CHAWTON COTTAGE PLUM PUDDING

As nights draw in, we yearn for warm, soothing desserts and this slow cooker recipe, which showcases autumn’s bounty of blackberries and plums, is just the thing. Serve with steaming hot custard poured over.

Jane Austen loved the garden at the cottage she shared with her sister and mother in Chawton. She wrote passionately and knowledgeably about it in her letters to her sister, Cassandra, charting its abundance of trees, shrubs and flowers as they passed through seasonal changes.

But Austen was well aware that a garden was about much more than sensual splendour: it also had to play its part in the household economy. In Chawton Cottage’s thriving plum trees was the promise, she saw, of jellies and desserts in the coming months, and bottled fruits through the winter. Here is a recipe that will capture all the freshness of those ‘Orleans plumbs’ but sturdy enough to keep away any autumn chill.

SERVES 6

● 90g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

● 115g blackberries

● 200g ripe red plums, halved, pitted, and sliced

● 2 tbsp raspberry jam

● 100g caster sugar

● 90g self-raising flour

● 2 eggs, beaten

● 80g almond flour

● few drops of almond extract

● toasted flaked almonds, to decorate (optional)

1. Preheat the slow cooker if necessary; see the manufacturer’s instructions. Lightly butter a 1.2-litre soufflé dish and line the base with a circle of non-stick baking paper, checking first that the dish will fit in the slow-cooker pot. Arrange the plums and blackberries in the base, then dot with the jam.

2. Beat the butter and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon or handheld electric whisk until soft and creamy. Gradually mix in alternate spoonfuls of flour and beaten egg, and continue adding and beating until the mixture is smooth.

Stir in the almond flour and almond extract. Spoon the mixture over the fruit, spread it level and cover the top with foil.

3. Lower the dish into the slow-cooker pot and pour boiling water into the pot to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Cover with the lid and cook on high for

4–5 hours or until the cake is well risen and springs back when pressed.

4. Lift the dish out of the slow cooker using a teatowel and remove the foil. Loosen the edges of the dessert with a knife and turn out onto a plate with a rim. Decorate with toasted flaked almonds, if desired.