Christmas Desserts That Hold Up in December Heat

By Jodie Smith, Product & Hamper Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.

The Christmas desserts that survive an Australian December are the cold ones: pavlova topped at the table, trifle built in glasses, something frozen, and a board of fruit, chocolate and biscuits that never sees an oven. Heat decides more than skill does. Anything holding whipped cream, soft chocolate or set gelatine needs a plan for the forty minutes it spends outside.

Seven desserts follow, ordered by how much they ask of you on the day, then a make ahead table, the pudding question, and the half of the shopping that can be bought in October. Biscuits, sauces, chocolate and sweets and confectionery all keep for months. For the courses that come before this one, see Christmas food in Australia.

What the heat actually does to a dessert

Four things go wrong on a hot table, and all four are predictable.

Cream loosens. Whipped cream is held together by cold fat. Somewhere above 20°C it begins to slacken, and after half an hour in warm air it weeps into whatever it was piped onto. Whip it a little firmer than feels right, keep the bowl in the fridge until the last moment, and pipe nothing before people are seated.

Meringue turns tacky. Humidity does this, not temperature. Sugar pulls moisture out of the air, so a pavlova baked on a muggy morning is soft by lunch. Bake it the day before, leave it in the switched off oven overnight, and store it sealed somewhere dry rather than in the fridge.

Chocolate softens, then blooms. Milk chocolate starts giving way around 30°C, and chocolate that melts and re-sets on a warm bench comes back streaked and grainy. Keep it in the coolest cupboard rather than the fridge, where it collects condensation, and bring it out in batches.

Gelatine gives up. A jelly or a panna cotta sets at fridge temperature and slumps long before the table clears. Make set desserts in individual glasses rather than one large mould: small servings hold their shape far longer, and nothing has to be turned out in front of an audience.

Then the rule that outranks all four. Cream, custard and anything else dairy based can sit out for two hours and go back in the fridge. Between two and four hours, serve it and do not return it. Past four hours it goes in the bin. The clock starts when the bowl leaves the fridge, which is the argument for serving small and keeping a second batch inside.

Seven Christmas desserts that hold up in the heat

1. Pavlova, topped at the table

Still the most Australian ending to Christmas lunch, and still the one most often spoiled by being finished too early. Bake the shell the day before, keep the cream whipped and covered in the fridge, and put it together in front of people. Three minutes of work that reads as showmanship rather than lateness. Cherries, mango and passionfruit peak in the last week of December, so the topping is the easy part.

A spoonful of Ottolenghi raspberry and pomegranate preserve loosened with hot water pours over at the table, and the pomegranate tartness cuts the meringue.

2. Trifle, built in glasses

Trifle is the best behaved dessert here because it is meant to be wet. Building it in individual glasses rather than one big bowl solves three problems at once: the layers hold on a warm table, it can be made the night before, and half the batch stays in the fridge until the first round disappears. Pure butter shortbread crushed into the base instead of sponge gives a shorter, sandier texture that stands up better to the liquid.

3. Something frozen

A semifreddo is the only dessert here that improves as the day gets hotter, because it arrives cold and stays cold for as long as it takes to eat. It is also entirely a make ahead job: whip, fold, freeze, slice. Fold something with texture through it so it is not just sweet cream. Caramelised cashew brittle smashed with a rolling pin does that for under $15, and saves you cooking caramel in a hot kitchen.

4. Tarts you fill cold

The tart most people want in December is the one that needs no blind baking. Ready made sweet pastry cases do that work: six medium cases at roughly 55mm across for under $10, or the mini size, twelve cases at 40mm, for a tray of single bites.

Fill them cold with whipped mascarpone, lemon curd or Borgo de Medici pistachio cream, top with fruit, and keep them in the fridge until the plates are cleared. Filled more than an hour ahead the pastry softens, so fill in two batches.

5. A dessert board

No cooking, no timing, and it can be assembled an hour ahead then topped up all afternoon. The full method is in our dessert board guide, so this is the hot day version: pick three textures, keep the chocolate in a bowl rather than loose on the timber, and add the fruit last so it does not weep into everything else.

