Life is sweet: Indulgent pudding recipes
GET your just desserts with comforting and indulgent puddings.
Get your just desserts with comforting and indulgent puddings
Winter fruit mess
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
For the rhubarb compote:
500g (1lb 1¾oz) rhubarb
100g (3½oz) caster sugar
50ml (1¾fl oz) water
A squeeze of lemon juice
For the roast apples and pears:
2 apples
2 pears
50ml (1¾fl oz) sherry
25g (1oz) melted butter
1 tbsp runny honey
½ tsp ground cinnamon
4 cloves
2 star anise
For the blackberry compote:
300g (10½oz) blackberries
40g (1½oz) brown sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp water
For the vanilla cream:
400ml (14fl oz) double cream
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tsps icing sugar
To serve:
Meringue shells
Wash and dice the rhubarb into 1cm (½in) pieces. Add ²/³ of the rhubarb to a pan with the caster sugar, water and lemon juice. Cook on a medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until the rhubarb is just softening. Add the remaining rhubarb, cook for a further 3 minutes then cool in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Peel, core and cut each of the apples and pears into 6 pieces.
Toss them immediately in the sherry followed by the butter, honey, cinnamon, cloves and star anise. Tip on to a baking tray and roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes until soft, basting every 5 minutes. Remove the cloves and star anise then cool.
Blend half the blackberries with the brown sugar, lemon juice and water until smooth. Pass the liquid through a sieve into a saucepan and bring up to a simmer. Add the remaining blackberries to the saucepan then immediately turn off the heat. Allow to cool.
Whip the cream and vanilla essence until the mixture forms soft peaks. Sift in the icing sugar and gently whisk into the cream.
Layer each bowl, starting with the rhubarb, then cream, apples and pears and meringue then finish with the blackberry compote.
Spiced poached pears
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
1 orange
1 lemon
4 pears
300g (10½oz) caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
4 star anise
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and sliced
3 cloves
150g (5¼oz) mascarpone cheese
100g (3½oz) Greek yoghurt
1 tbsp icing sugar
Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
Peel the orange and lemon with a peeler, being careful not to take any pith. Place the peel and juice of the orange and lemon in a medium saucepan (big enough to fit 4 pears).
Peel the pears, leaving the stalks intact, then roll in the juice. Pour boiling water over until just covering the pears. Add the caster sugar, cinnamon sticks, star anise, ginger and cloves.
Place a lid over the pears and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20-30 minutes then allow to cool slightly in the liquid.
Gently mix the mascarpone, yoghurt, icing sugar and vanilla seeds in a bowl.
Serve the pears whole with good spoonfuls of mascarpone mixture.
Salted caramel and chocolate puddings
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 12 minutes
170g (6oz) chocolate
115g (4oz) butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
110g (4oz) caster sugar
40g (1½oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1x400g (14oz) tin of caramel
1 tsp flaky salt
Shortbread, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
Break up the chocolate and put it in a bowl with the butter.
Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Gently melt together, stirring a little.
In a large bowl, beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Sift in the flour and beat until fully combined.
Allow the melted chocolate to cool for 10 minutes then stir into the eggs and flour along with the vanilla essence.
Lightly butter 8 ramekins.
Slightly warm the caramel and salt in a saucepan then divide between the ramekins.
Pour 75g (2¾oz) of the chocolate pudding mix into each ramekin and bake for 12 minutes or until risen but slightly wet in the middle.
Serve with shortbread.
Blackberry and damson roly-poly
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 10 minutes
50g (1¾oz) butter
240g (8½oz) self-raising flour, plus extra for the surface and rolling pin
50g (1¾oz) caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
75g (2¾oz) vegetarian suet
150ml (5¼fl oz) whole milk
200g (7oz) damson jam
100g (3½oz) fresh blackberries
Warm custard, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4.
In a food processor, blend the butter, flour, sugar and vanilla essence until the butter is well mixed in.
Pour into a mixing bowl and stir in the suet. Stir in the milk a splash at a time until you form a soft dough.
Lightly flour a work surface and a rolling pin. Roll out the dough to 25x30cm (9¾x11¾in).
Put a large sheet of baking paper on a large sheet of silver foil and place the dough on the parchment paper.
Spread the dough with jam, stopping 3cm (1¼in) from the edge of one of the longer edges (30cm/ 11¾in edge). Cut the blackberries in half and spread evenly over the jam.
Roll up the dough, starting at the long side that has the jam up to the edge. Pinch the dough together at the fold then roll up in parchment paper and foil, twisting the ends like a Christmas cracker. Allow a little give in the foil to allow the roly-poly to expand and make sure the fold is at the bottom.
Put a deep roasting tray in the oven with a shelf/rack directly above it. Pour boiling water into the roasting tray then put the roly-poly on the rack above the roasting tray and cook for 1 hour 10 minutes.
When cooked, allow to rest for 10 minutes. Unwrap and cut into large slices then serve with the custard.
Sticky toffee pudding
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
300ml (10½oz) boiling water
250g (8¾oz) pitted dates
60g (2oz) butter
80g (2¾oz) dark muscovado sugar
80g (2¾oz) molasses sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 eggs
200g (7oz) self-raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp malt extract (optional)
For the toffee sauce:
150g (5¼oz) butter
150g (5¼oz) light muscovado sugar
180ml (6¼fl oz) double cream
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and line a medium high-sided baking tray (about 25x18cm/9¾x7in) with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, pour the boiling water over the dates.
In a food processor, blend the butter and both sugars until thoroughly mixed. Add the golden syrup, eggs and self-raising flour. Blend for another 20 seconds then pour into a large mixing bowl.
In the same food processor bowl, blend the dates and water until smooth. Add the bicarbonate of soda, vanilla extract and malt extract, if using, then blend for 30 seconds.
Add the date mixture to the flour mixture then stir everything together until completely mixed.
Spoon the batter on to the baking tray then bake in the oven for 25 minutes until it’s golden and springs back to the touch in the centre.
Add all of the toffee sauce ingredients to a pan and cook over a medium heat until it comes to a simmer. Turn down to low to ensure the mixture doesn’t boil then cook for 5 minutes until lightly browned and thickened slightly.
Serve hearty slices of pudding with the toffee sauce and good scoops of vanilla ice cream.
Recipes written by home economist Dominic Hoile.
Styling by Victoria Gray Photographs by Winfried Heinze