Salient

Dessert

By Laura Vincent | 28 May, 2007

Being students, we are generally not overburdened with cash. However, there comes a time when dinner really needs something sweet to follow. Although some of you may consider this frivolous (and some of you may be saying “about bloody time, I am sick of hearing about mince”), this week I present you with two seriously easy pudding recipes, neither of which are expensive nor involve any difficulty in execution.

Lemon Ice Cream

I understand that giving a recipe for ice cream sounds somewhat deranged, but this stuff is simplicity itself. Firstly, it requires few ingredients and the most limp-wristed of stirring to come together. Secondly, and unorthodoxly, it has no egg yolks, which not only takes the terror out of making it but also makes it cheaper. Don’t ask me how it works, but it is a billion times cheaper than shop-bought and people tend to find it highly impressive that you are making ice cream.

3 lemons
175g icing sugar
600ml cream

Zest and juice the lemons, and mix in a bowl with the icing sugar. Pour in the cream and whisk the lot together until soft peaks form. You want it aerated and bulky but not completely whipped- we aren’t going for butter here. Pour into a container and place in the freezer. That’s it! Remove from the freezer about 10 minutes before you want it, to let it soften a little. And obviously you could replace the lemons with any citrus fruit (or combination thereof) that you please.

Self Saucing Sticky Toffee Pudding.

This is an amalgamation of two different pudding recipes, as the title suggests. The dates are, admittedly, a little expensive, but no one is going to shoot you if you leave them out, or even replace them with chopped dried apricots. I wouldn’t be too surprised to find the rest of the ingredients in my cupboard at any time.

Cake:

100g brown sugar
175g flour
1 t baking powder
1⁄2 cup milk (full fat…as if low fat would help here)
1 egg
50g melted butter
200g chopped dates

Sauce:
200g brown sugar
25g butter, chopped
500mls (2 cups) boiling water

Combine all cake ingredients in an oven-safe bowl. It may not look like much, but it does rise. Sprinkle over the sugar, dot with the butter, and carefully pour over the boiling water. Don’t touch it at this stage, just bung into a 190 degree oven and leave for about 50 minutes. And then it’s done! This serves about six, and you don’t need me to tell you that this would be great with the above ice cream.

Bargain tip of the week:

I realise a lot of you know about this, but if you have been putting it off, for heaven’s sake get to the vegetable market on Dixon Street, every Sunday morning. Bottom line: it is unbelievably cheaper than supermarkets and makes you feel highly virtuous to boot.