New Year's Recipes 2013: holiday desserts

New Year's Recipes 2013: Strawberry Santas

Fresh strawberries in winter difficult to get (and yesit costs much more than in the season), but just imagine how your guests will be delighted to see on the table funny strawberry Santa Clauses (or Santa Clauses - as you like). This is a real New Year's miracle, just like snowdrops in December! To prepare this New Year's dessert, we will need:

• 
  large fresh strawberry - 10 pcs.
• 
  cottage cheese - 100 g
• 
  coconut shaving - 50 g
• 
  sour cream - 2-3 tbsp. l.
• 
  powdered sugar - 2-3 tbsp. l.
• 
  lemon juice - 1 tsp.
• 
  chocolate droplets - 20 pcs.

Cottage cheese carefully grind with sour cream, sugarpowder and lemon juice. A homogeneous smooth mass should be obtained. In strawberry berries cut off the top about one third of the height of the berries. For each strawberry we put a little curd cream and cover it with a "cap", we put in the cream "eyes" from chocolate droplets and we make "pom-poms" from the cream on the caps.

Coconut chips are poured onto a dish and setStrawberry Santa Claus in this improvised "snow." Done! If you do not want to bother with curd cream, you can use whipped cream in a can instead (but in this case the dessert needs to be cooked immediately before serving on the table so that the cream does not have time to settle).

New Year's Recipes 2013: apples in caramel

Apples in caramel - a favorite dessert in many Western countries, especially popular during the autumn-winter holidays, from Halloween to Christmas and New Year. To prepare apples in caramel for the New Year, we will need to stock up the following ingredients:

• 
  solid sweet and sour apples - 5 pcs.
• 
  brown sugar - 1 tbsp.
• 
  water 110 ml
• 
  butter - 1 tbsp. l.
• 
  table vinegar - 1 tsp.
• 
  ground cinnamon - 0,5 tsp.

Also we will need thin wooden sticksfor planting apples and waxed baking paper. My apples, we put on sticks and blanch in boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Taking apples from boiling water, carefully dry them with a paper towel. In principle, you can do without blanching, but thanks to him apples will become a little softer, and caramel will be better kept on the surface of the fruit.

To prepare caramel we combine sugar and waterin a small saucepan and put on fire. Heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar is completely dissolved. Bring the syrup to a boil, reduce fire, add oil, vinegar and cinnamon (if you do not like cinnamon, you can do without it). Boil the syrup for 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly, until caramel thickens. If you want to make multi-colored apples, you can tint caramel food coloring, adding it according to the instructions.

When caramel becomes viscous and beginsbubble, gently tilt the pan, without removing it from the fire. One dip apples on sticks in boiling caramel and scroll them a couple of times around its own axis, so that they are evenly covered with caramel. Finished apples carefully put on waxed paper, so they dried out. If desired, you can additionally dip caramel-coated apples in chopped nuts, coconut shavings or special powder for confectionery products.

Cooking apples in caramel is best shortly before serving. They can be stored in the refrigerator, but not longer than two or three days.

Bon appetit and happy holidays!