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GRENADA Banana Oatmeal Biscuits

These cookies were fairly simple to make. For the oz measurements I used a measuring cup which has the oz measurements and the flour then ended up being ¾ a cup, the sugar a cup and the oats ½ a cup. For baking them I used non stick vellum sheets that are placed on cookie sheets, or parchment paper could work as well. For the first cookie sheet, I did not use the sheets and the cookies ended up sticking a lot. When they bake they flatten out and the edges got burned. However, the middle remained fine. Then I cooked the second half for 5 minutes less and the edges did not burn, but the cookies were a bit moister. Either time can work because if they get burned edges, then the edges can be broken off. The cookies were moist, a bit sticky, and they tasted and had a similar feel as banana bread. Unfortunately, I do not like banana bread so I did not love these cookies but my family did. I also took them to the girl’s dorm and they liked them as well.

  

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GUATEMALA

Maduro En Gloria (Heavenly Bananas)

This was an easy dessert to make. I sliced the bananas in half and put them in the frying pan with the melted butter. I only sliced the bananas once but I think it might have been better to slice them three times. In the frying pan they got mushy around the edges and began to rip apart. Once in the pie pan I slathered on the cream cheese mixture. There was not nearly enough to completely cover the bananas so I dabbed it on here and there. When I poured in the cream it filled it to the top of the pie pan and luckily it did not overflow. I let it cook longer because there was still a lot of cream after 20 minutes. When it did come out it had a nice brown top and was bubbling. This dessert smelled good but did not look good at all. When bananas cook they get a brown color and some of them were showing so it almost looked like intestines in a brownish tan cream. I personally did not like it because I do not like cooked bananas but other than that it was good.

  

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HAITI Spiced Cocoa

This was milk heated up with a chocolate paste added to it. The paste consisted of egg whites, cinnamon, milk, cocoa powder, and sugar. The paste is eventually added to the boiling milk. I liked this cocoa; it was nice to have a drink for a dessert. My brother said it was not sweet enough, but I thought it was fine. The only thing I found weird was that I think some of the egg whites cooked because there was a lot of mushy chunks in it. If I had strained it then it would be fine. If I make it again I do not think I will put in the egg. I honestly do not know if I will make it again, because regular powdered cocoa which is added to milk is so much easier and just as good.

  

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HONDURAS Torrijas

(Fried Cake Dessert)

This dessert is essentially pieces of sponge cake fried in oil and then soaked in a sauce. Although the recipe calls for sponge cake, I could not find any so I ended up using angel food cake which turned out to be delicious. Some of the cake staled more than others by the time I fried them and I think the only difference was that the more staled cake soaked up more of the egg mixture and oil. After frying them I poured the syrup sauce over them and mixed it well, fully coating each piece of fried cake. They tasted delicious, they were slightly warm, a good bite size and the syrup gave it a nice sweet flavor. I took them up to the boy’s dorm and they all were excited to try them.

  

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JAMAICA Fruit Drink

This dessert called for a lot of fruit, one of which was a papaya. I think when I was in Hawaii I came across one of these but I hardly remember, so when I cut it open, I was surprised how beautiful it was. It went from a warm gold out to a peachy orange, despite its beauty, it does not taste good by itself. My blender ended up not being big enough for all the ingredients so I ended up pouring it into two bowls and blending the remaining ingredients then splitting that into the two bowls and pouring one of them back into the blender and repeated this a few times. It was a disaster because it got so messy but the results were fantastic. It tasted super delicious. I know that in the future I will definitely make variations of this dessert. The nice thing about a smoothie is it is so flexible, meaning that almost any fruit and any amount can be put in and it turns out to be delicious. Therefore, I know that I will make plenty of variations of this.

  

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MEXICO Nieve De Mango Con Limon

(Mango-Lime Ice) This cool and refreshing dessert is quite popular in Mexico. They often sell it on the street as a nice refreshing thing to eat on those hot days. It is mango, lime and sugar blended in the blender and then placed in the freezer. Then it is mixed every two hours until it is all frozen. It was easy to make and I thought that is tasted great. It is very similar to sorbet, only better. I think I will probably make this again on a hot summer day.

