so I used sheer strength and determination to whisk the egg whites into lovely white fluffy stiff peaks. I must admit I did use the "hold the bowl over the head" theory and, luckily for me, it worked! If you're lucky enough to not have lost your electric whisk, use a medium speed to do this.

 Next, slowly add the sugar. Again, if you're using an electric whisk turn the speed down low as you don't want to over mix this! I added the sugar about a tablespoon at a time until the mixture was this lovely shiny mixture and gave stiff peaks when i lifted the whisk up.

Then I plonked a tablespoons of the mixture onto a greased baking tray (again you can use grease-proof paper but be careful incase it sticks!)

Place the meringues into the oven, then as soon as they're in, turn the oven down to 140oC/120oC/Gas 1 and cook for about 30 minutes until they're a lovely pale coffee colour and sound hollow when lightly tapped. Turn off the oven completely and leave the meringues in the oven to dry out (otherwise they go a bit overly-chewy!) I left them in for about an hour and a half and then removed them and they turned out ace!

To serve them all as trio, simply place on a plate and spoon some of the leftover roasted rhubarb over the meringue as a tasty extra!

So I hope these recipes have came in useful and that you enjoy them as much as I have! I also hope to find that you found them just as simple an stress free as I have!

ENJOY!