A Trio of Puds

The summer holidays are fast approaching- and I'm starting to empty my fridge and freezer. It's been a glorious few weeks here - and fresh fruit has been very tempting, so it's not surprising that there is quite a bit lurking in my fridge pleading to be used up.


I was drawn to a recipe in a French magazine. (I always ask visitors from France to bring me a copy of Maxi Cuisine, Cuisine Actuelle or Guide Cuisine- those mags you see at the checkout in French supermarkets- as the recipes seem so much more tempting than the ones in Woman's Own or Prima- possibly a case of greener grass of course).

This was for a clafoutis aux abricots- a sort of apricot Yorkshire pudding.

I made it last Friday- and was surprised and delighted by the results: not at all pudding-y...more like a custard tart almost.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
Butter a gratin or pudding dish and sprinkle vanilla sugar all around to line it. Wash, halve and remove the stones from 10 apricots and lay them face down in the sugar.

Mix together 60 g of flour, 1 tsp of ground ginger and 100g of icing sugar.
Beat 3 eggs with 100ml of milk and 100ml of cream.Add it to the dry ingredients and beat to a smooth batter.

Pour the batter over the apricots and bake in the oven until the pudding is risen all around and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. (The middle part doesn't necessarily rise but should be firm like a baked custard (which is what it is!)

Sprinkle with more sugar and either grill until caramelized (I over-caramelized mine as it goes very quickly) or use a blowtorch for more precision.

Clafoutis aux abricots

Serve with cream or ice cream.

The next pud is also custard based.
You can feel virtuous whilst eating this as it uses up stale chocolate croissants which would otherwise go to waste. There is of course the small matter of the calories involved..but never mind that for now.

Chocolate croissant Pudding

Ingredients:

3-4 pain au chocolats ( day old are best)
2 small eggs
2 sachets vanilla sugar (20g)
1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
450 ml milk
butter for greasing dish

Chocolate Croissant pudding

1. Generously grease a pudding dish with the butter
2. Slice the pastries into quarters and place in the dish
3. Beat the eggs together with the milk, one of the sachets (or 10g) of vanilla sugar and essence.
4 Pour over the pastries and leave to soak in for half an hour.
5. Squish down with a fork and sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top.
6. Place in a roasting tin and pour hot water around it to make a bain marie.
7. Cook at 180 degrees for half an hour or until the pudding is firm and golden.
8. Serve with vanilla ice cream (as if you weren't feeling guilty enough!)

Final pud for today is a Pina Colada Crumble- born from the need to use up ripe bananas and pineapple.

Slice 2 ripe bananas and mash with a fork, together with 1 tsp mixed spice, some sliced pineapple and 150 ml or so of fruit juice (orange, mango or apple work well).

Make a crumble mix with 180g of plain flour, 75g of sugar, 100g of butter and 50g of dessicated coconut rubbed together to make a breadcrumb-like topping

Sprinkle over the fruit and bake for 15-20 minutes until golden.

Pina colada crumble

More from the blog in a few weeks- when rested and relaxed- I should have more time for recipes and writing. See you then!