Recipe XCIX - Apple-Vanilla-Mascarpone Dessert

I'm now on my 99th recipe. This has been a fabulous adventure for me to attempt to cook a different meal at least once a fortnight, but on average every eight or nine days. This one is so easy and yet fulfilling to make and a remarkable crowd-pleaser. You need a good hour for this, but it'll be worth it.

Ingredients:

5 apples

2 tablespoons of brown sugar (approx)

4 tablespoons of white sugar (approx)

1 carton of ordinary dessert cream

1 tub of mascarpone

3 eggs

2 vanilla pods

A handful of speculoos biscuits but shortcrust will do

A spoonful of cinnamon

Equipment:

An electric whisk

A blender

Instructions:

Cut up the apples and put them in water and tip some brown sugar over them. Some remove the skins, but I leave them on as I like a nice zesty tang to my apple purée.

Put the biscuits in a blender and give them a whiz until they're pulverised. Put them aside until later.

Take the cream, eggs and mascarpone and fold them into each other. Add the white sugar (to your own tastes) and empty the vanilla pods into it by cutting down the centre from one end to the other and scooping the vanilla out with a teaspoon. Then get the electric whisk and turn it into a creamy substance.

Meanwhile, get half the apples and scoop them out of the water and into a blender. Whiz it up until it turns to pulp. Put them in a bowl to cool.

With the other half, add some cinnamon and blend it to a pulp. So below you see the difference. The one on the right I am saving for my roast pork later, and the one on the left is going further in this story. Put it in the fridge for a while first though.

Spoon very carefully some apple purée into the bottom of a glass and smooth it down to a flat surface either with a spoon, or by gently swirling the glass. Add the mascarpone layer after this, and then the biscuit crumbs.

Use various sizes of glass depending on who they are intended for.

You can do the same thing with other fruits, such as raspberries, pineapple or blackcurrants. The vanilla would be an unnecessary, depending what you choose.

Recipe XLIV - Wild Strawberry and Mascarpone Flan

Following a message from someone calling him/herself AnonymousCakeEater, who wrote: "Raymond, where's my bloody dessert?!" I decided to make my own recipe to prove I'm not a one-trick pony.

Mascarpone is and has always been in the Number One slot in my list of Favourite Things I like To Put In My Mouth (Edible/Decent Category), and this recipe has resulted in the need to find a whole new set of fantasies for myself. Each time I typed the word "mascarpone" below, I got a little bit hot...



Ingredients:
For the base:
300 g of biscuits (I used Dutch shortcrust Pepernootjes, but anything like that is fine)
100g butter

For the filling:
200g wild strawberries (but any kind of red fruit/berries will do)
4 tablespoons of marsala wine or alcohol of your choice
250g mascarpone
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
1 egg (which you need to separate)
1 tablespoon of sugar

Instructions for the base:
Take your biscuits and put them in the blender, making a fine powder.
Heat up the butter in a saucepan and once melted, pour it over the crumbs. Stir thoroughly until the whole thing is dripping in the butter.



Using a flan base, spread it evenly over the mould, putting it in the fridge for a good hour to cool and harden. If necessary, use a rolling pin to get it properly even.



Instructions for the filling:
Separate your egg into two different bowls. With the yolk, add the sugar and mix into a paste.



Add the mascarpone and mix into a smooth, consistent paste. At this point, add the vanilla sugar. With the egg white, beat it until it turns frothy and you can make lumps on it with the whisk. Fold it into the mascarpone.
In a saucepan, put the fruit and the alcohol on a relatively low heat. Once boiling, put it into a blender and turn it into a thick paste.



Take the base out of the fridge. Very carefully remove the mould onto a large enough flat surface. Pour in the mascarpone and let it flatten itself out in the mould.



Spoon the red fruit onto the top of the mascarpone and make it into a pretty pattern. I'm hopeless at this, hence the terrible photo below, but you could alternatively mix it into the mascarpone before you pour it onto the mould. Put it into the fridge to set, removing it fifteen to thirty minutes before you want to eat it.