Ingredients >
8 slices of bread, crusts sliced off, if you like
unsalted butter
150g fresh wild bilberries or blueberries
300ml milk
100ml crème fraîche
1/2; tsp vanilla essence
1 level tbs honey
2 large eggs and 1 egg yolk
50g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method >
Preheat the oven to 120C/gas 1/2.
Spread each slice of bread with butter, then cut into triangles. Place a layer of bread at the bottom of the dish, followed by a handful of blueberries.
Repeat until you have used up all the bread and fruit. Make sure there are some blueberries on top, as they will merge deliciously with the brown sugar under the grill.
Heat the milk, crème fraîche, vanilla essence and honey in a saucepan to around 70C (use a cooking thermometer). Whip up the eggs and half the sugar in a large bowl until frothy. Whisk in the milk and pour the mixture over the bread and blueberries.
Leave to rest for 10 minutes to allow the liquid to soak into the bread. Sprinkle the rest of the brown sugar over the pudding and powder with ground cinnamon. Bake for 45 minutes. Then pop it under a preheated grill for 4-5 minutes to brown and caramelise it.
Serve with clotted cream or just au naturel.

Notes >
Bread and butter pudding is best made with slightly stale bread. You should eat it as soon as it is cooked to take full advantage of the caramelised top. You will need a dish with a capacity of about 1.5 litres, and a cooking thermometer. Serves 4.

Ingredients >
For the molten centre >
125g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
15g butter
50ml double cream
25g caster sugar

For the pudding >
200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
100g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
6 eggs, separated
100g plain flour
40g cornflour
11/2; tsp baking powder

Method >
First make the centre. Melt all the ingredients over very low heat. Pour into a small bowl, cover it and leave in the freezer for approximately 20 minutes until firm.

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Grease the bowl with a little butter smeared on its wrapper. Sift in a little flour and shake the bowl around until covered with a dusting of flour. Slowly melt the chocolate in a small bowl over hot water or in a microwave. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon for a minute or two until pale and fluffy. Then take a whisk and whisk in the egg yolks one by one. Whip the egg whites into soft peaks and reserve. Add the flour, cornflour and baking powder to the butter/sugar/egg mix and stir in with a wooden spoon. Fold in the melted chocolate, then the egg whites. Start with just a small proportion of the whites, then when the mixture has loosened up fold in the rest. Pour a third of the mix into the pudding bowl, then retrieve the chocolate from the freezer and lay the set ‘plug’ on top. Add the rest of the pudding mix. Cover the bowl with greaseproof paper and tin foil.

Place the pudding in its bowl in the saucepan and pour in water until it comes halfway up the bowl. Put the lid on the saucepan and bring to the boil on the stove top. As soon as the contents begin to bubble, place the saucepan in the oven for 1 hour. If you are making small puddings, bake for 30 minutes. You can also cook the puddings in a steamer. Take the saucepan out of the oven, extract the pudding from the bowl and leave it to rest for 15 minutes before serving with double cream or vanilla ice cream.

Notes >
This pudding can be likened to a volcano. When you cut into it, molten chocolate ‘lava’ will erupt from the centre. You will need a pudding bowl with a capacity of 1.5-1.8 litres or small individual ramekins, and a lidded saucepan into which it or they will fit. The saucepan needs to fit in the oven.

Ingredients >
200g cherries preserved in kirsch
100ml of the kirsch syrup
200g seedless raisins
400g chopped pitted prunes
200g soft dried figs, chopped
zest of an orange
zest of a lemon
1 tbs brandy
175g plain flour
1/2; tsp cinnamon powder
1/2; tsp grated nutmeg
1 heaped tsp baking powder
1/2; tsp salt
225g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbs dark muscovado sugar
225g light muscovado or soft brown sugar
4 large eggs, lightly whipped
50g ground almonds
1 tbs treacle

Method >
First, place the cherries, kirsch, raisins, prunes, figs, zest and brandy in a large bowl. Stir the mixture every 20 minutes or so, and within 2 hours, all the alcohol will have been soaked up, and the fruits will have plumped up delightfully.

