Category: Dessert

Apricot, Nectarine and Almond Pain Perdu

stale bread and croissants get the “ooh-la-la” treatment

This recipe has the double smarts. First to use up left over bread, croissants and wrinkly fruit and second to create a tart without the bother of making pastry. For when you butter the bread and press it outwards in and up the tin it creates a delicious crisp crust. Finally it gets zazzed up by a large slosh of Amaretto .”Voila” – something out of nothing magic.

Ingredients & Gizmos

The quantities are “approximate” – leftovers are. Here is what we had and what worked in a 23cm spring cake form. Allow for tidbits for the helper.

  • Softened butter – I probably used a generous 100g
  • Half a stale baguette, 3 croissants, 1 pain aux raisins
  •  2 eggs
  • 500- 750ml creme legere plus some Greek yogurt (I might not use the yoghurt again as a tad too acidic and prone to curdling) or milk
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • Quite a lot of apricots and nectarines just past their “eat fresh” days
  • Generous slug of Amaretto (optional – almond essence would also work)
  • sugar for dusting
  • Chopped almonds

 How To

  • Break the bread and croissant into chunks and butter pieces individually
  • Place each piece butter side down in the tin, smearing the butter around the tin as you go so as to create a lined tin. Pack the pieces in quite tightly. Now fill with a second layer so the tin is roughly 2/3 full
  • Annoint the bread ensemble with the Amaretto as if making a sherry trifle
  • In a bowl loosely mix the eggs together with the cream or milk and sugar. Pour 2/3 of the custard mixture over the bread and allow it to soak it up.
  • Halve the apricots and nectarines and build up a circle starting with the outer circle of apricot pieces on top of the bread. Make a second and central circle until covered.
  • Pour over the remaining custard mixture
  • Bake at 180C for 35-45 minutes until the fruit is softly baked and the crust is golden
  • Sprinkle a little sugar over when warm and the chopped almonds

Serve warm with creme fraiche, a dreamy garden and a best mate.

Raspberry & Redcurrant Streusel Bars

Favourite things …think shortbread , jam and streusel, able to be wrapped up as brown paper packages ..how could these not be stupendously great bakes? And they are.  Ive long been thinking how to make a crumble bar but crumble? too crumbly. The answer is streusel.

These are the way to use up left over jam – fillings are endless.  A few improvs and ideas: Apple chunks with salted caramel sauce, mincemeat (when mince pies become too much) , apricot and white chocolate, prune, plum and dark chocolate, marmalade and quince and my favourite apple chunks with blackberry jam.

These are pretty simple to make because the base is just pressed into the tin and streusel is well…lumpy crumble 😉

Ingredients for 1 x 13 x 9 inch baking tin (the aluminium one from IKEA)

Base

  • 130g butter
  • 80g sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 125g wholemeal flour
  • 250g white flour

Filling

  • 2 jars of leftover jam; or
  • 1 jar of jam and 1 pack of fresh or frozen fruit

Streusel

  • 80g oats
  • 130g light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 cup (75g) white flour
  • 120g very cold and cubed butter (I freeze it then cube it)

Drizzle

for showing off – totally unecessary

The juice and a little zest (the rest add to the jam) of 1 lemon and enough icing sugar until the glaze fribbles off a spoon.  I didnt have an icing bag to hand so I used a plastic bag and snipped the corner off and froze the rest for another batch.

How To:

  • Preheat the oven to 160C. Line the bottom and sides of the baking tin with baking paper
  • Make the base: Stir the melted butter, sugar, vanilla,  together in a medium bowl. Add the flour and stir until everything is combined. Press the mixture evenly into the prepared baking pan. Prick with a fork which will prevent the base “bubbling”
  • Bake for 15 minutes – do not let the base brown.
  • Remove the crust from the oven, and turn the oven up to 180C
  • Spread the jam/ fruit over the warm base  (make sure the choice is not too watery)
  • Make the streusel as the base is baking:  Place the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour together in a medium bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a knife.  I blend the butter with my hands into crumbs because Ive been doing this since childhood.  For streusel the crumbs should be slightly larger than the fine sand of crumble.
  • Sprinkle the streusel over the filling. Press down because these are bars and you want them to all hold together.
  • Bake for 20-25 minutes until just golden.
  • Zig zag the glaze over if you feel like it
  • Chill in the fridge or eat warm as a dessert.
  • Top Tip: Cut into squares while still warm.  They freeze perfectly

Visinata chocolate cherry ice cream

Chocolate and cherries – the adult version.

Sozzled boozy cherries, whipped cream and chocolate – can anything go wrong? Well no not really. This is a recipe that can be made with a machine or without, with or without a blender too.  I used a damson ice cream recipe from the ever inspirational pink ice cream book “Lola’s” by Morfudd Richards.  Its one of those really great cookbooks – quirky, focused and full of information and inspiration. 

Ingredients

450g visinata leftover cherries ie the cherries that have been used to make Romanian visinata liqueur

100g apple or agave nectar or honey (a liquid helps the texture of the ice cream)

600ml 35% cream (“smantana dulce” if you are Romania, whipping cream if you are British and heavy cream if you are North American) 

A bar of dark chocolate (100g) chopped into chunks

How To

Squish the cherries a bit by blitzing on pulse.  Do be careful not to create a puree.  Alternatively chop them finely. 

If you do not have an ice cream machine whip the cream to soft peak stage and fold in the cherries, chocolate chunks and sweetener so you do not lose the peaks and air.  Now freeze this “mousse” in a plastic container and according to Morfudd, always with grease proof paper on top of the ice cream (its an amazing tip). 

If using a machine you don’t need to whip the cream just mix the ingredients in a bowl and place in your ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions. 

Serve with sour cherries just for excess. Don’t eat this alone.