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NIGERIA Peanut Fool

This was a simple recipe to follow. For measuring out the peanut butter, I measured a cup of milk in a measuring cup and put the peanut butter in the milk until it measured out to be two cups. This way the peanut butter does not stick to the measuring cup. It took a long time for the peanut butter to completely dissolve into the milk, but eventually all that was left was tiny specks of peanut butter. I was careful to only pour little bits of milk into the eggs at a time, to prevent the eggs from cooking and becoming chunky. Then I cooked it a bit longer, it became thick on the bottom so I had to keep scraping the bottom and finally turned off the stove. The texture was like pudding, only less thick. It tasted so much better than I expected, I actually liked it. I could only take a few bites though, because it was quite rich. My dad took it to work with him and people enjoyed it.

  

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SENEGAL Caramel Bananas

This was a simple recipe to make but I still messed it up. First of all I used dark brown sugar by mistake so that the flavor was too strong. Then I put in dry, powdered milk thinking it was evaporated milk. I was wrong, evaporated milk actually comes in a can, I knew that too, but I just forgot. Oh well! As a result the Caramel was extremely dark and when it cooled it became hard as rock. I had to quickly heat it back up and pour it over a banana. It looked like chocolate sauce. When I took a bite, it was completely hardened and tasted a bit burned. This did not turn out too well but I can imagine that if I had not made any mistakes that it would have been quite delicious.

  

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SIERRA LEONE Coconut Delight

Here is yet another dessert that makes use of the coconut. This recipe used regular milk instead of coconut milk which surprised me. Basically, I cooked the milk, sugar and farina, which is “cream of wheat,” in a double boiler. It got very thick, like dough and then I added the flaked coconut which made it even thicker. Instead of strawberry jam, which it calls for, I used raspberry jam because we did not have strawberry jam. It was not bad. I only had a spoonful, I think a bowl of it would be too much, but just a little bit with the jam tasted good. It actually reminded me of a rice pudding, it is thick but smooth.

  

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SOUTH AFRICA Melktert (Milk Tart)

I made this dessert with my two friends Lizzie Bastian and Hannah Tucker. First we made the crust which surprisingly had sour cream in it. We rolled it out flat in a circle and built up the edges. Then we filled it with an egg custard and sprinkled the top with brown sugar and cinnamon. Then we baked it. This milk tart is quite interesting. Unfortunately I deleted the picture before I got a chance to put it on the computer. It looks extremely similar to a pizza. It is about the same size and shape. It tastes like French-toast because of the egg and cinnamon. It is clear that this dessert is not of African origin but most likely came with settlers and explores from Europe. Although it is not my favorite dessert, it does taste good.

  

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TANZANIA Mango-Orange Drink

I liked this dessert because it was a drink. It had water, sugar and grated orange peel cooked over the stove and then the mango added to it along with the lemon juice. It was a little bit pulpy because of the mango and orange peel, which also made it slightly bitter. Other than that it was good. I have not had Sunny D since fourth grade, but I think it tasted similar to that, only way better. I thought it would be thicker, but it actually was only a bit thicker than orange juice. Although it was good, I can have orange juice or mango smoothies which are both easier and just as good. Therefore, I do not think I will make this dessert again.

  

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TOGO Mango Fool

I was talking to Katie Walsh who is married to someone from Togo and they live there for part of the year. She said that they do not really eat dessert, but they do like puddings and fools, which are basically puddings. Therefore, when I came across this recipe for mango fool I thought it would be perfect. Unfortunately, there were no good ripe mangos at the grocery store so I ended up using two bags of frozen mangos. When they were soft enough I took a beater and beat/whipped them up. It looked extremely similar to applesauce only this was a golden color. I heated the milk and egg and had to stir constantly otherwise clumps would have formed. When I mixed everything together the golden color got a bit lighter, but other than that it still looked like mango applesauce. Unfortunately, I made it the night before I left for Italy and completely forgot to try it. Luckily it was still fine when I got back. I do not think it went bad. It looked the same except was a bit thicker. I did not particularly like the taste; it had a bit of a sour flavor.

  

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TUNISIA Masfout de Tunis

This dessert is a crumbly dish. It calls for semolina flour which I found at Whole Foods under the brand Bob’s Red Mill. It is a type of flour made from the hardy, Durum wheat, and is yellow in color. This is an easy and simple dessert to make. The recipe calls for grapes but it does not say where or when to add them so I left them out. The semolina flour makes little clumps which result in it being quite crumbly. In fact it reminds me a lot of the Halva I made from India. I used regular flour for the Indian dessert because I could not find semolina flour and this dessert has lots of butter in it. These are the only real differences and if I had used semolina flour for the Indian halva, I am sure that there would hardly be a difference. This dessert is neither too flavorful nor sweet so I do not particularly like it.

