Desserts Showcasing Winter Fruits {Guest Post}

The summer season is often filled with delicious fruit based desserts- strawberry shortcake and blueberry pie among many. When the winter season comes along desserts often move to more decadent, chocolate based desserts. While these are delicious, they can be a bit heavy, and especially after the holidays you may be looking for something lighter to satisfy your sweet-tooth.  Winter fruits are perfect for brightening up your desserts, because they are in season they are full of flavor and typically more affordable than out of season fruits.  Winter fruits include assorted citrus, apples, pears, quinces and pomegranates. 

Citrus Fruit Salad

Dessert does not have to be an elaborate affair; a fruit salad can be an easy, delicious way to end a meal and can be tailored and modified to suit your tastes. 

Photo Credit

Serves 4
Ingredients: 
A mix of 4-6 citrus fruits such as grapefruit, blood oranges, navel oranges, pomellos, tangerines etc.
¼ cup of pomegranate seeds
2 tablespoons of agave nectar
Squeeze of lime juice
1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier

Steps:
1.  Peel and supreme the citrus and toss together in a large bowl with pomegranate seeds
2.  In a small bowl whisk together the agave nectar, lime juice and Grand Marnier.
3.  Pour the “dressing” over the fruit and let sit for at least an hour to let the flavours meld. Enjoy!

Vegan Apple Quince Crumble

Not many people are familiar with quince, but they should be! Quince is a very firm winter fruit that is too acidic to be eaten raw. The fruit mellows and develops a red hue when cooked,  and it pairs beautifully with apples in this crumble recipe. A bonus of this recipe is that the crumble topping contains no dairy, so it is perfect for someone who is lactose intolerant or vegan.

Photo credit

Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
3 baking apples
2 quince
1 lemon
¾ cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of traditional rolled oats
½ cup of brown sugar
1/3 cup of preferred mild tasting oil (I use melted coconut oil)
1 teaspoon of apple pie spice

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2.  Peel, core and quarter the apples and quince, then cut into approx 1” pieces. Toss them will the lemon juice and place them in an 8” or 10” baking dish.
3. In a small bowl mix together the crumble topping by mixing together the flour, oats, sugar and pie spice with the oil, making sure all the dry ingredients are moistened.
4. Evenly sprinkle the crumble topping over the apple and quince mixture.
5. Bake for 35-40 minutes (depending on size of the pan).

Serve warm or room temperature. For a more substantial dessert, serve it with a scoop of non dairy vanilla flavoured “ice-cream”.

Satsuma Cheesecake 

Satsuma’s are a fragrant seedless cousin of the mandarin and help to lighten up the richness of a cheesecake.  Chocolate and orange are a classic combination, so this cheesecake features a chocolate crumb crust. It’s important for the cream cheese to be softened, and the eggs to be at room temperature so take themout of the fridge in the morning of the day you want to bake.

Serves 8-10
Ingredients:
Crust:
1 .5  cups of  chocolate cookie crumbs (approx 28 crushed cookies if making your own crumbs)
¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted.

Cheesecake:
20 oz. softened cream cheese
¾ cup of sugar
¾ cup of sour cream
3 tablespoons of finely grated Satsuma rind
¼ cup of freshly squeezed Satsuma juice (from 6-10 Satsuma’s)
4 large eggs, room temperature

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2.  Line the bottom of a 9” spring form pan with parchment paper
3. Mix together the cookie crumbs and melted butter and press into the bottom of the pan.
4. By hand or with an electric mixer beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the sugar and beat again for another minute or two until smooth and combined.
3. Mix in the rind, juice and sour cream, and beat for 30 seconds.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time into the mixture. Mix well for another 1-2 minutes.
5. Pour mixture into the spring form pan.
6. Prepare a bain marie and place the spring form in it.
7. Bake for approx 50 minutes, or until it appears just set (slightly wobbly in the middle)
8. Turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake in the oven for another hour.
9. Release the outer pan from the cheesecake, and then refrigerate the cake over night before serving.  

Hopefully these recipes will inspire you to bring some winter fruits into your kitchen. Bonne Appetite!

This post is written by Vanessa from PartSelect.ca, which carries many washer parts among its 2,000,000+ parts inventory