an aussie in austria

When you’re a kid, you kind of just assume that whatever your family does, it must be the same as what everyone else’s families do. This can lead to some awkward moments – an offhand comment and suddenly everyone’s staring at you like you’re mad.

When I was younger, I had no idea that my family’s favourite desserts were at all weird.

See growing up, we always ate dessert – always.

You’re disgusted, I’m sure, but now I’m going to tell you what those desserts were, and then you might not be so judge-y.

My parents supplied the mantra: “If you don’t eat your main you don’t get dessert.” And it worked, even though, as you’ll see below, those desserts weren’t necessarily appetizing to the general population. And not even very unhealthy.

So after my brother and I struggled through our brussels sprouts or lambs fry, here’s what we got to reward our efforts:

Salada & apple

It’s kind of a poor-man’s apple crumble, I now realise. Take stewed apple, break up Salada biccies on top, and add cream – voila!

Cereal mixed-up

Cereal with milk and fruit is a breakfast food. I know that – I’m not stupid. But wait, if you swap the order round and add cream… suddenly it becomes dessert! First add a decent serving of stewed fruit, top it with a scattering of cereal flakes (usually Fibre Plus), then drench in milk and finally, add cream. Delicious!

Bread, jam & cream

I’m noticing a theme here – cream, and eating breakfast as dessert. This old classic is exactly what it promises: take a piece of (obviously multi-grain) bread, spread on a generous coating of jam, and then top it with cream. Whipped cream was better, but just pouring it straight out of the bottle also created the additional challenge of not dripping on yourself while eating.

So… those were my childhood desserts. Sometimes they’d be swapped out for real desserts like crumbles, self-saucing puddings and pies, but for your average, everyday dessert treat – it’s what we ate. And I love them all to this very day. And as I’m in Australia right now, I’ll be enjoying every single one of them!