Our favourite English chefs The Gourmet Pommies Will and Steve share their tasty dessert platter recipe Spiced Apple Cigars, Cinnamon Cheesecake And Pistachios to keep your guests happy when entertaining over the summer break.
It’s one of many delicious recipes from their first cook book Will and Steve Home Cook, Aspiring Chef. You can also check out more recipes of the winners of Seven Network’s top rating cooking show, My Kitchen Rules on their website, www.willandsteve.com.au.
This recipe takes 40 minutes to prep and cook and serves six people.
Spiced Apple Cigars, Cinnamon Cheesecake & Pistachios dessert platter
INGREDIENTS
- 250g mascarpone
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1 cup thickened cream
- 1 cup sweetened plain yoghurt
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 x 250g pack frozen spring roll
- pastry, thawed
- 1 egg, lightly beaten, for egg
- wash
- vegetable oil, for deep frying
- 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
- 1 cup pistachio nuts, unsalted
- and hulled
- 1 teaspoon icing sugar
Filling
- 5 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- juice of 1 lemon
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 cup water
METHOD
- To make the cheesecake, combine the mascarpone and sugar in a bowl. Mix well. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream to stiff peaks. Add the yoghurt and combine. Fold the two mixtures together, add the cinnamon, and refrigerate.
- For the filling: place the diced apple, the tablespoon of butter, the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon in a saucepan and sauté for 5 minutes on medium–high heat, Add the water, reduce to medium heat and cook for 15 minutes until the apple is soft but still holding its form. Set aside.
- Carefully separate the spring roll pastry sheets, laying each one out on a chopping board as you go. Add 2 tablespoons of spiced apple filling per pastry sheet, starting across the middle of the bottom. Roll halfway, wrap in the ends, roll once more and use the egg wash to seal the spring roll. Repeat with the remaining pastry and spiced apple filling.
- Heat the oil to 180°C in a deep fryer or large saucepan. Deep fry the spring rolls in batches until golden brown, 2–3 minutes. Drain on paper towel and dust, straight out of the fryer, with the vanilla sugar.
- Toast the pistachios in a dry frying pan on medium–high heat until they become fragrant. Sprinkle the teaspoon of icing sugar over the nuts, toss to combine and when you can no longer see any icing sugar set the nuts aside to cool. Once the nuts have hardened, roughly chop.
- To serve, place the spring rolls on a shared plate, serve the cheesecake as a dip and garnish with pistachios.
