Spring Pudding Recipes

Traditional Apple Charlotte

To Drink: Two Hands Brilliant Disguise Moscato 2005

I don’t know what happened but somehow, having invented Apple Charlotte the British then forgot all about it. But this is a really easy yet very impressive dish that everyone seems to love.

• 450g apples mixed cookers and eaters
• 50g caster sugar
• Finely grated rind of half a lemon
• 2 egg yolks
• 100g unsalted butter
• 6-8 slices day-old white bread with the crusts removed (if you want to be posh, brioche works really well in place of the regular bread)

Peel, core and slice the apples. Rinse in water with a little lemon juice then drain and put into a saucepan with the sugar, lemon rind and 25g butter. Cook gently and stir until you have a fairly smooth purée. Set aside to cool.

Melt the remaining butter, cut the bread slices in half and dip them, both sides into the butter. Line a 600ml pudding basin with the slices of buttered bread. Overlap them well and don’t leave any spaces between.

Beat the egg yolks into the cooled apple purée and fill the lined basin, then cover the top with more slices of the buttered bread. Trim off any excess with kitchen scissors. Cover with a plate that fits the top of your basin and put into the oven at about 200. You’ll need to put some heavy metal weight on top of the plate to prevent the charlotte from ‘growing’ out of the basin. After about half an hour, remove the weight and the plate and cook for another 10-15 minutes to thoroughly brown the top.

Leave the charlotte to rest for about 5 minutes before inverting onto a serving plate. Serve with genuine crème a l’anglaise.

Meringue topped chocolate orange fondant puddings

To Drink: Quady Winery Essensia Orange Muscat 2005

For chocolate lovers everywhere – enough for 2 people

• Approx 60g good quality dark chocolate
• 1 egg plus one extra egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon Flour (plus extra for dusting)
• 60 g butter (plus extra to butter the ramekins)
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
  
  
• 1 tablespoon Seville orange marmalade
  
  
• I egg white
• 50g caster sugar

Method

To make the chocolate puddings begin by painting the inside of two 80mm ramekins with plenty of melted butter. Chill in the fridge before giving them a second coat, then dust them well with flour.

Brake the chocolate into a bowl, add the butter and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. (Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the hot water). When the chocolate and butter are melted together remove the bowl from the heat.

Use the electric whisk to beat together the egg, egg yolk and caster sugar to a soft peak consistency. Pour into the warm chocolate and sieve over the flour. Gently fold these ingredients together and spoon into the prepared ramekins. Place into a pre-heated oven 220 degrees (gas mark 7) for 9-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the meringue by whisking egg white until it forms stiff peaks. Whisk in half the sugar and when incorporated whisk in the other half. The meringue should be stiff and glossy.