  

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NICARAGUA Tres Leches

(Sponge Cake with Three Milks)

This is an interesting dessert. It is sponge cake cooked, then poked, creating holes for milk, condensed milk and evaporated milk to be poured over it and soak in. Then on top is whipped up egg whites with sugar, which is extremely similar to marshmallow fluff. So it is basically soggy cake with sweet sticky stuff for icing. I did not like this cake and I will definitely not make it again. It is interesting that this is actually appetizing to people. People like the things that they have grown up with, while they do not like foreign foods because they are not use to them. I am just not use to this kind of cake.

 

 

 

  

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PANAMA Tarta De Almendras

(Almond Tart)

This was a delicious tart that everybody enjoyed. First the dough is made and then it is rolled out and placed on the bottom of a pie pan. I used raspberry jam because I think that is better than apricot jam. Then I poured the filling in. I am assuming when it says cover the top with strips that it is referring to a lattice top. I cut out the strips about half an inch wide and pinched five ends of these to one side of the pie. They did not stick well so I used egg whites to glue them on. Next I put five more on an adjacent side. Then I took one strip and wove it through to the other side. With the strips I wove through, I just folded them back so they would not droop into the filling. I repeated this with all the strips of dough until each strip reached its opposite side and then baked it. Because the filling was watery, parts of the lattice top sunk in put it was fine because some of it was still showing and it looked cool. Because the tart had almond extract in it, it tasted strongly of almond and the raspberry jam went well with it. The texture was solid enough to hold but was also mushy. I brought it to school with me and everybody loved it. It was all eaten by the end of the first period!

  

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ST. KITTS Banana Pastries in Sharp Sauce

This was a fairly simple dessert to make. The recipe just says to halve each banana; it did not say whether or not to cut it cross wise or length wise. I chose to cut them cross wise because it is easier that way. Once rolled in the cinnamon sugar, which probably could use more cinnamon, I rolled each in dough. Then I baked them on a cookie sheet. I should have used either parchment paper or vellum sheets because the banana pastries stuck to the pan. The sauce which is quite lemony is easy to make. It calls for corn flour, I used corn meal thinking it was the same thing, but it ended up leaving little bits of flakes in the syrup. Corn flour is fine, while corn meal is grainy; I think the corn flour is supposed to thicken the syrup which the corn meal did not do. The bananas shrunk a bit and got browned from baking which was interesting because then the pastry shell was floppy around the banana. I let the banana pastries soak in the syrup over night and took them to school the next morning. Everybody liked them, which was awesome. I personally did not like them because I do not like the taste of cooked banana, but if I just got a piece of pastry in the syrup then I liked it.

  

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TRINIDAD & TOBAGO Walnut Cake

This was a simple and easy dessert to make. One of the ingredients it calls for is treacle, which is either dark or golden syrup. It does not specify which and I could not find either at the grocery store. I used molasses instead which is almost the same thing as black treacle. Also it calls for a sandwich tin which happens to be a pie tin. When finished baking I let it cool and popped it out of the tin and iced it. The icing calls for coffee essence so I just brewed coffee in a few tablespoons of hot water so it was quite concentrated. The icing was delicious and added a nice touch to the cake. The cake had that molasses taste to it which I do not mind but others may not like. The cake was a good texture and over all I thought it was tasty. I took it up to BATS which was having a bake sale.

