Popular Mexican Dessert Recipes That Kids Love

Think Mexican and color and adventure is all that comes to one's mind. It is the same variety and color that is the essence of Mexican food. Mexicans make generous use of the various spices that are native to their land and add a variety of flavors to their dishes. However, it is not just the main course, but their desserts are just as tantalizing. It is the flavor, taste and the exotic look that has made Mexican cuisine popular all over the world. And kids just love the mouth-watering Mexican desserts. Here are some popular recipes of Mexican desserts for kids that are enjoyed by adults as well.

Easy Mexican Desserts for Kids

Flan
Here is one of the simplest traditional Mexican desserts. This recipe will take around 20 minutes to prepare the ingredients and about an hour to cook the dessert.

Ingredients
Sweetened condensed milk, 14 oz.
Evaporated milk, 26 oz.
Sugar, 1½ cups
Large eggs, 6
Vanilla, 1 teaspoon
Preparation
Heat a flan pan over medium heat and add 1 cup of sugar to it. Stir the sugar continuously as it heats over medium flame. Do this till the sugar crystals become brown (caramelized). Keep a couple of ramekins ready. As soon as the sugar gets caramelized, put 2-3 spoons of it in each pan. Tilt the pans so that sugar swirls and spreads all over, even to the sides. Blend all the eggs in a blender. Add the sweetened, condensed milk and the evaporated milk to it. Turn on the blender again. Now add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and vanilla to the blender and mix the ingredients well. Pour this custard in the ramekins. In case the caramel hardens by the time the custard mix is ready to be added, heat the ramekins once more.

Fill a large baking dish with hot water that reaches up to 1-2 inches. Place the ramekins in this bowl. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Now place the baking dish in the oven and bake the custard mix for 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, put a knife through the center of the baked custard. If the knife comes out easily without getting stuck, then it means that you have baked the custard just fine! Take the baking dish out of the oven and let it cool. Then refrigerate the ramekins for 1 hour. Invert the ramekins over onto serving plates. Your tasty flan with the caramel sauce flowing over it is ready to be served.

Arroz Con Leche (Mexican Rice Pudding)
With Mexican rice pudding you will definitely score big with kids. Not only because it tastes great, but also because the dessert recipe is so simple that even kids can easily learn to make this.

Ingredients
Rice, 1 cup
Whole milk, 1 quart
Sweetened, condensed milk
Sugar, ½ cup
Vanilla, 2 teaspoons
Cinnamon stick, 1
Grated nutmeg (fresh), ¼ teaspoon
Salt, ¼ teaspoon
Preparation
Take a medium-sized pan and heat milk over medium flame. Add cinnamon stick and grated nutmeg and bring the milk to a boil. Now add rice to the milk and simmer it for about half an hour till the rice grains become soft. Stir the mixture occasionally so that the rice grains do not stick together. Remove cinnamon stick and add condensed milk, sugar and salt. Simmer the mixture further till more of the liquid evaporates and the preparation has gained a pudding like consistency. Add vanilla now. Mix it well and let the mixture cool. Cover the surface of the pan with a plastic wrap so that a thick crust does not form on top of the pudding. Now refrigerate the pudding for 4-5 hours and serve cold. More on rice pudding recipe.

How to Make Colorful French Macarons

You don’t have to be a pastry chef to know how to make French macarons. These colorful, almond-soft-airy French cookies are so tasty, popular and has become an American’s new found obsession. It can be intimidating to attempt to bake them but seriously, you don’t have to be a pastry chef. Since we are such macaron fanatics, we decided to make some in our test kitchen. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make Chocolate French Macarons with Chocolate Mocha Ganache Filling. Get Recipe here.

That is generally how I order macaroons in a bakery: "Macaroons, one of each please." I love them, and now I can wield my knowledge of how to make them with reckless abandon.These are French macaroons flavored with vanilla and apricot jam, but you can make them any flavor, color them, or fill them with anything you like. I think the traditional filling is buttercream, but I'm not sure. Any French people out there, please comment and let me know!

Macaroons:
250g TPT = almond powder and icing sugar-sifted
100g sugar
100g egg white
25g sugar
add color as desired

Filling:
200g pistachio paste or other flavoring
200g butter cream
Amounts of flavors, pastes etc. will vary with personal taste

Preparation:
To make the macaroons, sieve the sugar and the TPT very fine. Put aside.

Now whisk the egg white together with the second part of sugar at middle speed.

Gradually whisk the egg white mixture to become very stiff, if cooking the sugar for the meringue cook . 

Follow the standard procedure for making a cooked meringue adding color in the end.

How To Make Homemade Yogurt Cheese

The process of making yogurt cheese is simple enough for anyone to do, and though yogurt cheese makers are commercially available, it actually requires nothing more specific or sophisticated than a colander or strainer, a couple of coffee filters or paper towels, and a bowl.

Start With The Right Yogurt
This is the only step that could possibly pose a problem; if you start with the right base ingredient making yogurt cheese is practically foolproof, but if you start with the wrong kind of yogurt you'll almost certainly be disappointed with the results.

It doesn't really matter whether you choose to make your cheese with regular, low-fat, or no-fat yogurt. It also doesn't matter whether you use plain or flavored yogurt, though flavored yogurts are generally sweetened and often carry a higher calorie count.
 

What really matters is that the yogurt you start with does not contain gelatin, which binds the whey to the yogurt and basically thwarts the whole cheese making process. Choose your yogurt with this in mind; if there is gelatin in the yogurt, it will say so on the label.

 

There's nothing difficult about making yogurt cheese, and that includes assembling your equipment. If you have a strainer large enough to hold your yogurt, that's great, but if you don't, just haul out the colander you use to strain your spaghetti.

You need to line your strainer or colander with something fine enough to keep the yogurt solids contained but let the whey run through. Coffee filters are excellent, but paper towels or even a clean cotton kitchen towel work perfectly too.The only other piece of equipment you need is a bowl for the whey to drain into. Experiment until you've found one that your colander or strainer can sit on without touching bottom - this is important because you want the whey to drain away and not be reabsorbed.