Much prefer nectaries to peaches, as the peaches skin gives me shivers for some reason. Maybe peeling them would be an option…!

There’s a recipe for a “Berry slump” in one of the Good Food editions, which I have tried and loved and this evening I made it with nectarines and a pear, a lonely one from the fridge. It was lovely.

I prepared the nectarines by quickly softening them with some sweet wine and small amount of sugar, place them in a baking dish and covered by a dough made of 50g of butter, 50g of self raising flour, 50g of caster sugar, some vanilla essence and one egg. Beat it all up, pour over the nectarines, generously top with flaked almonds and bake in medium hot oven, gas mark 4 I’d say, for about 40 minutes, till risen and golden.

I baked it this evening and dug into before serving dinner, it was so yummy. Served with ambrosia.

Yesss, I have burnt caramel, first time ever. Might say it was Dustin’s fault, as I only popped out to the garden to throw a ball at him. When I came back it looked like a lava and was steaming too! 🙂 Having turned off the fire alarm I started again and coated some chopped bananas in it and  added some Havana rum.

I whipped some double cream with sugar and lime juice.It is a dessert inspired by Heston’s banana Eton mess, slightly changed and simplified by me, as usual. I toasted some hazelnuts, which turned out to be a lovely crunchy addition to the whole thing.

The bottom of the bowl was graced with some crushed meringue, then caramelised bananas, lime cream, some hazelnuts and like this again. I finished it off with some grated lime zest. After 3 hours in the fridge it tasted really lovely.

A very nice day off is about to come to an end. What nicer way to finish it than with a nice dessert?

Pear tarte tatin was one of the few nice memories from The Famous Celebrity Chef Restaurant I Spent Only 6 Months In, I had some pears in the fridge and a chunk of puff pastry, so I briefly checked the method on the net and got to it.

I made some simple caramel from brown sugar and a bit of butter and cooked it off for a few minutes, then put some cored and peeled pear quarters in it, covered with cinnamon. Kept on turning them until cooked and soft.  I transferred it to the baking dish, all nicely arranged- photo- and covered with pastry, folding the edges underneath a little. And baked it off for about 35 minutes. When nice, golden and risen with caramel all around the puffed up edges, covered it with a flat plate and turned upside down. It worked!!! And served with lovely vanilla ice cream it  tasted great. I will modestly give myself 10 out of 10 for it tonight. 🙂

Thumbs up!

I’ve made it last night, it turned out so pretty, that I gave Shirley some, I was so proud. 🙂

140g of soft butter was creamed with the same amount of sugar, slowly added 3 lightly beaten eggs, 200g of self raising flour, some ground ginger, cinnamon and 2 spoons of brandy.I found it too thick, so I added a bit of milk. It is an upside down cake, so the form was buttered, lined with baking paper, buttered again and sprinkled with sugar.I arranged some lovely pears on the bottom,along with some blackberries-frozen, equally good and lots cheaper than fresh ones.I poured the mixture onto the pears and blackberries, added some extra blackberries on the top and baked in 180 degrees for about 50 minutes. Thanks to self raising flour the blackberries sunk in beautifully and the smell was magnificent.

We’ve had it with vanilla ice cream.