  

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Apple Pie

I made this pie for our harvest party. Because I was so busy I actually stayed up until one in the morning to finish it. This dessert has a crust with a filling of sliced apple and spices. This is the first recipe that I had already made before and it was a completely different experience. It was actually nice for once to know the outcome and tastes of a dessert before I even made it. I have made some weird ones and I never know if they will be good or not. Thus, it was quite reassuring and I actually was able to stray from the recipe a bit, and experiment. I ended up adding ½ a teaspoon of allspice and cloves which the recipe did not call for. I felt confident enough to add my own little twist and I was able to also make it very beautiful. The only problem was that I had to cook it in our toaster oven because we are redoing our kitchen and that is the only current oven we have. The result was that the top got a little burned. However, it tasted great and everyone loved it!

  

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South America

  

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ARGENTINA Dulce De Leche

(Milk Sweet)

My sister, Bianca, actually went to Argentina and told me that they always have Dulce De Leche. So I decided to make it. It took a long time to make. I had to cook the milk, cinnamon and vanilla bean for three hours. I had a difficult time finding vanilla beans; I did not know what they even looked like. Eventually I asked someone and they told me it was in the spice shelf. I found it but I had no idea that vanilla beans cost so much. Two beans cost $13. As the milk condensed it turned a golden brown color. By the end there was only about a cup of the sweet milk left from the 5 cups to begin with. It was extremely similar to Carmel sauce and tasted like it too. Argentineans eat their Dulce De Leche on fruit, toast or use it for pastry fillings. We had it on vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and it was extremely tasty. Although it was good, I honestly think that it is more efficient time and money wise to just buy it, or use Carmel sauce.

  

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BOLIVIA Cocadas

(Coconut Candies)

This was a simple and easy recipe to make that does not take much time. These reminded me a lot of macaroons and I would not be surprised if they are a form of them. Some of them I cooked a bit too long so that the bottom got a bit brown and they were not the best. Other than that they were delicious, a sweet coconut tasting treat, with a stiff shell and moist inside. I took them to the girl’s dorm and I am sure that many of them liked them.

  

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BRAZIL

Torta de Banana (Banana Tart)

For this dessert I pressed four bananas through a strainer into a sauce pan along with sugar butter and salt and cooked it. Then I let it cool and it looked a lot like apple sauce, but smelled strongly of bananas. When it cooled I added the lime and nutmeg and poured it into the pie crust. Then I made whipped cream and slathered it on top. It was not bad. The lime made it tart but particularly the cream added a sweet counterpart so it was nicely balanced. It tasted similar to banana bread which I do not like, so this still was not my favorite dessert and I only had a few bites. I have never had banana cream pie, but I am sure it was very similar.

  

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CHILE Pan de Navidad

(Christmas Bread)

In Chile this fruit cake is made for Christmas and lots of people enjoy it. It has a lot of ingredients that makes a dense dough that is then placed into a pie pan. The dough and ingredients were somewhat similar to the Irish dessert, brambrack. But they turned out differently. The Chilean cake was less brown, much whiter in color, denser and more bread like than the Irish cake. It tasted okay but I did not eat much of it. I prefer many other desserts than this one. I ended up taking it on my senior class trip, but only a few people were brave enough to try it. Oh well! We are afraid to try new things that we are not used to and often times do not like them at first.

  

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COLUMBIA Pasteles De Cacao

(Tiny Cocoa Cakes)

This dessert was easy and simple to make. I made it for BATS for their bake sale so I chose to cook the batter in tiny cupcake pans. I buttered them but did not flour them which I should have done because it was quite a task to get them out. Eventually I put them in the freezer and then got them out of the pan with more ease. Because they were tiny I also only cooked them for ten minutes. These really were just the same as chocolate cupcakes, there was hardly a difference. Of all the desserts I made this is the fifth dessert I have made with chocolate, so that was exciting. And anything with chocolate is delicious!

  

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ECUADOR Bunuelos

(Sweet Fritters)

This is yet another dessert that is fried. The batter is simple to make and frying it is easy it just takes time. I tried to fry each ball until it was a dark golden brown to make sure that the middles cooked. I do not think they actually completely cooked all the way through, but it did not really matter. They were quite delicious; because of the lemon in them, the taste reminded me of fortune cookies and a bit like the cereal “Froot loopes.” The sauce was sweet and although it was good I do not think it was necessary. Next time I make these I will not even bother making the sauce. I took them to the girl’s dorm and they all enjoyed them.

