Dark Chocolate Sorbet

I had a lovely Mothers Day last weekend






My family made me breakfast in bed- with home made Hollandaise on my perfectly poached eggs; we went to yum cha for lunch, watched a movie, worked in the veggie patch, had one of my favourite dinners, and of course there were presents!

Look at the load of lovely goodies I received!

A delicious Saffron Syrup, some crystallised violets, a jar of very good quality saffron, 2 dozen plump vanilla pods, and the latest Donna Hay cookbook.

Totally blessed!

While nibbling away at my breakfast, I was flicking through the cookbook and one recipe in particular caught my eye: Chocolate Sorbet.... I knew it was meant to be.

I love Donna Hays fresh and lovely approach to food. Her recipes are delights that have such a universal appeal and can be made easily by home cooks. I own all her cookbooks, as much for the styling ideas as well as the food, and her magazine is one I squeal over every time I find it in my letterbox.

I have had a good chocolate sorbet before, but hadn't been able to recreate it in my own kitchen. I was really overthinking it. No dairy disasters, no eggwhite fluffiness, no glucose viscosity- just 4 simple ingredients. That's it. Would it have the rich mouth feel I was after without fats, would it be gritty and icy or smooth and soft, would it really taste like chocolate? I was about to find out!

2 3/4 cups Water
1 cup Castor Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 cup good quality Cocoa







Place the sugars and water in a saucepan on high heat, stir until dissolved, and bring to a boil

Whisk in the cocoa powder and reduce heat to medium

Leave on a high simmer for 14- 17 minutes, until the mixture is thick and syrupy and hits 96*C on a thermometer

Let it cool

Process mixture in an ice cream churner, then freeze until firmed up and ready to serve. Alternatively, place cooled mixture in a shallow dish in the freezer, stirring it vigorously about every half hour or so until ready

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Scoop out into delicious dollops of dark delight

The sorbet was exactly what I had been trying for- smooth and very, very chocolatey. I really didn't think I could have achieved that result with just cocoa alone, and I would certainly have thought that I'd need an amount of fat to achieve such full bodied richness. Boy, was I glad to be wrong.
The sorbet scooped very well and also held it's shape nicely, having a nice thick syrup is really the key here. If you didn't let it reduce far enough I don't think it would have enough viscosity to maintain it's structural integrity once frozen, or achieve such small, smooth crystals.

I'm so happy to have found this recipe, it's perfect for InTolerances and vegetarian/vegans, and trust me, so very, very delicious!

So Dear Readers, how did you celebrate Mother's Day and spoil your Mother?
















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A Bit Of Fluff

This has got to be one of the cheapest treats you could possibly make, ever.




So easy, so cheap, no cooking, no fat but so very delicious! Just the thing when you're running short on cash but want to make a something just a bit special.

When I was younger, my big sister would make marshmallows, flavoured with peppermint and rolled in coconut. I wanted to capture this in a dessert that was just as light and fluffy, but a bit more exciting, so decided to go with a mousse with some fruit marbled through to look nice when cut and served.

200 g Castor Sugar (67.6 cents)

100 g gelatin (35.6 cents)

1 1/2 cups boiling water

Flavourings of choice

Icing Sugar for dusting





This rounds out to be a grand total of $1.03 for the lot. Of course you add flavourings, but you usually have some kind of essence or flavour in the pantry, don't you? Or is that just me? Anyway, a little bottle of concentrated flavour is still very inexpensive, so I stick to my guns of saying this is a fun, cheap dessert, that you can tart up as much as you like.


Line a slice tray with baking paper and dust liberally with sifted icing sugar.

Pour the boiling water over the gelatin, and whisk it to get rid of any lumps.
Add in the castor sugar and whisk again until it's all dissolved.

Let it cool down, then pour it into a stand mixer and whisk until it's light and fluffy, and at least 5 times fluffier. This took my mixer about 10 minutes or so.

