Desserts you make the day before
Each recipe here has a chilling step written into its method, from thirty-five minutes to several days, and none of them suffer from waiting overnight. The notes say what you do on day one, what is left for day two, and the one step in each that decides whether it works. Most of them use eggs or cream and nothing exotic.
Chocolate Truffles
1 of 8
Two ingredients: bittersweet chocolate melted over hot water and double cream stirred in. Thirty-five minutes in the fridge until it holds a shape, then teaspoonfuls rolled in cocoa cut with icing sugar. Makes about twenty-four. Take them out fifteen minutes before serving so they soften.
Chocolate Mousse (Mousse au Chocolat)
2 of 8
Five ingredients, and the recipe is mostly warnings. The melted chocolate must be cool before it meets the yolks or you get, in its words, chocolate scrambled eggs. Whipped whites folded in three parts, then whipped cream, then four to six hours in the fridge. Divide into glasses while it is still liquid.
Crème Brûlée
3 of 8
A cup of cream, two yolks and sugar, cooked on the stove until it coats a spoon, then forty minutes in a water bath and a few hours cold. The sugar top is done under the broiler just before serving, checked every minute. Small batch: it fills one to four ramekins depending on size.
Banoffee Pie
4 of 8
Crushed gingernuts and butter pressed into a loose-bottomed tin. The caramel is butter, sugar and a tin of condensed milk boiled with constant stirring for five minutes, poured hot over sliced bananas on the base. At least an hour to set, overnight is fine. Whip the cream and spoon it on the next day.
Banana Pudding
5 of 8
A stovetop custard thickened with tempered yolks and cornstarch, layered twice with vanilla wafers, lemon juice and sliced banana, then topped with meringue from the leftover whites and a little coconut. The recipe says several hours in the fridge. The lemon juice over the cookies is what keeps the bananas from going brown.
Indian Baked Yoghurt with Saffron and Cardamom
6 of 8
Condensed milk and Greek yoghurt whisked with cardamom, pistachio and raisins, baked in paper-lined ramekins in a water bath for forty-five minutes. Figs poached in a spiced lemon syrup go over the top. Both parts keep in the fridge, so turn the puddings out and plate the figs on the day.
Hazelnut Torte
7 of 8
Ten egg whites and a cup of sugar beaten stiff, hazelnut meal folded in, baked as one thin sheet and cut into three. Coffee and cocoa are whipped into the cream that stacks the layers. The recipe itself says to make it the day before for the best flavour.
Chocolate Cheesecake
8 of 8
Three packs of cream cheese beaten with brown sugar and five eggs, half the batter plain, half with melted chocolate swirled through, baked fifty minutes with foil over the top for the last twenty. Cool completely, then the recipe allows two hours to several days in the fridge. The sour cream and chocolate topping goes on last.