Appleberry pie

“Loads of filling and seasonal berries give the great British apple pie an American feel ”

For the pastry

500 g plain flour , plus extra for dusting

100 g icing sugar

1 pinch sea salt

250 g unsalted butter , chilled and cut into cubes

2 large free-range eggs

1 splash milk

For the filling

10 Granny Smith apples , peeled, cored and halved, 3 sliced

2 oranges , juice and zest of

7 heaped tablespoons caster sugar

400 g huckleberries or blueberries

1 heaped tablespoon plain flour

1 large free-range egg , beaten

1 small handful demerara sugar

good-quality vanilla ice cream , optional, to serve

cream , optional, to serve

custard , optional, to serve

Method

1. Even though it has a strong British heritage, America has embraced the apple pie to the point that it’s now considered a quintessentially American dessert. American pies often look like the ones from those Desperate Dan comics – big, robust and full of attitude. The crumble-like topping sprinkled over my pie is an idea I’ve been playing about with, and I think it helps make it unique. Because huckleberries grow wild in Wyoming, I felt it was only right to use them, but feel free to use fresh or frozen blueberries in their place for equally delicious results. Assembling your pie is dead easy, and I’ll talk you through it step by step, but if you’d like to see how it’s done before you start, check out the How to video for a demonstration.
2. You can make your pastry by hand, or simply pulse all the ingredients in a food processor. If making by hand, sieve the flour, icing sugar and salt from a height into a large mixing bowl. Use your fingertips to gently work the cubes of butter into the flour and sugar until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer a handful of this mixture to a separate bowl, rub it between your fingers to get larger crumbs, then put aside. Add the eggs and milk to the main mixture and gently work it together until you have a ball of pastry dough. Don’t work it too much at this stage – you want to keep it crumbly and short. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry, then wrap it in cling film and pop it into the fridge to rest for 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, put the apples into a large pan with the zest and juice of 1 orange, a splash of water and 5 tablespoons of caster sugar. Cover the pan and simmer on a medium heat for 10 minutes, until the apples have softened but still hold their shape. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Scrunch a handful of berries in a bowl with the remaining caster sugar and the zest and juice of your remaining orange. Add the rest of the berries. Toss the cooled apples and their juices in a large bowl with the berries and the flour, then put aside.
4. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4. Take your ball of pastry out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Get yourself a pie dish around 28cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off a third of your pastry and put that piece to one side. Roll the rest into a circle just over 0.5cm thick, dusting with flour as you go. Roll the circle of pastry up over your rolling pin, then gently unroll it over the pie dish. Push it into the sides, letting any excess pastry hang over the edge. Tip in the fruit filling and brush all around the edge of the pastry with some of the beaten egg. Roll out the smaller ball of pastry about 0.5cm thick and use your rolling pin to lay it over the top of the pie. Brush it all over with more beaten egg, reserving a little. Sprinkle over the reserved crumble mixture and the demerara sugar.
5. Fold the scruffy edges of pastry hanging over the sides back over the pie, sealing the edge by twisting or crimping it as you like. Brush these folded edges with your remaining beaten egg. Using a small, sharp knife, cut a cross into the middle of the pie. Place on the bottom of the oven and bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until golden and beautiful. Serve with ice cream, cream or custard.

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Leftovers affogato

“Knock together this quick-fix affogato in just 45 seconds and reinvent any lovely leftover puds ”

75 g leftover dessert , Christmas pudding, chocolate mousse, tart, torte or pie

1 scoop good-quality vanilla ice cream

1 shot good-quality hot espresso

1-2 amaretti biscuits

Method

1. This is a quick fix pud that you can knock together in just 45 seconds. It’s a nice little recipe to have up your sleeve if you need to rustle something up with no notice. It’s also a fantastic way of bringing back to life any leftover puds you’ve got sitting in the fridge.
2. You can use cups, glasses or little bowls to make this pud. Spoon or crumble your leftover pudding into the bottom of each, then top with the scoop of ice cream and pour over the shot of espresso. If you’re doing this for kids, you could use decaffeinated coffee. Bash and crunch up your amaretti biscuits, then scatter one or two over the top of each pud and tuck in!