Add in your preferred flavouring. I choose raspberry essence, supplemented with frozen raspberries for added yumm.

Pour the mass of fluffiness into the pan, and smooth the top.

Place in the fridge to set firmly.

Cut the marshmallow into nice slabs with a wet knife, being very careful not to mess it up with your fingers.

Sprinkle the top with icing sugar, and eat immediately. Enjoy these for a light dessert, or whenever they take your fancy!

This style of marshmallow mousse is not a keeper. It's best used in a day or so, and always kept in the fridge.

So light and fluffy that it just disappears... like a dream of Summer dissolving in your mouth...

So my Favorite Readers, do you have a favourite budget recipe or two?

Roasted Ruby Fruits

Have you ever eaten a Rosella?

Not the parrot, the fruit. Also known as Native Hibiscus it's a leggy shrub that grows about 7ft high with small unassuming flowers that grow from a red fleshy calyx that is used as a wonderful fruit.

Like a lot of our native fruits the Rosella is under utilised despite it's deliciousness, and is hard to find mainstream, although I did see a small pile of them for sale at one of the large supermarkets last year and snatched them up quickly! In places where they grow readily you can always find jars of homemade Rosella jam at the CWA or markets as the people here know how fantastic they are.

My dad grows Rosellas on his farm on the Queensland Sunshine Coast, and they are quite labour intensive having to be harvested each day as they ripen and get larger, going between the rows stretching and bending and twisting each little fruit off to avoid damaging the plant. It's actually really peaceful with the noise of the birds calling and various bush insects humming and the tiniest emerald green tree frogs staring out at you between the leaves - but don't tell him I said that or he'll get me to help more often!

The worst part is separating the fruit petals from the green seed core at the bottom of the fruit. The green core is covered in tiny little hair things that prickle and itch and drive you up the wall with scratching. These have to be removed without damaging the fruit around it, so a little tool is pushed through the base of the fruit with a twisting motion and popped of the end. For my photos, I just ripped them apart artistically. The fruit is sold without the core which is the heaviest part of course, so a LOT of fruit is required to make much money. To help with costs, Dad is part of a co-op that on sells the fruit for a group of smaller farmers, to a tea making company and a bush food company.

I was already planning this post with my favourite fruit combination- Rhubarb and Strawberries, when we arrived for a visit and I saw the Rosellas. It seemed a bit silly to do a whole post on a little known and hard to find fruit, but then I realised that their wonderful sweet/tartness was the perfect match for my others. The raspberries were just a serendipitous find at a street stall at an incredible price that found their way into the mix. Rhubarb and strawberries will still taste nice, just not as perfect as this- you will just have to imagine the other flavours along with the birds song, cicadas and treefrog calls.

Roasted Ruby Fruits

A bunch of lovely red rhubarb- I know there are green varieties, but I think the red is prettier
A punnet or two of strawberries
A handful of raspberries
A cup of Rosella petals (or a good imagination)
a quarter cup of sugar
Couple of tablespoons of water

I wanted to roast the fruits to maintain the structural integrity of the rhubarb, it tends to go all stringy if it's stewed, but really you could pop them all in a saucepan if you didn't mind, or were feeling lazy.

Place your rhubarb stalks in the bottom of a roasting pan and sprinkle on the water and a bit of the sugar.
Roast at 150* for about 12 mins or until they are starting to soften up a bit and release some of their juice.

Artistically scatter over your Rosella petals with a bit more sugar

and bake for another 5 minutes.

Cover with the halved strawberries and raspberries and sprinkle on the rest of the sugar, then pop back in the oven for 5-10 mins or until the strawberries are softened and the fruits have released some of their vibrant ruby red juices.

Serve these jewels of loveliness with something rich and velvety like some custard or lightly whipped cream-lactose free of course, and a golden pile of gluten free shortbread crumbs to add a bit of textual contrast.

Yumm....

So Readers, have you ever tried a Rosella before?