Here is a fantastic dish that is easy, but looks so good, and will impress your visitors!! Even my three year old requests this for dessert because she know I can whip it up in a short time, before she has to go to bed, so she can at least have – something special – as dessert is called in my place.

What You Need:

• 3 apples (I used Granny Smith because that is what was in the fruit bowl)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 200g castor sugar
• 30g unsalted butter,cubed
• 1 sheet puff pastry (ready made frozen)
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons water

What You Need To Do:

Peel the apples so they still retain their nice rounded shape and then cut into quarters. Cut out the core carefully and trim the edges so the pieces are neat, and cut the core side so it sits flat on the bench. You don’t have to do this, but it gives the tart a more even finish and helps the apple to sit flat on the bottom of the pan. Toss the apple pieces in the lemon juice and half of the sugar. The lemon will stop them from going brown while you are making the rest.

Put the other 100g of sugar and the water into an oven proof frying pan over low heat to dissolve the sugar. Or if you don’t ( like me!) own any fancy cookware then just put it into an ordinary frying pan and we will deal with that bit later! Increase the heat slightly and cook the sugar for about five minutes or until it is turning a nice golden colour.

Put the apple pieces in the pan, cut side up, in a neat circular fashion, and dot the apple with the butter. Turn the heat down to low and cook for a further five minutes to cook the apple a bit. You don’t want it to be too soft before it goes into the oven. Take it off the heat and let it cool a little. Trust me, if you don’t have a fancy pan, and you like the fact that you have fingerprints, let the apples cool for a bit!

Cut a circle from the pastry that is a little bit bigger than the pan you are using. Lay the pastry over the apple and tuck any excess underneath, inside the pan. If you aren’t putting your frying pan in the oven, choose a small round baking tin and grease it with butter or cooking spray. Arrange the cooled apple pieces, cut side up, into the tin and pour over the golden caramel the apples were cooked in. Then place the pastry on top.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden and flaky. The juice may overflow, so you might want to put a tray underneath! Remove from the oven and let it rest for about 10 minutes in the pan.

Now for the theatrical part! Like the pizza maker who throws the dough into the air or the magician who rips the tablecloth out from under a fully set table, place a plate on top of your pan and turn it over so the tart is apple side up on your plate! Voila! One perfectly caramel-ly, apple-ly, crispy, chewy something special! Serve hot with a generous dollop of cream or some extra creamy icecream.

I love dessert. Especially a warm dessert served with the delicious, thickness of fresh, whipped cream.  Add in the sweetness of marscarpone, sprinkle with cinnamon and there you have it, the perfect combination.  I had some pears that I thought would go well with the cream and marscapone, but how to bring out that delicate flavour?  A sweet, but dry, red moscato in the pantry gave me the inspiration!

What You Need:

• 4 Packham pears
• 1 cup red wine
• 2 whole star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 300mL cream
• 2 tablespoon marscarpone
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

What You Need To Do:

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and gently dissolve the sugar.  When this is done put the red wine, star anise and the cinnamon into the pan.  Gently simmer until you can start to smell the spices.

Carefully peel the pears, to retain their shape, and place them in a bowl of water, with lemon juice, so  they don’t go brown.  When the wine and spices are smelling good, place the pears, whole, into the liquid.  Poach these for about 15 minutes or until they are tender.  This will depend on how ripe the pears are!

When the pears are soft, take them out of the liquid and set them aside to cool.  Turn up the heat a little and let the wine reduce down until it starts to thicken.  Be careful, and don’t go off typing away on the computer or anything because it will burn!  If you like a really thick syrup you can add a bit more sugar, but make sure you turn the heat down and it is all dissolved before reducing any further.

While the liquid is reducing take the cooled pears and cut them in half, length ways, and remove the core with a spoon.  Cut the halves in half and put them in a bowl, ready to have the delicious syrup poured over them.  The syrup is ready when it is thick and shiny and smelling good!  Keep one of the pears as two halves because you will see that the red wine has soaked into the outer layer of the pear and I think this looks very effective for presentation!!

Whip the cream so it is nice and thick, adding a little cinnamon, for extra flavour.  Gently work the whipped cream through the marscarpone and serve a generous amount with the pears!

This is the first time I have made Tiramisu and really the first time that I have eaten it.  Well, I am impressed.  It is such a quick and easy dessert to put together and the kids love it!  I put a bit of Bailey’s Liqueur in with the coffee because, well, because I had some and I thought it would taste nice.

What you need:

• 1 3/4 cups cream
• 500g Marscarpone
• 1 cup coffee liqueur ( or Baileys)
• 2 cups espresso coffee
• 26 store bought sponge fingers (sometimes called ladyfingers)
• Cocoa powder for dusting

What you need to do:

Whip the cream until soft peaks form.  Fold it through the marscarpone gently, but making sure it is well mixed.  Make sure no kids are around because they are drawn to bowls of soft, creamy, sweet stuff they can dip their fingers into!

Combine the liqueur and the coffee. Pour some into a shallow dish so it only just comes up half the side of the biscuit, because they go soggy very quickly, and it is easier to dip one side and then turn to do the other.

Dip half of the biscuits in the coffee mix and lay them on the base of a 10 cup capacity dish.  Spoon half of the cream mixture over the biscuits carefully spreading it to the edges of the dish.

Dip the remaining biscuits and lay them on top of the cream layer and then cover them with the remaining cream.  Generously dust the top with cocoa and put in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours.  Actually one hour will do it if you really can’t wait to taste it!  If you can stand it, you can actually make this the day before you need it as it gives time for the flavours to meld!

Enjoy!