Recipes: Donald Russell Desserts

Apple Sponge (pictured above)

Serves 4-6

Ingredients
250g soft butter (plus extra to grease the baking tin)
250g caster sugar
The seeds scraped from 1⁄2 vanilla pod
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
400g self raising flour (plus extra to dust the baking tin)
1 pinch of salt
300g Apple Slices (semi-defrosted)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method
Preheat oven to 170° C (no fan).

Grease a 26cm diameter spring form tin with butter and dust with flour.

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Whisking slowly, add the eggs and egg yolk one by one until combined. Sift the flour and salt and gradually fold into the mixture. Pour into the baking tin.

Distribute the apple slices on top of the cake batter, pressing them in slightly then bake on the lower shelf of the oven for 50 minutes.

Take the sponge out of the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing from the tin. Enjoy warm or fully cooled, served with whipped or clotted cream.

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Plum Flan with Cinnamon

Serves 4-6 Approx.


Ingredients
350g kitchen ready puff pastry, rolled out and cut to a circle roughly 32cm diameter

For the topping:
3 tbsp. ground hazelnuts
1 tsp cinnamon
600g Plum Halves (semi-defrosted)

For the custard filling:
200ml single cream
1 whole egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1 tbsp custard powder
3 tbsp caster sugar
The seeds scraped from 1⁄2 vanilla pod (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 220° C (no fan).

Line the base of a 30cm diameter flan tin with baking paper before gently laying over and pressing in the rolled puff pastry. Lightly pierce the pastry several times with a fork.

Mix the hazelnuts and cinnamon together and evenly scatter over the pastry. Arrange the plums with the cut surface up, overlapping each other slightly.

Mix the cream, egg, egg yolk, custard powder, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and spoon over the plums.

Bake the flan for 30 minutes on the bottom shelf of the oven. 6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes before easing the flan out of its tin. Place onto a cooling rack for at least 10 minutes. Enjoy warm, or cooled and chilled if you prefer, served with Chantilly cream or vanilla ice cream.

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Wild Blueberry ‘Queen of Puddings’

Serves 4-6


Ingredients
200-250g ready-made sponge cake (can include sponge fingers, Madeira or marble cake)
250g Wild Blueberries (defrosted/semi- defrosted)
2 egg whites
1 pinch of salt
80g caster sugar

Method
Preheat oven to 160° C (no fan).

Cut the sponge into 1⁄2cm thick slices. Use half of these slices to line a medium sized rectangular oven dish.

Scatter the frozen Blueberries on top, ensuring an even coverage, then enclose with the remaining sponge slices.

Whisk the egg whites with salt until stiff. Add the caster sugar spoonful by spoonful whilst whisking all the time, until the egg whites are stiff and have developed a nice glossy sheen.

Spread the soft meringue carefully over the top of the sponge, leaving the natural peaks for a rustic look. 

Bake for approximately 18-22 minutes on the lower shelf of the oven until the meringue peaks turn a golden brown. Take the pudding out of the oven to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Recipes found at: www.donaldrussell.com