6. Fruit, treated like a dessert

A bowl of cherries over ice is a legitimate Christmas dessert and the only one that never fails. A little effort improves it: stone fruit halved and grilled for four minutes, mango cheeks scored, berries with Borgo caramel sauce warmed and poured over. Serve it beside something rich rather than instead of it, and the people claiming to be too full will still eat it.

7. An ice cream table

The lowest effort option on the list and the one children remember. Buy good vanilla ice cream, put out the toppings, and let everyone build their own: caramel sauce, crushed brittle, a bowl of chocolate broken into shards, and Sovereign Hill salted caramel drops crushed in a bag with a rolling pin.

The drops are boiled sweets, hand made to a traditional recipe at Brown's Confectionery Factory at Sovereign Hill, and they shatter into caramel gravel that stays crunchy where a soft topping would not. Scoop into glasses rather than bowls and it survives the walk outside.

How far ahead each one can be made

What to serve instead of Christmas pudding

Plenty of Australian families have quietly retired the pudding. It is a winter dessert in a country with no winter in December, it wants an hour of steaming in a hot kitchen, and half the table eats it out of politeness. If it is the dried fruit and spice you miss, soak dried fruit overnight in strong tea and orange juice, then spoon the compote over vanilla ice cream. Whittard Christmas tea, a loose black blend with vanilla, cloves and citrus, makes a good soaking liquid. If the pudding was really an excuse to hand something round after lunch, a plate of biscuits and truffles with coffee does that job with none of the steaming.

The half of the shopping that keeps

Cream, fruit and ice cream are a Christmas week job. Everything else keeps for months, so it can be bought now and crossed off.

• Jen's raspberry melting moments, a 300g bag baked to a family recipe handed down through generations, for crumbling over ice cream.
• Belgian dusted truffles in Marc de Champagne, around $13 a box. Keep them in the coolest cupboard until coffee, at the adults' end of the table.
• Caramel sauce and a jar of pistachio cream, which between them cover ice cream, tarts and fruit.
• Two packs of pure butter shortbread, one crushed into the trifle, one served whole.
• A chest of rose Turkish delight for colour. Uncoated Turkish delight is the sweet here least bothered by a warm room, which is more than can be said for anything in chocolate.

All of it is shelf stable, all of it is dispatched from our warehouse at Corio, Victoria, and anything ordered before 12pm on a weekday leaves the same day. That is dispatch, not delivery, so December orders to regional and interstate addresses want a week or two of slack. Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100.

Gluten free, and the children's end of the table

Dessert is where dietary requirements land hardest, because the alternative is bought in a hurry on the way home. Gluten free pure butter shortbread is close enough to the standard that one plate goes out instead of two, raspberry rocky road is gluten, peanut and egg free, and Gingerbread Folk gluten free Kiddiewinks are vegan, nut free and twelve to a pack. The rest sits under gluten free options.

Common questions

What is a good Christmas dessert for hot weather?

Anything cold and assembled rather than baked. Pavlova topped at the table, trifle in glasses, a frozen semifreddo, or a dessert board of biscuits, chocolate and fruit. Small servings hold their shape far longer than one large bowl.

What Christmas desserts can be made ahead?

A pavlova shell keeps two days in a sealed container somewhere dry. Trifle is better made the night before, and semifreddo keeps two weeks in the freezer. Pastry cases, biscuits, chocolate and sauces keep for months. Only the cream, the fruit and the ice cream are worth leaving until Christmas week.

What do Australians have for dessert on Christmas Day?

Pavlova and trifle are the two most common, usually with cherries and sliced mango. Cold pudding with custard still appears in households keeping an English Christmas, and a plate of chocolates and shortbread with coffee has become the low effort standard.

What can I serve instead of Christmas pudding?

A spiced dried fruit compote spooned over vanilla ice cream gives you the fruit and the spice without the steaming. A dessert board gives you the ceremony of something arriving at the table. Trifle gives you the custard. All three can be finished before Christmas Eve.

Buy the cupboard half in October and December comes down to whipping cream. Start with the sweets and confectionery range, add biscuits for the board, and if you would rather one box arrived sorted, our Christmas hampers are built from the same products.