Sweet desserts with a sour touch

Today I am going to show you some delicious desserts. They are not very intricate desserts, they are simply combinations of together or sweet things that go really well together. These desserts came to me one day when I was at home and I wanted to try new things and something good came out of all those mixes. Firstly, mandarin or orange with chocolate:

MANDARIN WITH CARAMEL CHOCOLATE

Source picture by Shari's Berries

You are not going to need more than:

• mandarins
• caramel chocolate
• container

The other day I was in my kitchen, thinking of what to have for dessert, I am tired of eating the same thing like banana, mandarin, kiwi, banana, mandarin, kiwi... and so on, because I am not a great lover of fruits or vegetables, but if I am honest I think it is because they bore me. I always end up eating the same ones and I always end up picking them up. So for this reason, I wanted to invent something. I went to the fridge and took a mandarin, as usual, but this time I was going to try it with a little milka caramel chocolate. If I told you it was good, I would be lying. It was incredibly rich indeed, how can a two flavour combination be so good. Yes, it was delicious, I encourage you to try it as well, you don't have to do anything, it is not a difficult dessert to make, simply peel a mandarin, place the segments on a plate and put pieces of chocolate around it. I also tried to heat the chocolate and spread it over the segments, I would not know which option to go for, both are delicious. Perhaps the second one was a little better because of the hot and cold contrast, but it depends on your taste. The combination or sweet and sour also works well together. By the way, the mandarin shouldn't be too sweet or it might not taste the same.

ORANGE WITH DARK CHOCOLATE

Source

What you will need is no more than:

• oranges
• dark chocolate
• container

I know that it is going to sound typical, but it is a perfect combination, and I also bring a surprise ingredient to this dessert. Some weeks ago, while I was eating at my friends house, we decided to make a slightly more intricate dessert than just eating an apple by itself. We looked in his fridge and all he had left was oranges. We took a few of them, peeled them and put them on a plate in little pieces. Then we went back to the fridge and got the dark chocolate. We put the chocolate in a big cup (quite a lot of it) and heated it in the microwave until it was melted. I am talking about a bar of chocolate, not liquid chocolate or anything like that. Once we heated it we spread it on top of the cold bits of orange, we put a little bit of truffle and put them into the fridge for about 30-40 minutes. After this time (the longer you leave it, the better) the chocolate had hardened on the orange. The combination was perfect and it was delicious. You can also leave the hot chocolate on the orange and just eat it just as it is, it creates a very good, hot and cold combination. The sweet and sour combination is amazing. The orange is the same as the mandarin in that, it is better that it is not very sweet because then the chocolate does not do its job and the sweetness from the orange with the sweetness from the chocolate is sickening. It is better to use sour oranges.

STRAWBERRIES WITH SUGAR AND CARAMEL

The ingredients are the following:

• strawberries
• sugar
• caramel
• container

On the other hand we have a rather typical dessert for spring. Who hasn't eaten strawberries at some time in their lives? And the key question, who doesn't like strawberries? I don't think that I know anyone who doesn't like this fruit. There are a lot of ways to eat them, many people make them with chocolate or cream, or simply with sugar or milk. I think that I have seen strawberries and cream the most. But today I bring you something a little different, the other day I was at home and my mother bought a box of strawberries, the first of the season. I like the strawberries but I don't really like cream as much. I normally eat them with sugar and nothing else. This time I wanted to innovate and I had a little caramel at home, so I decided to put them into a little sugar first and then dip them in caramel, but not excessively because you already know how cloying it can be but with a little bit, they are really good. Remember that they have to be a little sour for the combination to work as well, you don't want everything to be too sweet.

