Three cheers for tasty tortilla treats

It’s that time of the year again! It’s cold and dreary and all you want to do is snuggle under a blanket and have some hot, delicious treats. Roxana Soica and Pat Gill show Lifestyle how to transform the simple tortilla into a tasty Christmas treat.

Baked Apple Enchiladas – Roxana Soica

These Baked Apple Enchiladas are guaranteed to make you feel better and the best part is that they’re inexpensive and so easy to make that there’s nothing you could get wrong! To begin, all you need is some canned fruit (I used apple, but feel free to choose fruit according to your palette), some good chocolate, custard and tortilla wraps. Yes, you heard me, TORTILLA WRAPS – you can even use these for desserts and boy do they taste delicious!

Ingredients (serves 4):
75 g chocolate
1 tin (385g) apple slices or fruit of your choice
1 tin (400g) custard
4 Discovery Plain Flour Tortillas
1 tbsp brown sugar
A dash of cinnamon and/or nutmeg (optional)

Here’s how you do it:
Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Take a tortilla, fill it with fruit, top it with chocolate and roll it up like a crêpe. If you want your enchiladas to have a more Christmassy feel, add your cinnamon and nutmeg now. Do the same thing with the other three tortillas and put them all in an ovenproof dish.

Spoon custard evenly over the top and sprinkle with brown sugar. Make sure you cover all the bits, otherwise the tortillas might get dry and crunchy.

Now, your enchiladas are ready to go in the oven. Leave them in for about 20 minutes until browned and bubbling. This dessert is best served hot so you can have it straight away – don’t be selfish, share some with your mates. They are sure to appreciate your cooking skills and they’ll never know that they were actually so easy to make. Enjoy!

Chocolate and Apricot Tortilla Cake – Pat Gill

The tortilla, despite its status as a staple party food of student life, has perhaps not been pushed that far when it comes to uses outside the fajitas treat. Today we take the tortilla to another level, more specifically the world of dessert with this chocolate and apricot tortilla cake. This is a super easy to prepare pudding with no need for baking, just precision spreading and ensuring the dish remains chilled.

Ingredients: (serves 8)
8 Discovery Plain Flour Tortillas
1 jar hazelnut chocolate spread
390g jar apricot fruit filling
500g fresh custard
284ml double cream, whipped
25g flaked almonds, browned

How you do it:
Spread layers of hazelnut chocolate (we know the preferred brand but any will do) onto your first tortilla, followed by thin layers of apricot jam and custard. Make sure your layers are evenly spread in order to maintain a consistent height as you layer them up. The main challenge at this point will be temperature, it’s worth warming the hazelnut spread to ensure it spreads with ease but any heat will thin your custard and jam, so make sure your spread has cooled before applying any further layers. This process will take longer but will ensure a better overall dish. Stack your layers up about 7 or 8 tortillas high with a layer of hazelnut spread, jam and custard between each tortilla. Leave the top tortilla untouched and top with whipped cream. If you’re using the student budget friendly canned whipped cream, wait until after the dish is chilled to apply the cream, as the chilling time will let all the air out, leaving an awkward cream splodge on the top of your dish.

This dish is devilishly sweet, an indulgence of hedonism in sugar. It has to be said that this dish may be a little on the sweet side for some but for me it was an absolute dream. The lack of expanded crumb structure means there is little to no absorption from the tortilla for your liquid layers. The flavour combinations fuse to create a real sensation of sweetness in the mouth that will be pretty hard to match. The flaked almonds add an extra texture to the mixture to complete the experience despite being a little overwhelming in the flavour department. This dessert is the perfect treat for anyone with a sweet tooth and a perfect indulgent end to any fancy meal you feel like whipping up at home.