Cosy up with Angela Hartnett's traditional puddings

I don’t have the sweetest tooth, but I love old-fashioned desserts like Eve’s pudding or Queen of Puddings. My mum is a great pudding maker: I grew up with her home-made apple pie and mince pies made with shortcrust pastry, not sweet pastry. And my grandmother used to serve zabaglione, which is a classic Italian dessert of eggs, sugar and a dash of alcohol whipped together.

A great steamed pudding served with warm custard is evocative of cosying up in the colder months. People always think of puddings as stodgy, but for me, they should be light and fluffy.

Steam your treacle pudding in a steamer if you’ve got one, with the steamer pan on top of the water. And if you haven’t got a steamer, use ramekins. Make sure there’s constant steam, as you don’t want it to dry out.

You can’t just make a pudding sweet and rich and hope for the best. One of my constant refrains when I do a dessert tasting with my staff is: less sugar, less sugar. In certain desserts you need the sugar for balance and as a setting agent, but not in the same way as gelatin or agar. You can always take a little bit away: when following recipes, I tend to cut it down by 10 to 20 grams, just in case.

The poached pear and ricotta recipe here was passed on to me by Luke Holder (the chef at Hartnett Holder & Co at Lime Wood in the New Forest). It’s simple, but delicious, with a slight ­savouriness and acidity from the cheese. It can be adapted with seasonal fruits, and sprinkled with almonds or nuts. A classic Italian alternative is to poach the pears in red wine and serve with gorgonzola.

Profiteroles are another childhood favourite, and the trick is to make sure they’re not too soggy. You don’t want them crispy (it’s not toast) and there should be a slight softness, but you need some texture, especially if you’re pairing them with hot chocolate sauce and ice cream.

If you can get hold of it, Pump Street Chocolate down in Orford, Suffolk, make a brilliant Jamaican chocolate with honeyed rum. They source their cocoa beans ethically and, as well as chocolate bars, they do phenomenal cooking chocolate.

Profiteroles with chocolate sauce

SERVES

Six to eight

INGREDIENTS

For the profiteroles

• 65g strong plain flour

• 1 tsp caster sugar

• Pinch of salt

• 50g butter

• 150ml water

• 2 large eggs, beaten

• Vanilla ice cream, to serve

For the chocolate sauce

• 250ml milk

• 25g cocoa powder

• 40g caster sugar

• 35ml double cream

• 185g 70 per cent chocolate, chopped

METHOD

1. To make the profiteroles, preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/Gas 7.

2. Sift the flour, caster sugar and salt carefully on to a large sheet of parchment paper – this will allow you to roll up the paper and shoot the flour quickly into the butter mixture when it’s ready.

3. Put the butter and water in a saucepan and heat until the butter melts, continuing until it starts to boil – when it does, remove from the heat and use the paper like a slide to add the flour to the pan.

4. Beat immediately and return to a gentle heat to cook out the mixture (the roux) until it comes away from the sides of the pan.

5. At this point remove from the heat and add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition.

6. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Place teaspoonfuls of the mixture on to the lined tray, leaving a good 2cm gap between each dollop.

7. Bake in the oven until they start to rise – about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, pierce the undersides so they don’t collapse and place back in the oven for another three to four minutes to crisp up.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

9. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Heat the milk with the cocoa powder, sugar and cream until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and pour this over the chocolate in a large bowl. Mix well to melt the chocolate, then pour through a sieve to strain.

10. Leave to cool to room temperature.

11. To serve, slice each profiterole in half and fill with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Pour over the chocolate sauce.

Steamed treacle pudding

This is the best recipe – everything just needs to be blitzed together.

SERVES

Six

INGREDIENTS

• 180g softened butter, plus extra for greasing the basin and paper

• 3 tbsp golden syrup

• 180g self raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 large tbsp black treacle

• 180g soft brown sugar

• 3 large eggs

• Custard or cream to serve

METHOD

1. Generously butter a one-litre pudding basin.

2. Add three tablespoons of golden syrup to the bottom of the basin and leave to one side.

3. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl then add the black treacle, brown sugar and eggs and whisk with a hand blender until you have a smooth, even mixture.

4. Spoon the mixture into the pudding basin and level it out then cover with a circle of buttered parchment paper sitting directly on the mixture.

5. Now cut out a large square of foil and one of parchment paper and place the paper on top of the foil. Make a fold in both across the middle – the pieces need to be large enough to cover the top of the basin with at least 2.5cm overhang around the edge.

6. Place this over the basin, foil facing down, and tie with string twice around the rim and then over the top of the basin to form a little handle (you will need to borrow someone’s finger to help with this!).

7. Set the bowl on a couple of upside-down ramekins in a large saucepan and fill the pan with water to just below the tops of the ramekins. Place on a low-medium heat and steam for two hours, but make sure you check the water levels – you don’t want the pan drying out.

8. Take the basin out of the pan. To remove the pudding, run a knife around the edge and tip it out on to a serving plate

9. Serve with custard or cream.

Poached pears

SERVES

Five

INGREDIENTS

For the stock syrup

• 500ml water

• 300g caster sugar

• Juice of ½ lemon

• 1 wide strip lemon zest

• 1 wide strip orange zest

• 1 star anise

• 2.5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled

For the pears

• 5 William or conference pears

• 400g ricotta (I use Westcombe’s, made in Somerset)

• 175g mascarpone

• 100g icing sugar

• Grated zest of ½ lemon

• 50g toasted hazelnuts, skins rubbed off, roughly chopped

METHOD

1. Put all the ingredients for the stock syrup into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

2. Reduce to a simmer and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and allow to infuse while it cools. This can be kept in the fridge until you need it.

3. Peel and carefully core each pear, leaving them whole and ideally with the stalks on. Lay them in a pan, along with the stock syrup.

4. Cover with a circle of parchment paper and sit a plate (smaller than the circumference of the pan) on top – this keeps the pears in the syrup while they cook.

5. Bring to the boil then turn down to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, or a little less if the pears are really ripe – check them with the tip of a knife. Remove from the heat and allow to cool in the syrup.

6. Beat the ricotta a little just to loosen, then mix in the mascarpone and icing sugar, beating to a smooth silky texture. Mix in the lemon zest.

7. To serve, spread the ricotta on five plates. Sit a pear in each one, with a touch of the cooking liquid. Finish with the chopped hazelnuts.

Classic trifle with poached pears

SERVES

Six to eight

INGREDIENTS

• 6 ready-made trifle sponges or savoiardi biscuits

• 4 poached pears, made to the poaching recipe above, sliced

• 200ml sherry, dry ideally

• 300ml vanilla custard, home-made ideally

• 300ml double cream

• Caster sugar, to taste

• 50g flaked almonds, toasted

METHOD

1. Line the base of a large (ideally see-through) bowl with the sponge fingers or biscuits.

2. Top with a layer of pears to cover then sprinkle over the sherry to soak through both layers. Pour the custard over the pears.

3. Whip the cream with a touch of sugar to taste, until you have medium to firm peaks.

4. Pipe or spoon the cream over the trifle then use a fork to whip up the surface of the cream into peaks. Scatter with the almonds to finish.

5. Serve immediately or leave in the fridge until ready to serve.