'NAMBESAS' JUICE

• frozen raspberries
• natural oranges (to make juice)
• brown sugar, if possible
• container (glass)

Now you will be asking, are you out of your mind? what did you say about 'nambesas'? what is that? Don't panic, I will explain it all. 'Nambesa' juice is actually my brother's invention. One day we were at home and we have the idea to make a juice but like me, he though about strawberries with mandarin or orange. He was fed up of always drinking the same tasting natural juice, orange flavour. He looked in the freezer and found a box of raspberries, they were frozen. What my brother did, was squeeze the oranges and once he had a glass of juice, he took the raspberries and put them in the blender. He used more or less the same amount of each and mixed the flavours, adding another raspberry to the juice. The mixture needed a little sugar because of the acidity of the oranges and raspberries so we added some. He took the brown sugar and added more or less a couple of spoonfuls. The key was to sweeten it a little but without going too far because it had to keep that acidic touch that would characterise the juice.

PEAR WITH PEACH JAM

Source

For this more elaborate recipe, you will need:

• two lemons to make juice (a small glass)
• sugar
• honey
• a pear
• peach jam
• a pot
• almonds

If you really like sweets, this is a dessert that you will like. At first the pear and peach jam combination doesn't sound very convincing because we're not used to hearing it, it's a much different dessert to the previous ones. It requires a little more preparation but it doesn't take much time. The key is to choose sweet pears, but not too sweet because you don't want it to be sickening. Cut them in half, remove the pips first and put them in a pot for 5 minutes with water, honey and home made lemon juice (by squeezing lemons and adding sugar). The water should cover the pears and you only need a couple of spoonfuls of honey. More or less a small glass of lemon juice. Wen the pears are cooked in the water with lemon and honey, take them out and drizzle the peach jam on them. Then take the almonds and put them on top of the pears, the combination goes really well together and really works as a dessert. It is quite healthy and nutritious.

MANGO AND KIWI

Source

For this recipes, you are going to need the following ingredients and utensils:

• two kiwis
• a mango
• condensed milk (two soup spoons)
• two yogurts (Greek yogurt if possible)
• two mint leaves
• four glasses
• a spoon
• a blender

This dessert is also a little less well known. I have to say that I didn't invent this one either, I tried it in a bar-restaurant on the beach a while ago and the idea came to my head recently. Why not combine two healthy and delicious elements like the kiwi and the mango? Here we go.

The first thing that we have to do is take the kiwis, peel them and put them in the blender until they are like a purée, not until they are completely liquid. Once the 2 kiwis are blended, pour them into a glass and start the second step. By the way, if you don't have a blender at home, you can also cut the fruit into small pieces. The following step is to peel the mango and add it to the blender (after having washed it since it would have little bits of kiwi and there is no need to mix flavours yet). Blend the mango until it is a purée like we did with the kiwi. Then, take the two Greek yogurts and pour them into a different glass, adding the two spoonfuls of condensed milk. If you don't like condensed milk, you can use a sweetener, which also works. Stir the yogurt into the condensed milk until it becomes a homogeneous mixture. Finally, take the last glass and alternate the ingredients we have made We can put them in as you like but I suggest that you do it this way: First pour a bit of kiwi, mix the yogurt, then the mango and then the kiwi again and do so until you have used up all the ingredients. Finally, add the two mint leaves to give it colour and a special touch to the dessert.

It is easy, fast and it is delicious.

LEMON JELLY

Fuente

What you are going to need for this dessert is:

• two lemons
• one spoonful of honey
• three sheets of gelatine
• roughly 50 grams of sugar
• a glass of water
• yogurt (if you want it) to acompany it
• containers

A simple dessert and without complications. It takes 30 minutes to make it. I've always liked jelly a lot, especially strawberry or orange, but I've never tried home made jelly before, until I went to a hotel in Benidorm and there were all the flavours you can imagine. The reason I have chosen the flavour, lemon is because it really surprised me how rich it was even though lemon is not one of my favourite flavours. Time to get down to work, at last. To make this drink, you are going to need to do the following:

Squeeze the juice of two lemons. Leave it in a glass. Then take a bowl of cold water and leave the gelatine in it to soak so that softens. Leave it like this for 8-10 minutes. Then take a saucepan and fill it with water. Heat it and leave it for 4 minutes on a medium heat. Then add the lemon juice and stir it (still on a medium heat). Then add the spoonful of honey. I advise you to try it a few times to test the sweetness since it may be a bit acid, so just keep testing it. They say that the honey of orange blossom gives very good flavor to the gelatine. I used the normal one but you can try it, I am sure it is very good. Finally remove from the saucepan from the heat. Then add the Gelatine to the saucepan (well drained), and you need to stir it very well. You need to leave it to stand in the fridge for four hours so that it is well done and we can eat it. When it is ready you can have it with yogurt, the combination is really good. I hope that you like it.

