Sweet Recipes

Cherry Clafoutis

Ingredients
1/2 tbsp butter, for greasing
1 tbsp sugar
300g cherries, stones if you prefer
icing sugar, for dusting

Batter
60g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
60g sugar
300 ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 °c/ gas 6.
Mix all the batter ingrdients with a pinch of salt in a blender or food processor until totally smooth, then set aside for 20-30 minutes.
Grease a 25cm round baking dish with the softened butter, then sprinkle over the sugar. Dot the cherries around the base of the dish then place in the oven for 5 minutes so the fruit can begin to sften.
Remove the dish from the oven and pour the batter until the cherries are just covered.
Return to the oven to bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until puffy and golden. Dust the clafoutis with icing sugar and serve lukewarm.

Tip: Swap the cherries for blackberries or pears. Change a third of the flour for ground almonds!
And enjoy!

Tarte Tatin

Ingredients
500g puff pastry
1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened (50g)
1/2 cup brown sugar
5 apples (a mixture of sweet and acidic varieties), peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cored
flour for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 425°F.
Roll pastry on a floured work surface with a floured rolling pin. Brush off all excess flour and cut out a 10-inch round with a sharp knife, using a plate as a guide.
Transfer round to a baking sheet and chill.
Spread butter thickly on bottom and side of skillet, and pour sugar evenly over bottom. Arrange as many apples as will fit vertically on sugar, packing them tightly in concentric circles. Apples will stick up above rim of skillet.
Cook apples over moderately high heat, undisturbed, until juices are deep golden and bubbling, about 20 minutes.
Put skillet in middle of oven over a piece of foil to catch any drips.
Bake 20 minutes, then remove from oven and lay pastry round over the apples.
Bake the tart until tha pastry is browned, around 20 to 25 minutes.
Transfer skillet to a rack and cool, at least 10 minutes.

Just before serving, invert a platter with lip over skillet. Using potholders to hold skillet and plate tightly together, invert tart onto a platter.
Replace any apples that stick to skillet. Brush any excess caramel from skillet over the apples.

Devide it up, and serve it with a spoonful of crème fraiche or Armagnac ice cream!

Tip: swap the apples for pears, peaches, quinces or apricots!

Jamie Oliver's Appleberry Pie

Eventhough 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 = robust and full of attitude.

For this pie, any type of berry can be used; blackberries, rasberries, red currents, huckleberries... They are all good!
The pastry can be made by hand, or in the food processor.

Ingredients

Pastry:
500g plain flour
100g icing sugar
a pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
2 large eggs
a splash of milk

Filling:
10 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and halved
juice and zest of 2 oranges
7 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
400g huckleberries, blueberries, or rasberries
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
1 large egg
a small handful of demerara sugar

Method
If you are making the pastry 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 bail 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 fridne to rest for 1 hour.

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 aopples 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.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas 6. Take your ball of pastry out of the fridge and let it come up to room temperature. Get yourself a pie dish around 28 cm in diameter. Flour a clean surface and a rolling pin. Cut off a third or your pastry and put that piece to one side. Roll the rest into a circle about 0.5 cm 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 0.5 cm thick and use your rolling pin to lay it over the top of the pie. Brush it all over with more beateb egg, reserving a little. Sprinkle over the reserved crumble mixture and the demerara sugar.

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.

An Italian sweet wine is wonderful with this dessert, such as a Moscato d'Asti.

The Ultimate French Crème Brûlée! (BBC GoodFood)

Method

Preheat the oven to fan 160C/conventional 180C/gas 4. Sit four 175ml ramekins in a deep roasting tin at least 7.5cm deep (or a large deep cake tin), one that will enable a baking tray to sit well above the ramekins when laid across the top of the tin. Pour the two cartons of cream into a medium pan with the milk. Lay the vanilla pod on a board and slice lengthways through the middle with a sharp knife to split it in two. Use the tip of the knife to scrape out all the tiny seeds into the cream mixture. Drop the vanilla pod in as well, and set aside.
Put the egg yolks and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for 1 minute with an electric hand whisk until paler in colour and a bit fluffy. Put the pan with the cream on a medium heat and bring almost to the boil. As soon as you see bubbles appear round the edge, take the pan off the heat.
Pour the hot cream into the beaten egg yolks, stirring with a wire whisk as you do so, and scraping out the seeds from the pan. Set a fine sieve over a large wide jug or bowl and pour the hot ixture through to strain it, encouraging any stray vanilla seeds through at the end. Using a big spoon, scoop off all the pale foam that is sitting on the top of the liquid (this will be several spoonfuls) and discard. Give the mixture a stir.
Pour in enough hot water (from the tap is fine) into the roasting tin to come about 1.5cm up the sides of the ramekins. Pour the hot cream into the ramekins so you fill them up right to the top - it's easier to spoon in the last little bit. Put them in the oven and lay a baking sheet over the top of the tin so it sits well above the ramekins and completely covers them, but not the whole tin, leaving a small gap at one side to allow air to circulate. Bake for 30-35 minutes until the mixture is softly set. To check, gently sway the roasting tin and if the crème brûlées are ready, they will wobble a bit like a jelly in the middle. Don't let them get too firm.
Lift the ramekins out of the roasting tin with oven gloves and set them on a wire rack to cool for a couple of minutes only, then put in the fridge to cool completely. This can be done overnight without affecting the texture.
When ready to serve, wipe round the top edge of the dishes, sprinkle 1½ tsp of caster sugar over each ramekin and spread it out with the back of a spoon to completely cover (Anne Willan's tip for an even layer). Spray with a little water using a fine spray (the sort you buy in a craft shop) to just dampen the sugar - then use a blow torch to caramelise it. Hold the flame just above the sugar and keep moving it round and round until caramelised. Serve when the brûlée is firm, or within an hour or two.