Feb 28, 2020 | Puddings & Desserts
White Chocolate Bavarois, Pistachio Brittle, Rose Scented Fig Now apart from being a damn nuisance to pronounce, by and large bavarois are not on most people’s radar. You may know it perhaps by its English name, Bavarian cream… considerably easier to pronounce...
Feb 13, 2020 | Puddings & Desserts
Rhubarb Clafoutis Rhubarb makes for an exciting partnership with all manner of things, but none better than custard. Custard too, whether thick or thin has many variations; from softly set crème brûlées to frozen ice cream, but in this case the custard takes on...
Jul 30, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts
Blackberry Amaretto Trifle Blackberries and custard are a known winning formula – usually paired with apple in a crumble and usually associated with damp autumn Sundays. But the wild blackberries that infiltrate my garden are already big and fat and it’s...
May 17, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts
Coconut and White Chocolate Tart This is a fairly straightforward tart; apart from the pastry which needs blind baking it’s simply a case of melting the filling ingredients together and pouring them into the pastry case to set. You could omit the coconut...
Apr 6, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts, Sides & Sauces
Honeycomb Honeycomb is great to make with kids but it is potentially a recipe for disaster and besides, they do tend to have a habit of eating it. I’ve been making it recently to tart up dairy free desserts, where usually I might use cream or chocolate....
Mar 21, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts
Chocolate Fondant Chocolate fondants are relatively straight forward; in terms of technical ability you get a lot of bang for your buck; whether you see it as an undercooked cake or a baked mousse the only thing you really have to be mindful of is the...
Feb 8, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts
Chocolate Profiteroles Forget everything you think you know about pastry. Choux pastry couldn’t be less like a pastry if it tried; it’s quite unlike any other. Forget cold hands and rolling pins, forget folding and finesse; blind baking, shrinking and soggy bottoms:...
Jan 11, 2019 | Puddings & Desserts
Coconut Cheesecake Cheesecakes are relatively straightforward, requiring more judgment than skill: I use the same basic recipe both in terms of method and ingredients, swapping flavours and tweaking quantities to suit…maybe some nuts in the biscuit base, a...
Dec 10, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Black Forest Gateaux And why not! It may well have been done to death 40 years ago but the partnership of chocolate, cherries, booze and cream does not all of a sudden stop working as a combination, especially not at Christmas. Especially not when there’s cherry...
Nov 23, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Truffles are a doddle; there’s very little cooking involved, precious few ingredients and they’re almost, almost fool proof, even the cack-handed and dexterously challenged can turn out a decent truffle and call it ‘rustic’. The recipe here is for the basic model...
Nov 20, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Crème brûlées are a doddle, after all the most basic model is only four ingredients long, and yet there are still so many bad versions so readily available; which is the reason why for years I couldn’t bring myself to put one on the menu if the truth be known, not...
Nov 14, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
If you enjoy the skin on the top of a baked rice pudding, then this is not the recipe for you. If however you prefer a creamier, snow-white version without the leather on top then this will be right up your street, and if you prefer your rice pudding out of a tin,...
Nov 11, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
I read recently that pineapples are set to be this year’s avocados…yes, well. I’m sorry to say avocado-mania went largely unnoticed in our house, and no-doubt will continue to do so as long as there are still bacon and eggs to be had. The only occasion avocados took...
Nov 9, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Many of us will have heard of an apple charlotte even if we don’t know what it is, and a quick Google search will sadly confirm exactly that. True, it’s an old-fashioned pudding, and as such falls into that category of foods that are humble and unassuming, and which...
Nov 9, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Nursery puddings are always popular, especially treacle sponge – if they’re not amongst the first things we eat then sponges are one of the first things we learn to cook. Fortunately, unlike the jam tart, it’s perfectly acceptable to enjoy a steamed sponge well...
Nov 9, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
This tart couldn’t be any more perfect if it tried. It’s sublime. A pitch-perfect balance of sharp tart lemon, sweetened in a silky-smooth cream custard, deep filled and set to within an inch of its life. Served fridge cold it needs nothing to accompany it,...
Nov 2, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
I’ll be the first to admit I’m not an expert on cheesecake, but I do know this; if it ain’t been baked, it ain’t a cheesecake, it’s a cream pie with a biscuit base and has no place on any menu of mine. Cheesecake would never be my first choice; I find them a little...
Oct 27, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Officially, this is a Dacquoise; a ‘traditional gateau of south west France’, from the Dax region don’t you know! So just like potato ‘Dauphinoise’ comes from the Dauphin region, a ‘Dacquoise’ comes from the Dax region, which is all well and good and rather exotic but...
Oct 4, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
Being a fig fan is like loving the cat…most of the time it’s a one-way relationship, unrequited; but persevere and every now and then, you’ll get one back. Like a nuzzle in the face in the dead of night, along comes a big, fat, juicy one. Sweet, exotic and ripe...
Oct 4, 2018 | Puddings & Desserts
I read recently that pineapples are set to be this year’s avocados…yes, well. I’m sorry to say avocado-mania went largely unnoticed in our house, and no-doubt will continue to do so as long as there are still bacon and eggs to be had. The only occasion avocados took...