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Best-ever fruit crumble

“As much as I love it with apples, a pear crumble with a bit of spicy ginger makes a lovely change ”

For the crumble

225 g plain flour

90 g caster sugar

1 pinch salt

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

115 g unsalted butter

For the filling

100 g sugar

100 ml water

4 nice ripe pears , peeled, cored and cut into chunks

5 pieces stem ginger in syrup , finely chopped

1 lime , juice and zest of, plus extra for serving

Method

1. You can't go wrong with an old-fashioned crumble. Everyone loves it, and it's lovely and easy!
2. Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6.
3. Sift the flour into a bowl and add the sugar, salt and ginger.
4. Cut the cold butter into chunks and rub it into the flour mix with your hands until you get a mixture that looks a bit like fine breadcrumbs. This is the crumble topping.
5. To make the filling, boil the water and sugar together, then carefully drop in the pear chunks and simmer gently for a couple of minutes.
6. Add the chopped ginger and the lime zest and juice to the pan and stir. Spoon the mixture into one large ovenproof dish or four small ones.
7. Sprinkle the crumble topping over the top of the fruit, piling it high in the middle of the dish and leaving space at the edge for the caramel to bubble up.
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until the pears are cooked and bubbling and the crumble is golden on top. Serve with custard or a dollop of crème fraîche with lime zest grated over, if you like.
9. Tip: This crumble will work well with apples instead, if you prefer.

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Pear sorbet (Sorbetto di pere)

“Light and refreshing, this pear sorbet makes a great dessert or posh-looking palate cleanser ”

200 g caster sugar

200 ml water

1 kg soft pears , peeled, quartered and cores removed

1 lemon , juice and zest of

55 ml grappa , or to taste

Method

1. Sorbets are always a nice way to finish a meal if you don’t want anything too heavy. They can also be used as palate cleansers between courses. Either way, a sorbet is pretty much always made the same way – a fruit purée is mixed with a little stock syrup in the right quantity to make it freeze. It will become really shiny and soft to scoop.
2. This particular recipe for pear and grappa sorbet is a wicked combo and one of my favourites, so give it a bash. It’s great served in a bowl with lovely soft fruits scattered over the top. A good-quality vodka instead of grappa would be quite interesting and, without wanting to sound like a nutcase, absinthe would be nice too, but to be honest most good supermarkets and off-licences sell grappa these days. Nardini is a particularly good brand.
3. This recipe will make enough for 6 people to have a couple of scoops each, but for 4 you can make this amount and keep the rest in the freezer for another day. I suggest you use a fairly shallow earthenware or thick porcelain dish that you can put in the freezer beforehand – this speeds up the freezing process for the sorbet.
4. Try to get really ripe pears – even the ones they sell cheaply in the market. If they’re really really ripe and soft to the touch, simply remove the skin and put the flesh into a bowl – you won’t need to cook them at all. This is how I did it in Italy when the fruit guy called Pippo at the weekly Terranuova Bracciolini market near Montevarchi gave me a whole tray of pears for free. Go and say hello and he might do the same for you!
5. First of all put the sugar and water into a pan on the hob. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 3 minutes. Add your quartered pears and, unless they’re super soft, continue to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, leave to one side for 5 minutes, then add the lemon juice (minus the pips) and zest. Pour everything into a food processor and whiz to a purée, then push the mixture through a coarse sieve into the dish in which you want to serve it.
6. Add the grappa, give it a good stir, and taste. The grappa shouldn’t be overbearing or too powerful – it should be subtle and should work well with the pears. However, different brands do vary in strength and flavour, so add to taste. (This isn’t an excuse to add the whole bottle, though, because if you use too much alcohol the sorbet won’t freeze.) Put the dish into the freezer and whisk it up with a fork every half-hour – you’ll see it becoming pale in colour. After a couple of hours it will be ready. The texture should be nice and scoopable. Delicious served with ventagli or other delicate crunchy biscuits.
7. PS This sorbet will last in the freezer for a couple of days – after that it will crystallize.

