Life is SWEET

Mary Berry and her 2015 Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain are back with two mouth-watering new series

MARY BERRY’S SIMPLE COMFORTS Wednesday, BBC2, 8pm NADIYA BAKES Wednesday, BBC2, 8.30pm

As the nights draw in and the temperature falls, food becomes more important than ever to help cheer us against the autumnal gloom in this most unsettled of years.

Happily, two of our favourite television cooks are ready to serve up a pair of shows packed with inspiring ideas, together making a foodies’ must-watch hour on Wednesday evenings.

Aged 85 but still the absolute embodiment of timeless elegance, Mary Berry draws on her decades of experience to share with us the dishes she ‘just can’t get enough of... warming and comforting – the food that will make you feel everything will be all right’.

In her six-part series Berry visits locations rich with special memories from her long career, from Ireland to Yorkshire and Scotland, in each place seeking out the finest ingredients and explaining how we can recreate her dishes at home.

She begins in the city where she first learned to cook: Paris. Here, Berry celebrates a nation in which the hour-long lunch is virtually enshrined in law.

The opening episode’s menu includes a slow-roast leg of lamb that slides off the bone with mouthwatering ease, followed by a fantastic frangipane apple pudding. She also stops off at a bistro to sample the eminently civilised delight of a daytime glass of sparkling white wine.

Then at 8.30pm, stay tuned for

Nadiya Bakes, as the 2015 Bake Off winner returns to her first love. She explains: ‘A soothing slice of cake; the smell of freshly made bread; the comforting crunch of a biscuit straight out of the oven – baking really is my happy place.’

These are recipes ambitious enough to excite experienced bakers but not too daunting for beginners. This week try blueberry scone pizza, toad-in-the-hole with a spicy Asian twist and clotted-cream cupcakes. As Nadiya (inset) says: ‘Why have one thing when you can have it all?

Let’s be honest, with these two mouth-watering delights on our TV menus, that post-lockdown diet might just have to wait...