KIWI, STRAWBERRIES AND CREAM. Explosion of flavours

Source

If you are a big lover of mixed flavours, if you like a sweet and soft touch mixed with a more acidic flavour and wit different situations, this is your perfect dessert. As you can see, coming back from my Erasmus has made me more interested in cooking and confectionery in particular, and especially desserts because I love sweet things. One of those summer days, as soon as I got back, I started mixing flavors and this dessert was the result. I am going to tell you how to do it and the ingredients that you need:

• two kiwis
• a bowl of strawberries
• fresh cream (for desserts)
• caramel
• a blender
• containers

This dessert stood out to me the most because it is remarkable but above all because of the explosive and sweet flavour it leaves. Firstly, we have to take the strawberries, wash them and cut them into a bowl. Once they are cut, add a little sugar to them, without overdoing it. Take the kiwis and blend them until they are basically a juice. Then, pour the kiwi juice over the strawberries and leave it to freeze for approximately 40 minutes. They don't need to freeze completely, just so that they are crystalline and cold to touch. We took them out and spread some caramel on the strawberries first and then added the cream. Now they are ready to eat. It is a very delicious combination.

WATERMELON ICE LOLLIES

Source

One of the most appetising desserts in summer for almost everyone is watermelon. The truth is that it is a fruit with a lot of water so it is really hydrating and it is very rich in vitamins although it is not advisable or a good idea to have too much of it at night. I want to tell you that this dessert occurred to me because of Danonino and Petit suis ice cream. I am sure that you will all know what I am talking about, when as a child, you would take a Petit suis or a Danonino yogurt and put a ice cream stick through the lid and leave it to freeze for a while, checking every so often if it was frozen or not. Then it was delicious, much better than it was normally.

Well, this dessert is inspired by Petitsuis from when we were younger. What you will need this time is going to be:

• a watermelon
• a kiwi
• honey
• fruit jelly
• container
• a blender
• a colander
• ice cream sticks (you can find them in any supermarket)
• glasses (a material that you can leave to freeze)

I am going to make this dessert as if it were for two people. To begin what we must do is take the watermelon and empty it out. Remove all the fruit from the rind and then purée it well in the blender or with something that will make it into a juice. When the watermelon is a liquid, it is a good idea to remove the pips with a strainer because they can be quite annoying when you are eating it. When you have removed the pips, add two big spoons of honey and stir this until it is a homogeneous mixture, without any lumps or bits. Then, leave the watermelon and honey in the freezer to freeze for a while. After we do this, peel the kiwi and cut it into large slices. Then, put the ice cream stick through the slice of kiwi. Remember that this recipe is for two people, but as long as you cut more slices of kiwi you can make it for more people but the watermelon makes a lot. The last step is to take the watermelon with the honey in the fridge and fill the molds, putting the ice cream stick with the kiwi on the end into it and placing them back into the freezer until they are ready. It usually takes two to three hours, depending on the power of the freezer. It is very delicious and appetising especially in summer, I am sure that you will like it.

All in all

This is a small variety of desserts that I have learned. Sometimes it really only takes a little imagination and ingenuity to create things a little more original than we are used to eating. I have tried to make a few variations of fruit with things such as cream or caramel. I hope that you have found this to your taste and that you try to make new things. It is always good to try new things in the bedroom, but it is better to say that you should have a little imagination to get out of your food routines.

---

Photo gallery