James says: “Perfectly sweet, tart and nutty, a cobbler is a crowd-pleaser. Simply served with some cream or delicious vanilla custard, this dessert is the ideal finale to a Sunday roast.

“Any combination of fruit will generally work perfectly in this cobbler. If you use soft fruit, like currants or berries, then either reduce or skip the first bake. Likewise, hazelnuts also work well in the cobbler topping instead of walnuts.”

Serves 6

15 minutes prep, 1¼ hour bake

Ingredients

• 700g firm plums, stoned and roughly chopped
• 300g cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped
• 100g dried cranberries, cherries and raisins, or other dried berries of your choice
• 60g golden caster sugar
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 2 tablespoons raspberry liqueur, such as Chambord (optional)
• cream, custard or ice cream, to serve

For the cobbler topping:

• 150g plain flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 100g walnuts
• 70g caster sugar
• 150g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 egg
• demerara sugar, for the top

Method

Preheat the fan oven to 180°C/gas 6.

Combine all the ingredients for the fruit filling in a large baking dish and stir together until the fruit is well coated with the other ingredients. Bake, uncovered, for 30 minutes until the fruit has started to soften and the juices are bubbling.

Meanwhile, to make the topping, put the flour, baking powder, walnuts and sugar into a food processor and pulse until evenly combined.

Add the butter to the flour mixture and pulse until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg and continue to pulse until it comes together to make a thick, quite wet dough.

Remove the fruit from the oven and spoon dollops of the dough on top of the fruit mixture, creating a good covering, but leaving some gaps for the dough to spread into.

Sprinkle with a little demerara sugar and bake in the oven for 40 minutes until golden. Serve hot with cream, custard or ice cream. 

James says: “A galette is the dream dessert for any occasion. It is a real crowd-pleaser, 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.

“You can make use of any berries or orchard fruit you have in the freezer or that needs using up in this galette. You can easily swap out the hazelnuts for walnuts or even almonds in the pastry.”

Serves 6

5 minutes prep, plus 45 minutes chilling time

45 minutes cook

Ingredients

• 200g blackcurrants
• 200g blackberries
• 100g redcurrants
• 1–2 tablespoons redcurrant jelly
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon caster sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tablespoon demerara sugar

For the hazelnut pastry:

• 230g plain flour
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar
• pinch of sea salt
• 100g raw hazelnuts
• 100g cold salted butter, cubed
• 2 teaspoons cider vinegar
• 60ml cold water

Method

To make the pastry, put the flour, sugar, salt, hazelnuts and butter in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the vinegar and water and pulse again to bring the mixture into a rough dough. Tip out onto a clean surface and shape into a disc, then wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Once chilled, roll out the pastry between two sheets of baking parchment to form a 5mm thick circle, about 30cm in diameter. Transfer the pastry, on the bottom sheet of baking parchment, to a large baking sheet and refrigerate for 10–15 minutes, or until firm. Preheat the fan oven to 180°C/gas 6.

Meanwhile, mix together the blackcurrants, blackberries, redcurrants, redcurrant jelly, cornflour and sugar in a large bowl.

Once chilled, top the pastry with the berry mixture and fold over the edges, pressing lightly to seal. Brush with the beaten egg and sprinkle with demerara sugar. Bake in the oven for 40–45 minutes, or until the pastry is cooked through and golden.

James says: “This might be bold, but I really think this cheesecake could win any cheesecake competition! Every time I make it, it’s gone within minutes. Perfectly ripe pears are the key here, alongside the salty butterscotch, which, when combined, make for an ideal dessert (if it lasts until after dinner, that is!).”

Serves 8

40 minutes prep, plus at least 1 hour cooling time

Ingredients

• 250g ginger nut biscuits
• 70g salted butter, melted
• 350g cream cheese
• 3 tablespoons icing sugar
• 275ml double cream

For the butterscotch sauce:

• 50g unsalted butter
• 100g dark brown sugar
• 125ml double cream
• pinch of sea salt
• 2 Conference pears, peeled, cored and cut into bite-size pieces

Method

Blitz the biscuits in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs (alternatively, you could put them in a clear plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin to get the same effect).

Tip them into a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin, add the melted butter, mix well, then, using the back of a metal spoon, press the biscuit base firmly into the bottom of the tin.

Cover with kitchen foil and refrigerate while you make the other components.

To make the sauce, melt the butter, sugar, cream and salt in a saucepan over a low heat. Bring the mixture to the boil, then let it simmer for 5 minutes, to thicken nicely.

Add the pear pieces, remove from the heat, pour into a jug and leave to cool.

In a bowl, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together.

In a separate bowl, beat the cream until stiff peaks form – you want this to be pretty firm.

Fold the cream into the cream cheese mixture so they’re well combined. Pick out as many of the pear pieces as you can from the butterscotch sauce and add these to the cheesecake mixture – a bit of sauce will come with them, which is encouraged, but try not to bring too much as it will stop the cream cheese filling from setting.

Fold the butterscotch pears through the mixture and tip this onto the chilled biscuit base, smoothing with a spatula.

Cover with cling film and return to the refrigerator along with the jug of sauce. Leave to set for at least 1 hour; ideally 3–4 hours.

To serve, remove the cheesecake from the tin, slice and share between plates, encouraging guests to pour some sauce over the top.

From Orchard: Sweet And Savoury Recipes From The Countryside by James Rich (£22, Hardie Grant), out now