’Tis the season to be jolly, but while many of us would love to sit back and bask in the warm glow of Christmas, most of us know that it takes a lot of work to get there in one piece as we navigate the office parties, family gatherings and long shopping lists. So I’ve pulled together a celebratory collection of festive puddings that shouldn’t tie you up in knots and that will, hopefully, have something for everyone, be that a tray of lightly spiced roast pears in port (perfect for using up last year’s bottle), delicately scented and flour-free baked cheesecakes, a decadently moist chestnut and chocolate cake or a lighter, creamier take on the minced pie.
Chestnut and chocolate cake with chestnut cream
This rich, flourless chocolate cake is a delicious tea cake but, with its rich chestnut cream, it’s so light and mousse-like that it doubles up as an excellent after-dinner pudding. Serves 10-12.
250g dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
180g caster sugar
3 tbsp mezcal (or a peaty whisky, or brandy)
200g chestnut puree
4 eggs, separated
1 small pinch ground cinnamon
¼ tsp fine sea salt
For the chestnut cream
200g chestnut puree
2 tbsp mezcal (or peaty whisky)
1 tsp vanilla extract
60g icing sugar
220ml double cream
30g dark chocolate
Heat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3. Butter a 25cm cake tin and line it with baking paper.
Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a heatproof bowl with the butter. Position the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the sugar and mezcal, stir again until the sugar crystals have melted and the mix is smooth, then leave to cool slightly.
In a bowl, beat the chestnut puree with a hand blender until very smooth, then beat in the egg yolks two at a time, to make a smooth cream. Fold in half the melted chocolate mix, then add the rest. Season with the cinnamon and salt.
In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then use a large metal spoon to fold a third of them into the chocolate mixture, to loosen. Once well combined, gently fold in the rest of the egg whites, then scrape the mix into the tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, until just set.
While the cake is baking, make the chestnut cream. Beat together the chestnut puree, mezcal, vanilla and sugar. Gently whip the cream to soft peaks and fold into the chestnut puree mix.
To serve, cut the cooled cake into slices and serve with dollops of cream and dark chocolate grated on top.
Super-dark ginger whisky cake with clementine cream cheese icing
Perish the thought of not having a cake in the cupboard at this time of year, but sometimes a Christmas cake can seem a bit OTT, what with all the mince pies and everything else as well. This light and devilishly gingery whisky cake is the perfect compromise, with or without the icing. It will keep for four to five days in an airtight container.
65g black treacle
65g golden syrup
120g unsalted butter
120g soft brown sugar
2 tbsp good quality whisky
180g self-raising flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 egg, beaten
100ml milk
For the icing
75g very soft butter
200g full fat cream cheese
100g icing sugar
Zest and juice of 1 clementine
Zest and juice of ½ lemon
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and line a the base and sides of a 900g loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
In a small pan, melt the treacle, golden syrup, butter, sugar and whisky over a low heat, stirring gently, then take off the heat once the sugar dissolves. Transfer to a bowl, and sift the flour, ginger and a pinch of salt on top. Gently fold to combine, then stir in first the beaten egg followed by the milk. Pour into the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean, then leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.
While the cake is baking, beat the soft butter in a large mixing bowl until light, pale and pillowy-soft (to save on the elbow grease, I use an electric beater). Mix in the cream cheese until thoroughly combined, then sift in the icing sugar and fold through. Fold in the citrus zest and juices, spread the icing over the cooled cake and serve.
Port, black pepper and cardamom roast pears
This is a great dinner-party pudding: it’s incredibly simple to make and beautifully fragrant. I find roast pears so much less fiddly than poaching. Serves eight to 10.
Peel of ½ lemon, plus the juice of 1 lemon
8 not-quite-ripe pears
250ml port
150g soft light brown sugar
8 cardamom pods, crushed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp black pepper, gently crushed
Vanilla ice-cream and 100g hazelnuts, to serve
Half-fill a mixing bowl with cold water and add half the lemon juice. One at a time, peel the pears, cut them in half lengthways, and scoop out and discard the cores. Drop each pear into the acidulated water as you go, to stop them turning brown. You can do this bit a day in advance.
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6. Put the port, sugar, lemon zest, cardamom, bay and pepper into a large pan and bring to a boil. Lift the pears out of their lemony bath and lay them out cut side down in a baking dish into which they’ll sit snugly in a single layer. Pour over the port mixture and the juice of the remaining half-lemon, then bake for 35-45 minutes, until just tender, turning them once halfway: the timing will depend on how ripe your pears are to begin with, so check them every 15 minutes, and baste when you check.
Toast the hazelnuts in the same oven for about five minutes, until golden, then roughly chop.
Serve the hot pears and their syrupy juices sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts and with scoops of vanilla ice-cream on the side.
Baked San Juan cheesecakes with medjool apple jam
There is a dark, mahogany-panelled coffee shop outside the famously foodie San Juan market in Mexico City that sells the most decadently delicious individual cheesecakes, baked and creamy and filled with blackberry jam. This is my flourless take on those cakes, using a delicately fragrant medjool apple jam, though there’s nothing to stop you using any type of jam you fancy.
