64 Kitchen garden cook: raspberries

Melanie Johnson makes the most of this soft fruit’s sweetsour taste of summer

Raspberry-and-chocolate crême brûlée

Heat 200ml double cream to simmering point in a saucepan with 50g sugar, a teaspoon vanilla and 50g dark chocolate. In a separate bowl, beat 5 egg yolks with a spoonful of sugar, then pour in the hot cream, whisking continuously. Reheat the custard mixture in the same saucepan until it thickens, pour into ramekins, drop in some fresh raspberries and refrigerate. Sprinkle with sugar before serving, burn with a kitchen torch and decorate with a few raspberries on top.

Raw-cacao, raspberry and pistachio freezer bars ( below)

Mix 100ml coconut oil (at room temperature), 100ml maple syrup, 75g coconut butter, 150g chopped pistachios, 150g raspberries, 150g chopped almonds, 75g raw cacao powder and 75g desiccated coconut in a bowl. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment and pour in the mixture. Use the back of a spoon to press it down to an even level, then freeze for several hours before chopping into bars and serving immediately.

Raspberry granita

Make a sugar syrup by heating 300ml water and 150g sugar, then add 800g raspberries. Partially mash the raspberries in the syrup, then pour the mixture into a bowl and freeze for half an hour. Remove from the freezer and mix with a fork, put it back and repeat a couple of times. Before serving, remove from the freezer for 10 minutes to soften, then spoon into glasses and top with mint before serving as a summer cooler.