Preheat the oven to 140C/gas 1. Grease a cake tin with a removable base. (Ours is 24cm across and 8cm deep), then sprinkle with a thin layer of flour, shaking off any excess. Sift the flour into a bowl along with the spices, baking powder and salt and reserve. Cream the butter and the sugars together in a large bowl with a spoon for a few minutes until the mixture pales up and becomes a bit fluffier. It helps if the butter is warm but not melted. Scrape the mixture off the spoon and pick up a whisk. Slowly whisk in the eggs, bit by bit, so that it doesn’t curdle (if it does, just add a little of the flour.) Folding the flour along with the ground almonds. Then thoroughly mix in the treacle and fruit and pour into the cake tin. Loosely wrap the cake with greaseproof paper and bake for 3 hours or so. To check whether the cake is done, remove it after the specified period and insert a wooden toothpick into the middle. If the mix adheres to the stick, leave the cake in the oven for a little longer.

Notes>
This recipe is supposed to be nutless, but contains almonds. There was an error in the book which carried the recipe but we apologise for failing to spot it
Many recipes for plum cake in cookery books are strikingly plum-free, and those that are not usually contain very few. This nutless, marzipanless version does its best to rectify the situation by incorporating almost a pound of prunes (dried plums), as well as several other fruits. You could ice this cake or cover it in nuts if you wanted to, but we advise you to eat it plain, un-aged and soaked in brandy.

Ingredients >
For the mincemeat >
4 medium Bramley apples, cored and finely diced (add a little lemon juice to prevent browning)
2 lemons, zested and squeezed
2 oranges, zested and squeezed
400g raisins
400g currants
200g dried cranberries
250g suet (vegetarian if you prefer)
500g soft brown sugar
100g candied orange
peel finely chopped
100g chopped almonds
1/2; tsp ground cinnamon
1/2; tsp ground ginger
1/4; nutmeg, grated
125ml brandy
100ml Grand Marnier or other orange liqueur

For the crumble >
300g shortbread biscuits, crushed
40g unsalted butter

For the pastry >
200g plain flour
75g butter
50g icing sugar
11/2; large eggs
a couple of drops of vanilla essence

Method >
To make the mincemeat, combine all the ingredients except the alcohol in a large mixing bowl. Transfer to a greased baking dish with a lid, cover and leave for an hour or two while the flavours meld. Preheat the oven to 120C/gas 1/2; and bake for 3 or 4 hours. Leave to cool, but stir from time to time. When cool, stir in the alcohol and immediately pot it up in sterile jars.
To make the crumble, mix the crushed biscuits and butter in a bowl until you can’t see the butter anymore. To make the pastry, rub the flour, butter and icing sugar together in a large bowl with the tips of your fingers. Then stir in the eggs and vanilla essence with a spoon. Turn the pastry out onto the work surface and lightly knead. Mould it into a ball and store in the fridge until needed.
Preheat the oven to 180C. In the meantime roll the pastry into a rectangle and place on a large greased baking sheet. Spread a layer of mincemeat about 11/2;-2cm deep onto the rolled pastry, and sprinkle with the crumble.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown. Cut into slices while still warm, but leave them on the tray until they have cooled or they may fall apart.

These crumble slices come as a welcome alternative to regular mince pies. You can buy good-quality mincemeat in the shops, but it is more satisfying to make it yourself. The recipe will produce five or six jars worth. You should prepare the mincemeat several weeks in advance to give it time to mature.
Makes 16-20 squares or bars.

Ingredients >
organic sunflower oil
potatoes, cleaned but not peeled
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method >
Heat the oil to 140°C, checking the temperature with your thermometer. Thinly slice the potatoes with a mandolin. Fry them in small batches, no more than 15 at a time. They will fry vigorously at first and then slow down.
Only remove them from the pan when they have completely stopped bubbling, otherwise they may go soft. Extract them with a slotted implement, place them on kitchen paper and pat them dry. Then transfer them to an airtight container.
Crush the dried sage, rosemary, thyme, the black pepper and 1½ teaspoons salt as finely as possible using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder.
Take a few pinches of this mix and sprinkle onto the crisps. Gently move them around and turn them over to ensure an even distribution. When you are happy with the level of seasoning, you can store the rest of it either to use for a future batch of crisps, or use it to rub on meat prior to cooking.

Notes >
You can turn any variety of potato into crisps, but red organic potatoes yield particularly good results. Young specimens at the beginning of the season produce light-coloured crisps because their sugar level is low. After they go into storage, the sugar level increases, so as the season progresses you will end up with darker, more caramelised crisps.
Rather a lot of oil is left on the finished crisps, and this is what makes them so tasty. The seasoning for the crisps should be ground down quite fine for an even coating.
For this recipe you will need a deep-fat fryer or pan and a thermometer. A kitchen mandolin will also come in handy - you need the crisps to be about 1mm thick.
These crisps can be stored in an airtight container for a month or two if you don’t open the lid.