Orchard: Sweet and savoury recipes from the countryside by James Rich (Hardie Grant, £22) Photography
©Laura Edwards
Three Dessert Recipes That Celebrate Autumn's Fruit Harvest
There’s a huge variety of food to be found in the English countryside, in orchards, hedgerows and the humble kitchen garden
Here, cook and writer James Rich shares three of his favourite dessert recipes which celebrate autumn’s bountiful fruit harvest.
Pear, Pain au Chocolat & Peanut Butter Pudding
A wonderfully indulgent and incredibly joyful dessert. Bread and butter pudding has a special place in my heart. It reminds me of growing up as it is the very first dessert I can ever remember tasting. Back then, it was a simple sliced white loaf with butter and vanilla custard and some sultanas (golden raisins) if we were lucky. This version is much more embellished, but incredibly fun and very tasty.
Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Blackberry & Hazelnut Galette
A galette is the dream dessert for any occasion. It is a real crowdpleaser, and while it is very simple to make (yes, including the pastry) it looks impressive and gets the whole table excited. Galettes are also incredibly forgiving – the more rustic and ‘messy’ a galette looks (and in my opinion it should look very messy), the more beautifully delicious it is. The ruby juice from those berries oozing out from the golden, crisp pastry is sure to get everybody’s taste buds tingling.
Gooseberry & Elderflower Spelt Tart
Gooseberry season is one of my favourites. I have many fond memories of raiding my great-grandmother’s gooseberry patch as a small child and stuffing as many of these sharp but delicious berries into my mouth as I could. This tart celebrates the grand gooseberry and marries it with a hedgerow staple, the elderflower, to create a creamy yet zingy dessert.
