Hal­cian Pierre

Moth­er's Day comes with lots of trap­pings, but for this mom in par­tic­u­lar, sweets make the cut every time. Nor­mal­ly, these desserts are of­ten served at restau­rants and ho­tels for Moth­er on her spe­cial day, but for those of us who are culi­nary in­clined (like me) and love to take a 'hands on' ap­proach will sure­ly ap­pre­ci­ate these recipes for three favourite spe­cial dessert treats. Here's to Mom, and here's to some deca­dent Eye Food on her spe­cial day. Bon app�tit!

Ap­ple Strudel with Vanil­la Ice Cream

In­gre­di­ents:

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons cast­er sug­ar

�2 1 ta­ble­spoon plain flour

�2 1/4 tea­spoon ground cin­na­mon

�2 2 large Granny Smith ap­ples, peeled, cored and thin­ly sliced

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons raisins

�2 1 sheet (25cm x 25cm) frozen ready-rolled puff pas­try, thawed

�2 Ex­tra flour, to dust

�2 1 egg

�2 Ic­ing sug­ar, to dust

Method

a1. Pre­heat oven to 375�F.

2. Com­bine sug­ar, flour and cin­na­mon in a bowl. Add ap­ples and raisins. Toss to coat.

3. Line a bak­ing tray with non-stick bak­ing pa­per and set aside.

4. Place the pas­try on a light­ly floured sheet of non-stick bak­ing pa­per; dust the pas­try light­ly with flour.

5. Us­ing your rolling pin, roll the pas­try light­ly in one di­rec­tion to form a 30cm x 40cm rec­tan­gle. With one short side fac­ing you, spoon the ap­ple mix­ture over the bot­tom half of the pas­try, leav­ing a 2cm bor­der around the edges.

6. Next, roll the pas­try in­to a large log. Place, seam side down, on the bak­ing tray. Tuck the ends un­der the roll.

7. Com­bine the egg with 1 ta­ble­spoon of wa­ter and us­ing your pas­try brush, gen­tly brush the egg mix­ture on strudel with. Cut sev­er­al 1 inch long slits, an inch apart, in­to the top of the roll.

8. Bake for 35 min­utes or un­til gold­en.

9. Trans­fer to a wire rack lined with bak­ing pa­per for 30 min­utes to cool.

10. Dust with ic­ing sug­ar, slice and serve on a beau­ti­ful plate with a scoop of vanil­la ice cream on the side.

Cus­tard & Fruit Tarts

(Recipe makes 12 tartlets)

In­gre­di­ents for the tart shells:

�2 1 1/4 cups all pur­pose flour

�2 3 ta­ble­spoons sug­ar

�2 1/2 tea­spoon salt

�2 6 ta­ble­spoons (3/4 stick) cold un­salt­ed but­ter, diced

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons cold short­en­ing

�2 1/4 cup ice wa­ter

In­gre­di­ents for the cus­tard fill­ing:

�2 2 cups full cream milk

�2 2 egg yolks

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons corn flour

�2 1 tea­spoon vanil­la essence

�2 Sug­ar to taste

For top­ping and glaz­ing the fruits:

�2 Straw­ber­ries, cut length­wise

�2 Ki­wis, skinned and sliced

�2 Por­tu­gals, skinned and sep­a­rat­ed

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons Apri­cot jam

�2 3 ta­ble­spoons wa­ter

�2 2 tea­spoons sug­ar

To make the tart shells:

1. Com­bine the flour, sug­ar and salt in a bowl and place in the freez­er for 30 min­utes.

2. Put it in the bowl of a food proces­sor. Add but­ter and short­en­ing and pulse it in the food proces­sor un­til the but­ter is the size of peas. Add the ice wa­ter and process un­til the dough comes to­geth­er.

3. Dump the dough on­to a well floured board and form in­to a disk. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 30 min­utes.

(Next, pre­heat the oven to 375 de­grees F.)

4. Roll out the chilled dough and cut out cir­cles to fit in­to small tart pans, leav­ing half an inch over hang­ing from the brim. Line them with alu­mini­um foil, fill with dried beans and bake for 10 min­utes. (The weight of the beans helps re­tain the shape of the tart shells.)

5. Re­move the beans and foil, prick the bot­toms with a fork and re­turn to the oven to bake for a fur­ther 15 to 20 min­utes un­til light­ly browned. Set aside to cool.

To make the cus­tard:

1. Whisk to­geth­er the egg yolks, corn flour and half a cup of milk and set aside. Boil the rest of the milk and dis­solve the sug­ar in it.

2. Keep the con­tents on a sim­mer and slow­ly add in the egg-milk mix­ture, stir­ring con­tin­u­ous­ly.

3. When the mix­ture starts to thick­en, re­move from the heat and add vanil­la essence.

To make the glaze:

1. Heat the apri­cot jam with wa­ter and sug­ar un­til it forms a se­mi-thick, smooth syrup. Re­move from the heat and let it cool.

To as­sem­ble the tarts:

1. Fill the cooled tart shells with the cus­tard while it is still hot, then al­low them to cool slight­ly.

2. Top with the fruits. Brush fruits with glaze us­ing a pas­try brush. Serve im­me­di­ate­ly or chilled.

Choco­late Mousse

In­gre­di­ents:

�2 200g dark cook­ing choco­late, chopped (Nes­tle brand)

�2 20g but­ter

�2 2 ta­ble­spoons Tia Maria liqueur

�2 250ml (1 cup) thick­ened cream

�2 3 eggs, sep­a­rat­ed

�2 125ml (1/2 cup) thick­ened cream, ex­tra

To dec­o­rate:

�2 6 maraschi­no cher­ries with stems

�2 6 small sprigs of mint leaves

Method:

1. Place choco­late, but­ter and Tia Maria in a heat­proof bowl. Place over a saucepan of sim­mer­ing wa­ter (make sure bowl doesn't touch wa­ter).

2. Use a met­al spoon to stir the in­gre­di­ents for 5 min­utes or un­til mix­ture is smooth.

3. Re­move bowl from heat. Set aside for 5 min­utes to cool slight­ly.

4. Stir the egg yolks in­to the choco­late un­til well com­bined.

5. With an elec­tric hand mix­er, cream the mix­ture un­til soft peaks form.

6. Use a met­al spoon to gen­tly fold the cream in­to the choco­late mix­ture un­til com­bined.

7. In a clean bowl and with clean beat­ers, use the elec­tric hand mix­er to beat the egg whites un­til soft peaks form. Us­ing a large met­al spoon, fold in half the egg whites in­to the choco­late mix­ture, then fold in the re­main­ing egg whites un­til com­bined.

8. Spoon choco­late mix­ture even­ly in­to six glass­es or serv­ing dish­es and cov­er with plas­tic wrap. Place in the fridge for 3 hours or un­til firm.

9. Us­ing clean beat­ers, beat the ex­tra cream un­til firm peaks form. Place in a clean pip­ing bag fit­ted with a 2cm-di­am­e­ter flut­ed noz­zle. Pipe cream in a spi­ral on top of each mousse.

Top with mint leaves and a cher­ry.