  

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PARAGUAY Torta De Pasa

(Raisin Cake)

This cake is quite easy to make. First the syrup with the water, sugar, cornstarch, raisins and nuts is made. I used almonds but walnuts would have been quite good as well. Then the remaining ingredients are mixed together to form the batter. It tasted a lot like muffin batter; I think this is because of the cream of tartar. Then half of the batter is poured on the bottom of a square pan. It was a thick batter so I had to push it to the edges. Then the syrup nut filling is spread over it and the remaining batter is poured over top. This was difficult because there was not much batter and I had to spread it over very thinly without pulling up the syrup. Eventually I completed this and popped it in the oven. When 25 minutes were up I stuck a tooth pick in and it came out clean so I pulled it out. However, the edges were puffed out and browned but the center was sunk in a bit and was actually not all the way cooked. Therefore, I just cut the edges out and brought them to contemporary church. It tasted good, the dough part was like bread, it was more dense then regular cake, and it was not too sweet. The syrup in the middle was quite sweet so it all blended nicely together.

  

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PERU Alfajores

(Layered Pastry with Sweetened-Milk Filling)

I made this pastry for my friend on her birthday. I thought it would be more of a cake but it actually is quite different. I made three extremely light, round, dry, flour pastries that actually had no sugar in them. Then I stacked them placing a sugary, creamy syrup substance in between them. On top I dusted powder sugar over it. I did not like it very much but some of the other people really enjoyed it. It was too dry, there was not enough filling and the filling had a taste that I was unaccustomed to.

  

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URUGUAY Postre Chaja (Meringue Dessert)

This is probably the fanciest and most elaborate dessert I have made this year. First I made the sponge cake. It says to buy one but I decided to make one. It was quite simple to make and turned out to be utterly delicious. Note that the batter should be beaten for fifteen minutes so the cake becomes fluffy. If the recipe had not said fifteen minutes I would most likely have beat it for a minute and then my cake would not be spongy at all. Next I made the meringues which were fine only they did not cook all the way through. The book does not say this but my dad told me that once they finish cooking they are supposed to be left in the oven for a few hours and that then dries them out. They still tasted fine, though, and in the dessert I could not even tell. Then I made the syrup. At first I burned the syrup and ended up pouring the egg yolks into the syrup rather than the other way which resulted in the egg yolks cooking and thus, forming chunks. I therefore, cooked the syrup again making sure to remove it from the heat before any brownness could appear and slowly added it into the egg yolks. Then I cut up the strawberries, made the whipped cream and assembled the dessert together. Instead of having two meringues I just put a slice of pound cake on the bottom, then strawberries, then whipped cream, then a meringue and finally the cream sauce. Because the sauce had raw egg yolks and a tablespoon of brandy in it, I thought it would be disgusting, but the whole dessert was super delicious and the brandy really could not even be tasted. A variety of versions of this dessert could be made which would all be delicious so I do not think that I will make everything all at once again, although it was quite an experience.

  

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VENEZUELA Arros Con Coco

(Rice and Coconut Pudding)

This was a nice and easy dessert to make. First the rice is washed several times. I had never heard of this before, so I got a few bowls with warm water, poured the rice in one, them strained it, poured it into another bowl and so on. I was surprised that it actually got some dust and even a random fly out of the rice. Then the rice is cooked over the stove. Once everything was added and the texture was creamy and thick, I turned the stove off and let it sit. When I came to put it in a container the liquid had almost all evaporated or been absorbed so that it was not as creamy anymore. I took it to school and everybody thought it looked weird (a bit like worms). Many people actually liked it though because it tasted a lot like lemon which was nice. I think that much more coconut should have been added because it did seem like lemon rice pudding instead of coconut pudding. For rice pudding though, it was delicious.