Alternative stress free desserts

If you're not keen on the citrus flavours mentioned in December thoughts and your emergency dessert kit 7/12/19 there are alternatives :

The raspberry route -

have frozen raspberries in your freezer

make a raspberry compote and freeze it

The cherry choice -

have frozen cherries in your freezer

make a cherry compote and freeze it

Here's a recipe that will cover both the raspberry and cherry compote :

Cherry and Raspberry Compote

350g cherries, stoned – can use frozen

150g caster sugar

juice of 1 lemon (2 tbsps)

150g raspberries – can use frozen

4 tbsp water or juice from defrosted fruit

Pour the water into a pan and add the cherries, sugar and lemon juice. Place on a medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Cook the cherries over a low heat for 5-10 minutes until they have released some juice but are not overcooked. If you are using frozen cherries you will have the fruit juices when defrosted – use this juice instead of the water and reduce the cooking time to 5 minutes.

Add the raspberries to the pan and cook for a further 1-2 minutes until they start to soften. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the mixture to cool, then chill it well before serving. Blitz the compote and pass through a sieve. You'll get 400ml.

Whilst I'm on the subject of cherries – and stress free .... read on

December thoughts – the lemon meringue “pie” photo guide

the piping bag – cut to measure

17cms or 6”½ in old money

the piping bag filled with curd -

snip the end when you're ready

the first layer of biscuit

the curd piped on top

the biscuit and curd layers repeated

topped with crushed meringue

the meringue drizzled with the Lemon, Gin & Tonic

sauce

For non alcoholic alternatives sprinkle with plain chocolate drops or crushed flake if you prefer milk chocolate or add if you like chocolate!

Next, an idea for the “lead up to” or “in-between” days.

December thoughts and your emergency dessert kit … the orange meringue “pie”

For the orange version you may want to try the Clementine Curd from M&S. Your recipe is the same as the lemon. If you want to add alcohol then you can try any of the orange liqueurs – Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple Sec to name but three!

If you are a Cointreau fan there's a Cointreau Noir – the original liqueur with Cognac and a Blood Orange version too.

If you're not bothered about Clementine Curd then use orange curd – Waitrose make an excellent product.

If you wanted to extend your emergency dessert kit then serve either version with a side scoop of vanilla ice cream – home-made, straight from your freezer.

You can scale this dessert up or down to suit your family and guests and taking into account the size of glasses you're using.

If you don't own shot or shooter glasses you could rummage around in the depths of your cupboards trying to locate those Martini glasses you know are in there somewhere. They would do nicely.

There's no skill required for these emergency desserts and the other bonus is that the ingredients are in your pantry ready for whenever the festive mood takes you!