and for dessert...

Autumn pudding

If I’m going to have a pudding when the cold days are here, I usually want a hot one – this is a happy exception. It’s as fine a celebration of the end of summer and the start of winter as there is – sweet, sharp and deep in colour and intent. This is one to make ahead and allow to settle in for a day or two before the spoon breaks its autumnal seal. Should it be terrible outside you can, as

Nigel Slater does with his, scatter a little sugar over the surface and bake for 25 minutes at 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6 and enjoy hot. It may surrender its shape as you ease it out of the bowl, but who cares? SERVES 4-6

150g plums, quartered

and stoned

100g caster sugar

180g raspberries

130g redcurrants

6-8 slices of good white

bread, crusts removed

1 Put the plums and the sugar into a large pan and cook over a gentle heat for 15min or so until the juices begin to run, the sugar has dissolved and the fruit is soft. Add the raspberries and redcurrants and cook for a further

4-5min until soft. Remove from the heat.

2 Line an 850ml pudding bowl with a double layer of clingfilm that overhangs the side. Dip the bread slices in the syrup that’s been released by the fruit and line the bottom and sides of the bowl with the soaked bread slices, slightly overlapping each – keeping one slice back for the lid.

3 Spoon the rest of the fruit and its juice into the pudding bowl. Place the reserved slice of bread on top and fold over the clingfilm to seal the pudding in the bowl.

4 Place a saucer or small plate that fits inside the bowl on top of the pudding and add a weight such as a bag or two of sugar, or some cans of food. Refrigerate overnight.

5 When you’re ready to serve the pudding, lift off the plate and peel back the clingfilm. Place a serving plate over the top of the pudding and invert the it carefully. Lift off the bowl and remove the clingfilm.

Serve with thick double cream.