Sticky, oozy, steamy and sheathed in lascivious pools of cream and caramel. These desserts are a salve to the bitter winter weather.
Margaret Costa’s lemon surprise pudding
More commonly known in Australia as “lemon delicious”, whatever you call it, it’s true to the name. The surprise happens in the oven, as the mixture separates forming a delicate sponge that drapes like a blanket over a thick lemon sauce – delicious.
You can use any lemon, but the cooler months of the year bring a bounty of citrus, including Meyer lemons. A hybrid of eureka lemons, they are less acidic, thin-skinned and have a sweet aroma similar to mandarins, and are highly prized by pastry chefs.
Dutch baby
The personality of a crêpe with the drama of a soufflé, Claire Ptak’s dessert delivers some real theatre.
Don’t be alarmed when you remove the pan from the oven, the pancake will slowly deflate, leaving behind a vast crater for you to fill with whatever you please. For a dessert-for-breakfast vibe, add lemon, cinnamon and a snow-shower of icing sugar or pile it high with fresh berries and preserves. For something richer, go retro with a bananas foster version, and admire as the ice-cream and caramel melts into the craggy ravines.
Chinese tofu pudding (tau foo fah)
It’s hopelessly undersold by its name and completely betrayed by its other blunt descriptors – “tofu brains” and “coagulated soy milk” – but persist with this dish and you’ll be on your way to experiencing the ethereal joy of this soft-set soy milk custard.
Served warm, its syrup is infused with the gentle heat of fresh ginger. The proof really is in the pudding with this bowl of comforting simplicity.
Chocolate fondant
Chocolate fondant is a dessert shrouded in such mystery that many people relegate it to the domain of white tablecloth restaurants. In reality, it’s fairly simple to make and with Felicity Cloake’s step-by-step instructions, you will always achieve a seductive, molten core.
Consider your future self by doubling the recipe and freezing the unbaked fondants in their ramekins to ensure you are never more than 16 minutes away from deep, dark, pleasure.
Sticky date pudding with red date caramel sauce
No list of hot desserts would be complete without a sticky date pudding. Chin Chin chef Benjamin Cooper gives the country pub classic a fresh update with the use of red dates and coconut cream.
Red dates, or jujubes, can be found in Asian grocers and are less sweet than medjool dates. Due to their high vitamin C content, they’ve also been given the dubious marketing honour of “superfood”.
Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley’s knafeh nabulseyeh
Film-worthy cheese-pulls are not confined to savouries. Knafeh is a traditional Middle Eastern dessert made with shredded filo pastry (or semolina) soaked in a perfumed sugar syrup and layered with cheese.
It’s traditionally made with Nabulsi cheese, which isn’t available in Australia, but the perfect salty-sweet flavour and maximum elasticity can be achieved with this version’s combination of ricotta, feta and mozzarella. .
Swedish caramel apple cheesecake
Keeping with the cheese theme, Sweden has contributed much to the overall happiness of the world: the Nobel peace prize, Harpo, the concept of mys ... Then they went and made hot cheesecake.
Lighter than its New York cousin, this recipe pairs it with apples enrobed in caramel sauce for a dish of mys-worthy status.
Cherry clafoutis
Felicity Cloake’s forensic research into what makes the perfect clafoutis outlines compelling arguments for and against keeping the pits in, but if you do opt to remove these dental landmines, make sure you keep them to make a cherry-infused cream.
While fresh cherries aren’t in season at the moment in Australia (unless you splash out on the expensive imports) tinned morello cherries, plums or apricots make worthy substitutes for this classic French dessert.
Claire Ptak’s perfect American apple pie
As a former pastry chef at legendary Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse, Claire Ptak knows a lot of trade secrets. Her secret to a great apple pie? Cheese.
Cheddar or manchego are the perfect foil for sweet, jammy apples, adding a pronounced savoury note to pie crusts that will keep your guests guessing.
If like me, you have a perverse curiosity about unusual ingredients and accidentally procured a block of Norwegian gjetost on your last grocery run (you never know what you might need in lockdown!), this apple pie adds the caramelised Scandi cheese to a streusel topping.
Uyen Luu’s banana fritters
A popular street snack in many Asian countries, Australians are probably more familiar with them from their appearance at the end of many suburban Chinese banquets.
Overcoming the fear and logistics of deep-frying is the biggest hurdle for this simple dessert, but it’s worth it when the reward is hot, custardy bananas in a crispy shell. Best served wth a scoop of store-bought vanilla ice-cream.
