Fruits of your labour

Those leftover goodies can be put to delicious use

IFIND there is always plenty of leftover festive fruit and as the family and friend gatherings continue this is a prefect recipe to use up some delicious juicy cherries. This is a simple but much loved dessert taking inspiration from the humble bread and butter pudding but adding that festive flair using juicy sweet cherries and chocolate.

Cherry, chocolate and cinnamon pudding Serves 6

INGREDIENTS: ◗ 50g butter ◗ 1 chunky fruit loaf, cut into chunks ◗ 400g fresh cherries, deseeded ◗ 2 cups milk ◗ 1 cup cream ◗ 3 eggs ◗ 2 yolks ◗ ½ cup sugar ◗ 50g chocolate, chopped ◗ ¼ cup toasted almonds

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 170c.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over moderate temperature and add the chunks of bread, coat with the butter and set aside in a bowl. Whisk together the milk, cream, eggs and yolks and the sugar and pour this into the bread chunks.

Grease a baking dish or lined cake tin and pour in the egg and bread mix and then scatter over the cherries, chocolate and almonds.

Bake for 30 minutes until cooked through. Serve with ice cream or cream.

Free-form caramelised peach tart with whipped ricotta

Serves 6–8

USING festive juicy ripe peaches in this quick and simple tart recipe makes this an easy dessert to throw together and is the perfect accompaniment to any meal or ideal to enjoy with coffee or tea. INGREDIENTS: ◗ 1 quantity of Careme short crust pastry or other short crust pastry ◗ 6 ripe peaches ◗ 55g butter ◗ Juice of ½ lemon ◗ ½ cup sugar ◗ 200g firm ricotta from the deli ◗ ¼ cup honey

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 230c.

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut out a large circle to fit the size of a flat baking tray or large cake tin with spring form sides.

If using a baking tray twist the sides of the pastry to make a wall and chill the pastry for 20 minutes. Wipe over the peaches and slice into chunks. Melt the butter, lemon juice and half the sugar in a saucepan over moderate temperature, add the peaches and toss gently. Pile the peaches onto the pastry and top with the remaining sugar. Bake for 25 minutes until golden and caramelised.

In a food processor whip the ricotta with the honey and a little milk to achieve the desired consistency. Serve the ricotta alongside the warm tart.