Recipes serve 4
BLACKBERRY PUDDINGS
600g blackberries
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
60g sugar
bunch mint
stale white bread
You need dariole moulds, available from any good kitchen shop, for this recipe. Alternatively, use small coffee cups or glasses.
Rinse the blackberries and apples gently in cold water. Drain and place in a saucepan over a low heat with the sugar and mint then cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until quite liquid. Push this mixture through a sieve, extracting as much of the juice as possible.
Cut the bread into discs with the rim of the cups or glasses you are using. Cover the bottom of each mould with a slice of bread and spoon over a little of the sauce; you need to stain the bread properly, and leave no white bits showing. Continue layering up the bread and soaking it with the juice until you get to the top of the mould. Place an empty cup or glass that will just fit inside the filled cups on top of each one, and arrange them all under a chopping board weighed down with a tin of tomatoes, or something similar. Set aside for two hours or overnight.
Turn each pudding on to a flat plate, spoon more of the sauce over the top and pour large quantities of cream over each.
BLACKBERRY AND APPLE CRUMBLE WITH SPICES AND PINE NUTS
250g blackberries
500g eating apples, peeled, cored and cut into 4cm dice
1 tbsp butter
100g soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger
4 cloves
2 star anise
5cm piece of cinnamon bark
1 tbsp pine nuts
50g butter
25g brown sugar
75g plain flour
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas four. Combine the blackberries and apples in an oven-proof dish and toss with the butter, sugar and spices. Sprinkle five tablespoons of water on top. Toast the pine nuts in hot, dry frying pan until golden. Add to the blackberry and apple mixture
Combine the topping ingredients and rub lightly with your fingers until you have a mixture similar to the consistency of bread crumbs. Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit and bake for 40 minutes, or until brown and bubbling. Serve with cream or creme fraiche.
BLACKBERRY SOUFFLE
This recipe comes from the inspirational Shaun Hill. He serves it with an almond ice-cream, but thick pouring cream is just as good. The eggs need to be both good and fresh.
2 punnets of blackberries
2 lemons
50g caster sugar
6 organic egg yolks
50g caster sugar
25g plain flour
300ml hot, full-fat milk
4 egg whites
Remove a few blackberries to garnish the final dish, and combine the remainder with the lemon juice in a saucepan with the sugar and 300ml of water. Boil until it becomes a puree, then pass it though a sieve.Whisk two of the egg yolks with the sugar until they become pale. Stir in the flour and then gently whisk in the hot milk. Pour this mixture into a saucepan and over a moderate heat stir until it become the consistency of thick custard. Pour into a container.
Mix half of the blackberry puree into the souffle mixture and stir in the four remaining egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites until stiff and fold into the mixture. Butter and flour four 300ml souffle dishes and spoon the mixture in. Bake in a preheated oven, 200 degrees/gas six for 10 minutes, by which time they should have risen well above the edge of the dishes. Serve with the remaining sauce and some cream in separate jugs.