Ricotta Bombolini

I'm a big fan of Australia Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules and so does my sister.  By just watching these shows you can learn so much of the different type techniques in preparing and cooking the dishes.  It is just feeling wonderful by just watching the contestants cooking....

Last year when Emma & Jane of MKR presented their dessert to the judges, the judges gave good praises to their Bombolini (I never ever heard of Bombolini that time).  Well, Bombolini or Bombolone is an Italian filled sweet dessert similarly like doughnut balls.  

I have bookmarked this recipe since that episode was aired last year and only today I got the mood to make it!  Because for this, I specially had to make my homemade ricotta.

Ricotta Bombolini (Ricotta Doughnut)
Recipe adapted from MKR Recipes


Ingredients

112g plain flour
50g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
250g ricotta cheese or Homemade ricotta
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Vegetable Oil for deep frying
Caster sugar or icing sugar to coat


Method

Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.  Add in the sugar.  Stir to combined and set aside.

Gently in stir in the eggs, ricotta and vanilla.  Mix till all combined.   Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 - 40 minutes.

In a heavy deep medium saucepan, add and heat up the oil about 4" deep high in your saucepan (enough to allow your bombolini to float in your saucepan).

Drop a tablespoon of the mixture into the heated oil and fry in batches.  Fry till crisp and golden brown; and cooked through. 

Drain on absorbent paper. 
In this stage, you can roll your bombolini in caster sugar or once the bombolini cool down a bit, just lightly dust and coat with icing sugar.

One thing good about this recipe is, you don't need the yeast and wait for hours and hours to proof the mixture.  And yet resulted so soft and fluffy.

These Bombolini (doughnut balls) are so delicious and yummy!  Can you see the texture is so soft, light, moist and fluffy?  I wish I can share this out together with you but I can't, so you got to make this yourself.  







A Courtesy note:
My photos here though are not professional photos but please do not download it and use it without my consent.  Thank you!

Pumpkin Milky Sago Dessert

Do you like pumpkin?  And do you know pumpkin is a fruit instead of vegetable.  Or just because pumpkin consist of seeds that it is considered as a fruit.  Pumpkin is very versatile in cooking.  You can used pumpkin as a sweet dessert and you can used it as savoury dish too.

I preferred to use pumpkin as a sweet dessert.  I have made Pumpkin Sago Dessert last year and it taste absolutely heavenly good this dessert.   Today I am posting a very similar pumpkin sago sweet dessert but this time is more diluted watery.

 PUMPKIN MILKY SAGO DESSERT

Ingredients

500gm pumpkin (deseeded &  skin removed, cut into cubes)
100gm sago (tapioca pearls)
100gm palm sugar (gula melaka) or rock sugar (adjust to your sweetness preference)
3-4 blades pandan leaves
1000ml water
1 can (390ml) evaporated milk

Method

Bring a medium pot of water to boil.  Once the water comes to a bubbling boiling, pour all the sago pearls in.  Cook the sago in high heat for about 10 minutes or translucent; stirring constantly.  (do not worry if the sago still has white spot in the middle).

Cover the pot with lid and let it stand for 5-8 minutes for the sago to cook further in the pot.

Using a sieve, run the cooked sago thru running water to remove access starch.  Pour into a bowl and set aside.

Steam the dice pumpkin until soft.
Drain the pumpkin if there's water in it. While the pumpkin still warm, using a potato masher, roughly mash the pumpkin.  (You can blend till fine the pumpkin; but mashing it roughly give some biting texture when you are eating it later). Set aside.

In a clean medium pot, add the 1000ml water, sugar and pandan leaves.  Bring to boil till sugar dissolves.  Boil another 2-3 minutes to bring out the pandan leaves aroma.  Discard the pandan leaves.  
Add in the mashed pumpkin and sago.  Once it's come to a boil, pour in the evaporated milk and immediately removed from heat.  Done!

Serve warm or cold.

For this dessert, I am using this Australian pumpkin; big portion in flesh with little seeds in it...  I love this pumpkin with its dark vibrant in colour though it is quite costly.

One thing good about this sweet dessert is,  you can enjoy either warm or cold whichever way you want.  Taste absolutely delicious and yummy!

Go on, give it a try!