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Chocolate clafoutis with caramelised oranges

“This grown-up chocolate sponge is gorgeously gooey and sticky in the middle ”

5 oranges

100 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

80 g unsalted butter

115 g self-raising flour

115 g ground almonds

115 g sugar

1 pinch salt

2 large free-range eggs

3 free-range egg yolks

180 ml full cream milk

100 g good-quality white chocolate , broken up

500 ml crème fraîche , optional

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Firstly zest 3 of your oranges, then carefully remove the outer peel and slice them across into wheel-shaped pieces just under 1cm-inch thick. Break the dark chocolate up, place in a small bowl and slowly melt it over some simmering water, giving it a stir once in a while with a spatula.
2. You will need a deep 20cm metal tin or earthenware dish to cook the clafoutis in. Rub the inside of it with a little of the butter. To make the clafoutis, sift the flour into a separate bowl, add the almonds, half the sugar, the salt, eggs, yolks, orange zest and milk. Whisk up until smooth and then add the rest of the butter to the melting chocolate. Scrape all the melted chocolate and butter into the batter mix and pour into your tin. Poke little pieces of white chocolate into the batter, then place the tin in the oven and bake for around 16 to 20 minutes. It will rise and should be firm around the edges but sticky and gooey in the middle. This doesn’t mean it’s undercooked... it means it’s perfect! So be careful not to overcook it or it will just be like a boring sponge.
3. While it’s cooking, bring the other half of your sugar to the boil with about 6 tablespoons of water on a medium heat until you have a golden caramel. Remove from the heat, add the juice from your remaining oranges and stir it in to loosen the caramel syrup slightly. Arrange your oranges nicely on a plate, pour over the caramel and serve with your chocolate clafoutis and, if using, a bowl of crème fraîche.
4. 
   • adapted from Jamie's Dinners

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Hazelnut torte

“This is one of the very first puddings I made when I started working, and I still love it! ”

115 g butter , softened to room temperature, plus extra for tin

125 g hazelnuts

125 g sugar

4 large free-range eggs , separated

1 orange , zest of

30 g plain flour

125 g ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons poppy seeds

1 pinch salt

3 heaped tablespoons jam , preferably apricot

50 g good-quality cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids) , finely grated

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Butter a 28cm/11 inch loose-bottomed flan tin or cheesecake mould, line it with greaseproof paper and place it in the fridge. Put the hazelnuts on to a baking tray and roast in the oven for about 5 minutes until lightly golden. Allow to cool, then whiz up in a food processor until you have a fine powder — be careful not to over-whiz. You can bash the nuts up in a tea towel using a rolling pin if you don’t have a food processor.
   
   Beat the butter and sugar together either in the food processor, or in a bowl with a whisk, until pale. Add the egg yolks one by one, and the orange zest. Sieve in the flour, crumble in the ricotta and stir in the powdered hazelnuts and the poppy seeds. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they are really stiff, then fold them slowly into the hazelnut mixture. Pour the mixture into the __cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for around 25-30 minutes until there is a little colour on the top of the torte. You can check to see that it’s ready by sticking a cocktail stick into the centre of the torte. It should come out clean and not sticky.
2. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. While it’s cooling, place the jam in a little pan with 4 tablespoons of water and bring this slowly up to the boil. Brush this over the top of the torte and, when cool, sprinkle with the grated chocolate. Serve with some crème fraîche or fromage frais.

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Lavender crème brûlée

“Trust me, fresh and fragrant lavender makes an incredible combo with a classic crème brûlée ”

2 vanilla pods

150 ml double cream

150 ml single cream

200 ml semi-skimmed milk

8 large free-range yolks

75 g sugar

1 bunch lavender , flowers picked

4 tablespoons caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C/275°F/gas 1. Score the vanilla pods lengthways and scrape out the vanilla seeds with a knife or a teaspoon. Place the seeds into a saucepan, add the pods, all the cream and milk and slowly bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.
2. Meanwhile, get yourself a large bowl that will fit over your pan and beat together the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Remove the vanilla pods from the pan and, little by little, add the milk and cream to the egg mixture in the bowl, whisking continuously. Add 2.5cm of hot water to your dirty pan, bring to a simmer and put the bowl on top of the pan. Cook the mixture for 5 minutes over the simmering water, stirring often, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Stir in a small handful of lavender flowers, but the trick is to be delicate – you only need a hint of its distinctive, strong flavour.
3. Remove any bubbles or froth from the mixture before dividing it between your ramekins. Stand these in a high-sided roasting tray, and fill the tray with water halfway up the ramekins. Place carefully in the preheated oven and cook for around 30 to 45 minutes or until the mixture has set but is still slightly wobbly in the centre. Allow to cool at room temperature then place in the fridge until ready.
4. To serve, sprinkle each crème brûlée with a tablespoon of caster sugar and some more of the lavender flowers and caramelize under a very hot grill or using the chef’s torch.

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