Crave: Brilliantly Indulgent Recipes

Small knob of butter

1 tbsp double cream

1 In a small bowl, mix together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and sugar. Beat together the egg, milk and yoghurt in a large jug, then pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir in the lemon juice, zest and poppy seeds.

2 Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add it to the pancake batter and mix until smooth.

3 When you’re ready to fry the pancakes, use an ice-cream scoop or simply transfer the batter back into the jug and pour roughly 8cm-diameter discs into the buttered frying pan. Try to make each pancake the same size, so they stack neatly on top of each other. Fry each pancake for about 1 minute on each side over a medium heat, waiting until the top of the pancake is bubbly but feels dry before turning it. Add a very small amount of butter between frying each one if the pancakes start to stick. Put the cooked pancakes on a baking tray in a low oven, covered with a sheet of tin foil, so you can serve all the pancakes warm at the same time.

4 While the pancakes are frying, make the lemon syrup. Place the caster sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan over a low heat and let it boil until the sugar dissolves. When the syrup is thick and bubbling, stir in the butter and double cream.

5 Stack the pancakes up on a plate, then pour the syrup over the top of the pancakes so it drips down the sides. Top with a little whipped cream or a spoonful of mascarpone cheese, then serve immediately.

EXPRESS

Make the pancake batter in advance and store it in the fridge, covered with a sheet of cling film. Fry the pancakes whenever you get a craving for something light, fluffy and citrusy! The batter will keep for up to 3 days.

Orange, pistachio and pomegranate cakes (#ulink_a448fd88-c88e-5326-adec-91f73a7f89f6)

Combining fruits with nuts in baking is a timeless, tried-and-tested combination that you can rarely go wrong with. I’ve added citrus to the mix in the form of partially caramelised juicy orange, which adds another dimension to the cakes. Glossy, colourful fruit sits proudly on top of a moist pistachio cake, and the syrup created from the fruit and sugar soaks into the sponge, making these cakes incredibly moreish.

MAKES 9 CAKES

PREP TIME: 20 MINS

COOKING TIME: 30–35 MINS

170g caster sugar

2 medium oranges

Seeds from

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pomegranate

75g unshelled pistachio nuts, shelled

125g butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

2 eggs

50g plain flour

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tsp baking powder

You will also need a 12-hole muffin tin.

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4 and grease the muffin tin with butter. Divide 45g of the caster sugar between 9 of the holes (a teaspoon/5g in each).

2 Use a sharp knife to cut the top and bottom off each orange, then slice off the skin, keeping as much of the flesh intact as possible. Slice the oranges into cross sections, then quarter each section and place two segments into each hole of the tin opposite each other, with the curved edge sitting against the sides. Fill the remaining quarters of each hole with a layer of pomegranate seeds. Bake the fruit in the oven for 10 minutes so they start to caramelise.

3 Blitz the pistachio nuts in a food processor until they resemble a fine powder. Cream together the butter and remaining sugar in a separate bowl until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour, baking powder and ground pistachios to the bowl and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth.

4 When the fruit has baked for 10 minutes, remove the tin from the oven. Divide the cake batter among each hole, spreading it right to the edges, and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the cakes are risen and a skewer inserted into the centre of one of the cakes comes out clean.

5 Leave the cakes to cool in the tin for a few minutes, then run a knife or palette knife around the edge of each cake to make them easier to remove, then turn the whole tray out upside down over a board. A bit of hot syrup might escape as you turn the tray, so be very careful. Serve the cakes hot, with a big scoop of ice-cream, or cold with a cup of hot coffee.

Grapefruit and white chocolate possets with shortbread (#ulink_2efee6cd-5014-59ce-9e08-9299731c5ec0)

The science behind posset is fascinating. When you add acidic lemon juice to milk, it curdles, but cream’s higher fat percentage limits its ability to follow suit. Instead, the acidified cream thickens and becomes silky and smooth. I add white chocolate to my posset as its creamy sweetness really lifts the sharp yet fragrant grapefruit to a new level.

MAKES 6 POSSETS AND 10–12 BISCUITS

PREP TIME: 15 MINS PLUS CHILLING

COOKING TIME: 20–22 MINS

500ml double cream

150g caster sugar

100g white chocolate, chopped

Juice of

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lemon

Grated zest and juice of 1 small unwaxed pink grapefruit

Icing sugar, white chocolate curls and grapefruit zest, to decorate

GRAPEFRUIT SHORTBREAD

115g plain flour

35g caster sugar

75g cold butter, cubed

Grated zest of 1 small unwaxed pink grapefruit

1 Pop 6 shallow glasses into the freezer to chill. You can use any style of glass for this recipe, but the deeper the glasses, the longer the posset will take to set.