  

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UGANDA Kashata Na Nazi

(Coconut Candy)

This dessert was simple and easy to make. The only problem I had with it was that the recipe did not specify what moist coconut meant. I originally thought it just was referring to shredded coconut but then I thought that it would be much too dry. I finally decided to add one cup of shredded coconut and one cup of coconut milk. It ended up being way too wet so I added another cup of shredded coconut, but is still was not solid enough. It was delicious, almost had a Caramel, cinnamon taste with a bit of coconut flavor. People had to just scoop out spoon full’s of it. After a few days though, it because stiff enough to actually mould into little balls. Next time I make this dessert I know to just put in shredded coconut and no milk.

  

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ZAMBIA Gloabjamoun (Sweet Potato Cakes)

This dessert is fairly simple to make but the deep frying takes a bit of time. The recipe calls for sweet potatoes which are often mistaken for yams. In fact when I went to the store to buy them they were called yams. However, yams have a brown skin while sweet potatoes have a reddish skin. The recipe calls for two sticks of cinnamon ground, but I could not grind them. Instead I weighed them and then took ground cinnamon and weighed it out. It ended up being about two tablespoons which is a lot, but it did not taste like too much in the actual dessert. To roll the potato mush into balls, I coated my hands in flour so the dough would not stick as much. This helped a bit. The problem I found with these is that the outside cooked but the inside stayed all mushy. I made the balls the size of golf balls so maybe if they were made half the size or even smaller they would cook all the way through. Another reason I do not like these is because, unfortunately, I do not like sweet potatoes.

  

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ZIMBABWE Mapopo/Papaya Candy

This dessert was easy to make but time consuming. It was basically sliced up papaya, sugar, water, lemon peel, and crushed mint cooked over the stove. Over time the chunks of papaya got so small that many of them disappeared. The substance was beautiful; it was an orange color and looked a bit like jelly. Near the end it began to get a little thicker which was way more time then the recipe said. After a while I took it off the stove and began to shape it into little balls. Unfortunately, it began to harden very quickly and it was hot which did not make it any easier to handle. I eventually had to try to push together the half hardened sugar stuff together which worked okay. I ended up giving up because I had a good amount and the rest was just getting to hard. It turned a weird tan color. It reminded me a bit of chicken after it has been fried in oil. I took it my senior project class dinner and people tried it and surprisingly a lot of people found it to taste good. It was very hard but it did not taste too bad. I know I will not make it again but I liked it a little bit.

  

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North and Central

America

  

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ANTIGUA & BARBUDA Bananas au Rum Flambee

This was the most exciting dessert I have ever made. It is simple, just cut the bananas length wise and bake them. I cut each banana into about three/four slices. Then I made the sauce and added the tiny bit of rum and poured it over the baked bananas. Then I heated the remaining rum. Apparently if the rum is not heated, it will not catch fire. I made it for pizza at my grandmas because I thought everyone would enjoy the show. I brought it to the living room table so everyone could see, and while my cousin, Jency poured the rum, I lit a match and set fire to the rum. I should have waited till she was finished pouring because some of it spilled onto the table and was burning. I quickly had to bat the flames out with a kitchen rag. No damage was done though. Thank goodness! It was super cool. The flames were a blue color and they continuously swirled across the top of the bananas. We turned out the lights so we could see the flames better and it looked even cooler. The taste was okay. I do not like cooked bananas and I could not really taste the rum. Some people could taste the rum and others could not. My mom and Jency really loved it a lot. Also, all the alcohol did not burn up so my mom felt fuzziness on the bridge of her nose. I would definitely recommend making this dessert because the experience is awesome. How many times do you get to see a dessert on fire?

