Category: desserts

Chocolate Glazed Cassava Balls

~ Sophie ~ 7 Comments

 

Hope you had a wonderful Easter holiday(s). If you have been reading this blog for quite some time you probably know that I am a hard-core (OK, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration) lover, cook(er) and eater of savory foods. I love dessert too …occasionally. What I love most about dessert is the small portions. Unlike large portions(think cake slice), small portions can help you control your intake(sometimes…I think), unless the whole batch of those small sweets is guzzled by one person(happens a lot!). These cassava balls are a delightful treat that is surprisingly well textured and flavorful. How they happened is as baffling to me as it will be to you. I believe that random spur-of-the-moment creations are one of the best. Do you agree with me? Shall we make some cassava balls?

What you’ll need:

½ Kg. Grated cassava

5Tbsp. Sugar

2Tbsp. Baking flour

¼ C. Milk

A drop of vanilla extract

Pure chocolate bar

Biscuits

Groundnuts

Method

Squeeze excess water out of the grated cassava and then put it in a bowl. Add sugar, milk and vanilla and stir.  Add the flour and keep stirring. Using your hands, form bite-size balls. Bake for twenty minutes or until slightly golden brown. Remove from oven and let them cool. In a separate small bowl, melt chocolate bar. Once fully melted, dip the rounded side of the cassava ball half way in the melted chocolate. Repeat the method till all the cassava balls are coated with melted chocolate.  Crush the biscuits and groundnuts and sprinkle them on top of the balls and insert toothpicks. chill for 30 minutes.  Serve as dessert…if they are not consumed by the time the whole preparation method is done ha!

You will get textured chewy mixed flavors all in one ball. Isn’t that awesome? One thing I observed with these cassava balls is that the flavors intensify as time goes by. So you may want to let them sit in the refrigerator or at room temperature for quite some time(probably like three hours or so) before serving or eating them.

Do you prefer large portioned desserts or small treats?

 

🙂

Sophie

 

PS: You might need more or less baking flour to get a perfect ball. It takes practice. The key is not to make it doughy. You still have to be able to taste and chew the grated cassava.

PPS: I used an oven toaster. If you are using a real oven the settings should be the same as the ones used to bake cookies.

 

 

Honeyed Sweet Potato Balls with Simsim(Sesame)

~ Sophie ~ 2 Comments

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There are days when food is in season (and those are the best days) that we find ourselves stocking up on fresh produce. For example, there was one time when sweet potatoes were in season (and incredibly cheap) that we bought half a sack for only 5000 shillings. After sometime though, people started complaining since we had exhausted all methods of cooking sweet potatoes known to us. But then there is this cookbook that resides in a corner somewhere and I remembered flipping through it and bookmarking all the dishes I want to try out when the time is right(I am still waiting for the time to be right!) and these sweet potato balls were high on that list. So I set out to experiment with everyone skeptical on how it will turn out since sweet potatoes, sugar and milk are an odd combination. I’d like to say I was not disappointed. These balls turned out great. They are a little bit on the radical side and it would take a real food enthusiast to love the flavor and texture. Nevertheless, they are really great and can be cool fancy desserts to impress your guests.

What you will need:

4C. Sweet potatoes, boiled and mashed

2Tbsp. Margarine(blue band)/butter

500gm Bread crumbs/ 4 slices of bread)

1/2 C. Milk

1/2 C. Honey

I cup simsim(sesame)

Method

Peel sweet potatoes, cut them into medallions and boil them till tender. Let them cool completely. Using a glass, mash the potatoes in a bowl. Add the margarine and mix well. In a separate bowl, mix the 1/2 cup of milk with the 1/2 cup of honey and stir till a syrup forms. Pour the syrup in the sweet potato mix and mix well. Next add the bread crumbs and mix till the mixture forms a firm dough. Using your hands, form small bite-sized balls and roll them in the simsim. After all the mixture is formed into balls and rolled in simsim, chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator. Serve

Apart form steaming, how do you prepare your sweet potatoes? Let me know in the comments section below.

Oh and by the way, head over to AfricanWoman to get a recipe on how to prepare Sautéed Irish Potatoes.

Have a great week.

🙂

Sophie

 

PS: This recipe is adapted from Tickle Your Taste Buds Internationally.

Banana Ice-cream Parfait

~ Sophie ~ 3 Comments

I have been shying away from making desserts in general because I think (and believe) they are a lot of work. Seriously! Until I came across a parfait. I used to feast my eyes on picture perfect Pinterest parfaits. Thinking, ‘who has time to do this elaborate dessert anyway’? Then someone simplified it by saying you just layer things in a tall glass. I was sold. I wrote it down on my list of foods to make because I was itching to make this supposedly easy parfait. Usually a parfait calls for yoghurt and as much as it is cheaper than ice-cream, I wanted this dessert to be fancy.

 

Funny story. One day we set out to create an ice-cream cake and we prepared everything. When it was time to arrange the biscuits and the ice-cream, we discovered the ice-cream was mostly foamy. How disappointing. Whenever we spooned it on top of a biscuit, it would just melt to the side and instantly become liquid. After that experience, I decided a parfait might as well be the right thing to do with ice-cream until I find one best suited for an ice-cream cake.

What you will need:

200gm Biscuits

500ml Ice-cream

1 Banana, fully ripe

A handful of roasted groundnuts(peanuts)

 

Method

In a bowl, crush biscuits till coarse and set aside. Peel the banana and thinly slice it crosswise then set aside. Coarsely crush the groundnuts and set aside. Prepare two tall glasses. Spoon ice-cream in (one spoon) the first glass. Next add a spoon of crushed biscuit on top of the ice-cream. Next add banana slices. Repeat the process till the glass is  full. Finish with a generous amount of ice-cream  then top with crushed roasted groundnuts. Repeat the process for the second glass. Chill the parfaits in the fridge for 5 minutes. Garnish with mint(or anything else) and serve.

 

What you get is a mixture of flavors and textures. It’s really good! Its basic but i am excited to try out new combinations in the future. The ice-cream melts fast so it soaked up all the other ingredients in the photo shooting moment. I realize this is way past valentines but, hey, you can still make this for your loved one(s).

Have a great week

 

🙂

Sophie

PS:I used strawberry flavored ice-cream and coconut flavored biscuits.