Stevie Parle: One-bowl chocolate cake; Red-wine pear, orange curd and meringue crisp; Baked nutmeg and spelt pudding
There's no better gift from a guest than a pud, says Stevie Parle. Here are three with big flavours to delight your host
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“If I knew you were comin' I'd've baked a cake, baked a cake, baked a cake.” The words to some 1950s song that my dad would sometimes burst into upon the arrival of an unexpected guest. A strange habit and a bit of a rubbish song, but a truly great sentiment. If there's something better than baking a cake for someone who's come to your house, it's visiting someone and bringing the cake, or dessert, yourself. Forget gold, frankincense etc, there's no more welcome guest than one who comes bearing sugar and carbs.
These three recipes are super-simple. The chocolate cake is almost miraculous in its simplicity, using just one bowl, and the wonderful savoury notes of rye and almond really make it stand out. Baked nutmeg spelt cake is a lot like rice pudding, but better. Having nutty delicious wholegrain spelt is a great swap and the prunes with whisky make it Christmassy and grown-up. A little jam would be great, too, for kids and those who don't drink.
The red-wine pear is a sort of Frankenstein winter Eton mess; using orange curd, pears, meringue crisps, cream and bitter chocolate, it's the most complex of the three, but everything can be made in advance, then it's just a case of plating up after the main course.
Stevie Parle is chef/owner of Dock Kitchen, Rotorino and Craft London (stevieparle.com, @stevieparle)
Super-fast one-bowl chocolate, rye and almond cake
This is brilliantly easy. It's best made the day before so you can leave it only just cooked, giving it time to set by itself. It's excellent without the extra chocolate on top; but with, it feels pretty special. Dust with some edible gold if you're feeling really fancy.
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 20 mins
Serves 8-12
200g best dark chocolate
200g salted butter
100g light brown caster sugar
4 large eggs
2 tbsp ground almonds
2 tbsp rye flour
2 tbsp amaretto
For the ganache
225g chocolate
125g cream
Knob butter
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grease the base and sides of a 23cm round cake tin with butter and line with baking paper.
Melt the chocolate and butter in a large wide glass or metal bowl over (but not touching) a pan of simmering water. When melted, stir and leave for a few minutes to cool slightly. Stir in the sugar and then the eggs, one by one. Next, add the remaining ingredients and stir until everything is nicely incorporated. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 15 minutes until the cake is still a little wobbly in the middle but you can pull the edges away from the sides. Allow to cool in the tin.
Once the cake is completely cool, make the ganache. Melt the chocolate, cream and butter in a bowl over simmering water. Mix well and remove from the heat then leave a few minutes until quite thick but still pourable. Pour over the cake.
Red-wine pear, thick cream and orange curd and meringue crisp
If you're short of time, shop-bought curd and meringue from a packet, while not as delicious or pretty, would still be seriously tasty. All the elements can be made a day or more in advance; keep it all in the fridge except the meringue. The curd is all the better with marmalade oranges, but it's rare to see a Seville before January. This recipe makes a little more curd than you need, but of course it is delicious on toast.
Preparation: 30 mins
Cooking: 40 mins
Serves 4
1 bottle of cheap but good red wine
200g light brown caster sugar
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
4 pears, peeled, cored and quartered
For the orange curd
100g butter
Juice and zest 3 oranges
Juice and zest 1 lemon
3 whole large eggs
1 egg yolk
150g sugar
For the meringue
75g egg white
1 tsp cornflour
80g icing sugar
To serve
150ml very thick Jersey or clotted cream
A few redcurrants if you have them
Preheat the oven to 140C. Start with the meringue. Whisk the egg whites, cornflour and icing sugar together until stiff peaks form. On a non-stick baking sheet, spread the meringue out into two 2mm-thick sheets. Bake for about half an hour until completely crisp. Leave to cool and store in a box until you're ready to use.
Now for the pears. Bring the bottle of wine to the boil in a medium-sized casserole-type pan, add the sugar, spices and then the pears. Simmer the quarters of pear for 5 to 10 minutes until soft but not falling apart. Pour off half the wine syrup and keep to one side, then decant the pears into a container with the remaining liquid to cool. Reduce the poured-off syrup back in the pan for about 5 minutes over a medium heat to a thick syrup.
To make the curd, put the butter, juices and zests in a pan and heat until the butter has just melted. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar just to break them up and then pour the warm orange syrup over the egg and sugar mixture. Return the whole lot to the pan and, stirring with the whisk, heat gently until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Quickly remove from the pan into a bowl, stirring all the time as you do. Set aside to cool. If it's a bit lumpy (easy to do, too quick a heat or too slow a whisk), just push it through a sieve.
This dessert is nice if you plate it as you might in a restaurant. First, put a blob of cream on the plate then a blob of curd, and spread them around with the back of a spoon. Spoon a few pieces of pear on top, then break a couple of meringue crisps over the top. Finish with a drizzle of wine syrup and a sprinkling of redcurrants.
Baked nutmeg and spelt pudding with whisky prunes
This is sometimes on the menu at Craft London in a slightly more complex incarnation.
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 2 hours
Serves 4
60g butter
70g golden caster sugar
100g spelt
1 piece mace
½ vanilla pod, split
300ml double cream
375ml whole milk
½ nutmeg, grated
For the prunes
8 large juicy prunes, such as Agen
150ml cheap but good whisky
Heat the oven to 140C. Melt the butter and sugar in a pan over a low heat, but don't allow it to colour. Add the spelt, mace and vanilla, and mix. Add the cream, three-quarters of the milk and the nutmeg. Bring to the boil gently while continuously stirring. Ensure all the spelt is distributed evenly through the pan. As the liquid begins to boil, a layer of scum will begin to form – do not remove this, as it will form the delicious skin during cooking.
When it's boiling, carefully pour the mix into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Stir in the remainder of the milk. Cook on the lowest shelf of the oven, under a loose covering of foil, for 30 minutes, then lower the oven to 120C and cook for a further 1½ hours.
The pudding is cooked when it no longer appears liquid, but thick and creamy. If the skin is not deep brown, pop the dish under the grill and gently colour and crisp the skin. Rest somewhere warm.
If the prunes are really dried out, steep them in tea first until soft. Then push out the stones and pour over the whisky. Allow to rest overnight. Serve on top of the pudding.
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