50g unsalted butter
150g ricotta
250g cream cheese
100g double cream
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
The juice of 1 lemon
5 eggs, separated
70g corn starch
110g caster sugar
For the jam
2 apples, peeled and cored (about 220g net weight)
500g medjool dates, pitted
1 tbsp vanilla essence
1 cinnamon stick
250ml apple juice
150ml water
Heat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3. Line two muffin trays with 24 large muffin paper cases (the largest size you can buy; or make your own using 18cm square sheets of baking paper, though that’s admittedly a slightly fiddly job).
Put all the jam ingredients in a medium saucepan and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes, until the apples are soft, then blitz with a stick blender and push through a sieve to get a lovely, smooth puree. Refrigerate until needed (if you want, make more than you need for the cakes, because the puree is gorgeous on morning yoghurt).
To make the cheesecakes, melt the butter over a very gentle heat and whisk in the ricotta, cream cheese and cream. Season with half the salt, then stir in the vanilla essence and the juice of half the lemon. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the corn flour. Pour in the cheese and cream mixture, and whisk to a smooth, creamy batter.
In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites, salt and remaining lemon juice to soft peaks, then add the caster sugar and beat to stiff peaks. Use a large metal spoon to fold a third of this mixture into the cheese mix, to loosen, then gently fold in the rest of the egg white mix. Add enough of the cheesecake mix to fill each muffin case by a third, then top with a small teaspoon of the jam. Add more of the cheesecake mix until it fills the cases enough to leave 2.5cm of paper at the top, to allow for the cheesecakes to rise.
Pour enough boiling water into two roasting tins to fill them by 5cm, then carefully place one muffin tray into each water bath. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the cheesecakes are golden and risen, then turn off the oven and leave the door slightly ajar, until the cheesecakes cool. They will shrink back a little.
Once cool, refrigerate for at least four hours, or overnight. If you prefer, you can bake one large cheesecake topped with a thin spread of jam, in which case cook it in a greased and lined spring-form tin and increase the cooking time by 15-20 minutes.
Orange and sauternes custard tarts with boozy raisins
Not everyone loves a mince pie – hard to imagine, I know, but true. Well, these little tarts have all the lovely booziness of plump, soaked raisins, but instead of a heavy mincemeat, they are enveloped in a light custard and crisp pastry. They are decidedly moreish. Makes 12.
75g icing sugar
380g plain flour
1 pinch salt
220g butter
1 egg, beaten
For the custard
400ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, split in half
Zest of 1 orange, plus the juice of ½ orange
4 egg yolks
55g caster sugar
1 tbsp corn flour
3 tbsp sauternes, muscat or other pudding wine
For the raisins
3 tbsp sauternes
1 star anise
Juice of 1 orange
100g raisins
Put the icing sugar, flour, salt and butter in a food processor and blitz to the consistency of fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg and a teaspoon of cold water, and blitz a few times more: the dough should just come together (if it doesn’t, add another teaspoon of water and process again). Roll the dough into a ball, flatten it out a little, then wrap in clingfilm and put in the freezer for half an hour.
Meanwhile, make the custard. Put the cream in a saucepan and add the vanilla pod, orange juice and zest. Bring up to boiling point, then turn off the heat at once and scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod into the cream (don’t throw out the pod: wash and dry it, then keep it in a jar of sugar for some homemade vanilla sugar). Whisk the egg yolks, sugar, corn flour and pudding wine in a bowl, then pour in a ladle of the hot cream and whisk well. Beat in the rest of the hot cream, return the lot to the cream pan and put on a low heat. Stir regularly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon; be careful not to let it boil, otherwise the eggs will curdle. Once the custard has thickened, leave to cool completely.
Take the pastry out of the freezer, break off a third, wrap this in clingfilm and put in the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the remaining larger piece of pastry to 6-8mm thick, then use a round 7-8cm-diameter cookie cutter to cut out discs. Place these in a 12-hole muffin tin, gently pressing down the pastry discs into the holes, then pop the tray into the freezer for 15 minutes, to firm up. Take the smaller piece of pastry out of the fridge, roll that out to 6-8mm thick, too, then use the same cookie cutter to cut out 12 lids. Place these on a plate and put back in the fridge. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 170C/335F/gas mark 3.
Put the sauternes, two tablespoons of water, the star anise and the orange juice in a small pan, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat, add the raisins and leave them for 10 minutes, to soak and plump up.
Now you’re ready to bake. Scoop the raisins into the tarts with a fork (that way, you won’t risk adding too much soaking liquid to the filling). Spoon about two tablespoons of custard over each (you may have a little custard left over, but that’s no great hardship), then gently sit the lids on top and crimp together the edges. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden, then leave to cool completely before serving. These are delicious with double cream and will keep in a sealed container for three to four days.
- Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay.