  

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BAHAMAS Key Lime Pie

Although this recipe did not come from LynnEllen, she told me to make this pie with a Ritz cracker crust. She has lived in the Bahamas and said that this was the dessert to do. First I made the crust which is quite simple. Next I made the pie filling and poured it into the shell. Then I beat the egg whites which took a long time to get stiff but eventually they became stiff enough to create peaks. I was worried that by placing this on the pie it would sink into it but I gently dabbed it on and it did not sink in at all. It says to cook it in a grill and my dad said I could just bake it under the broiler. I did this and in about a minute the top got browned. I was worried though because there were raw eggs in the pie and they were obviously not being cooked. I looked in two other pie recipes and one did not cook the pie at all while one cooked it for only ten minutes. I decided to put tin foil over the pie so the egg whites would not brown anymore and I baked the pie for about ten minutes. I figured this was going to have to work. Then I covered it and placed it in the refrigerator. I do not like key lime pie but I actually liked this one. I think the saltiness of the crackers made it super delicious. I took it to school with me and everybody devoured it.

  

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BARBADOS West Indian Banana

Pudding I mixed all the ingredients in the mixer except for the candied peel because I did not have any. Then I poured it into a glass baking pan. I thought it would be more pudding like when I pulled it out, but instead it was solid. I did not have any rum so I did not make the sauce. Even if I did have the rum I did not think I would have used it because I fell as if it would ruin the taste. I do not like the taste of cooked bananas, like banana bread, so I did not love it. However, it did taste better than banana bread to me. I could taste the bananas in it but there was also tartness to it because of the lime juice. It had the consistency of pumpkin pie filling only slightly thicker. I took it to school and a lot of people liked it. Kama Pellani loved it; she ended up having it as her lunch.

  

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BELIZE Vanilla Wafers

This was an extremely easy and simple dessert containing only six ingredients. After mixing everything together I baked it and they came out quite white and delicious. The one thing about the recipe is that it called for 3 ounces of egg. I have never, ever heard of measuring out egg. It has always been a set number of eggs. It ended up measuring out to about an egg and a half. Part of me wonders though, how much would change if I just put in one or two eggs. The cookie itself is quite delicious; it reminds me a bit of a sugar cookie. Also I wonder how authentic this recipe really is. Belize is a country in Central America and this seems more of a European dessert, so it probably is influenced from immigration. I took these cookies to the girl’s dorm and they all enjoyed them.

  

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CANADA Beaver Tails

This was the third dessert I have made this week that called for deep frying. The dough was extremely similar to the other ones except it called for more sugar and instead of kneading the dough; I continued to mix it with a dough hook. The dough was quite fluffy and sticky. I took golf ball sized pieces and rolled them in the shape of a beaver tail, or hockey rink (where they sell these). Then I fried them. It took a long time because I could only fry one at a time instead of a few, and that was frustrating. Then I tossed them in cinnamon sugar and let them sit. When I completed all of them, I took them to the girl’s dorm while they were still warm. It was perfect because it was Julia’s birthday that day (she is Canadian). They all told me how good they were, and I must say they were definitely one of the best desserts. For one thing, they were fluffy, not too dense, and they were sweet and flavorful enough. I could not get over how good they were, so I know that I will make these again.

  

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CUBA Helado de Mango (Tropical Mango sherbet)

This is similar to the dessert that I made for Mexico. However, this had no lime but did have lemon juice, light cream, and egg whites. I blended them together then froze it until slushy and then mixed in the egg whites and froze it again. It had a slightly different taste, was creamier and the egg whites I think made it slightly more fluffy. Overall I liked it better and I thought this was easier to make because I did not have to periodically mix it between freezing it like I did with the mango ice. I think that this would be a delightful and refreshing afternoon snack to have in the heat of the summer.

  

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DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Torta De Coco (Coconut Cheese Tart)

This pastry seemed more of something for an actual meal than for dessert. It was simple to make but even though I cooked it for the right time it seemed to not have completely cooked. The crust and the top were well cooked but the majority of the filling was still quite watery. My dad said that this was fine though because there were not many eggs in it so I think it is supposed to be like this. It tasted like cheese with coconut which was nice. I did not really like it because of the texture, I did not like that it was still wet and there were little lumps here and there. Also I tried it after it had been in the refrigerator for a day, so it probably would be better right out of the oven while it was still warm. My dad took it to work with him and lots of people tried it.

  

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EL SALVADOR Quesadilla Salvadorena

(Sweet Cheese Pound Cake)

My sister has a friend, Sam, who is doing the Peace Core here, so when she went to South America this fall she visited him. When she came back she told me about this cake and said that I had to make it because it was so delicious. It was a simple and easy process. It looked and smelled good and my sister said that it was awesome. I on the other hand could not really tell if I like it. It reminds me a bit of corn bread, which I do not like. It is sweet but it also has a cheese flavor. I used parmesan cheese, so maybe if I used a different cheese I would like it better. I took one loaf up to the dorm and people liked it.