There’s nothing like a good dessert to round off a celebratory meal in style. But watch out: if you overdo it, the final course could ruin the whole meal. How many times have you felt too full after a meal and put the blame on that tart you should have said no to?
Well, it’s not a question of having to serve any one particular dessert to bring the curtain down on the meal, but rather carefully choosing a suitable dessert to go with the previous courses.
When it comes to large celebratory meals, you’re best to go for fresh, light recipes with natural ingredients that aid rather than impede digestion. Here are three ideas.
Green tea panna cotta
The mythical Italian panna cotta with a twist of green tea. For 4 servings, you’ll need 100 ml of milk, 1 vanilla pod, 2 spoonfuls of sugar, 2 spoonfuls of green tea, 350 ml of fresh cream and 2 sheets of gelatine. Boil the cream with the vanilla pod, take off the heat and add the sugar. Soak the sheets of gelatine in water and add them too. Use a blender to mix the milk and tea together and slowly add to the previous mixture. Pour into individual moulds and chill for at least 3 hours.
Pineapple tarte Tatin
Delicate, crunchy and minimal. For 4 servings, you’ll need 4 slices of fresh pineapple, 50 g of brown sugar, 1 sheet of puff pastry and 50 g of butter. First make some caramel by melting the butter in a pan with the sugar over a low heat and pour into the bottom of the individual moulds. Trim the pineapple slices, remove the core and place a slice in each mould. Cut the puff pastry into circles the same size as the mould and place on top of the pineapple. Bake at 180 ºC for 25 minutes. Let them cool for 5 minutes and remove each tarte Tatin by turning each mould upside down.
Mini-mascarpones
A creamy dessert you can serve in individual glasses topped off with fresh fruit such as strawberries or mango or pineapple cubes. To make the mascarpone cream you’ll need 250 g of mascarpone cheese, 4 spoonfuls of whipping cream and some brown sugar. Beat the ingredients together well until you get a creamy texture and add more sugar as necessary.
