How the Full English Breakfast became a national institution

A hangover cure, fuel for hard labour, and an indulgence on the weekend – the full English breakfast is so ingrained in British culture it’s hard to imagine life without it.

But there was, of course, a time before it was the nation’s go-to comfort food.

A plate piled with sausage, egg, bacon, beans, black pudding, hash browns, fried tomatoes and mushrooms is associated with builders in greasy spoon cafes and up-market brunch spots. However, that image is only a very recent one, food historian Professor Rebecca Earle of Warwick University told The Independent.

In the 17th century, the items which make up the traditional fry-up were only eaten by the upper and upper-middle classes, such as bankers. In wealthy Victorian houses, enormous buffet-style breakfasts would also include kedgeree, pork or lamb chops, friend mushrooms, and bread.

As meat was expensive, the rest of the population would eat bread and butter for breakfast, with cheap jam containing little fruit.

“Working men could not afford to eat in a restaurant in general in the Victorian era, and in the early 20th century bacon and eggs might be eaten as a special weekend dish, and even then not necessarily by everyone in the family," said Professor Earle.

The dish appeared in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management in 1861, but it was not until around 100 years later that the ingredients were cheap enough to make the meal available to the masses.

“The greasy spoon is itself a post-war development. A fry-up requires cheap food, which arrived in the 1950s. Tinned beans, for instance, were a costly import before WWII.”

But nowadays, Professor Earle argues, tourists are more likely to eat the full English than Brits, as research shows only 5 per cent of the population eats a fry up for breakfast.

In the future, Professor Earle predicts a far healthier trend: “Because of our current fascination with porridge perhaps we will renew our appreciation for the filling, sustainable and tasty grain puddings and pottages that have fuelled working people all over the world for millennia."

Thanksgiving 2016: Classic recipes for the American holiday

Our friends on the other side of the pond are celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday, and with Christmas just weeks away these recipes will give the perfect trial run for the festive feast.

Roast chicken with crème fraîche, new potatoes and watercress 

Serves 6

My love of roast chicken is well documented. It’s such a clever, versatile and crowd-pleasing thing. Moist, sweet, salty and delicious, there are few things that deliver as much joy. This is a one-pot wonder. Into the oven it goes, leaving you free to do all those early evening chores: help with the homework, bath the children, clean up the play room, sort out the dog etc, before dinner and that vat of wine.

1 large chicken, about 1.5kg 
200g crème fraîche 
½ lemon 
4 tsp vegetable oil 
500g new potatoes 
100g watercress 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oven to 200C. Season the inside of the chicken with salt and pepper, then spoon the crème fraîche into the cavity. Plug the end of the chicken with the lemon half. Rub the chicken with some of the oil, season well and then place in a roasting tin, breast up.

Roll the potatoes in the remaining oil and then scatter around the chicken. Place the chicken in the oven and roast for 1 hour 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Leave it. Pick the largest stems off the watercress and put the lot into a large bowl filled with cold water. Push the watercress under the water and place the bowl in the fridge. The clean watercress will float to the top while all the dirt will sink to the bottom.

Take the chicken out of the oven. Pour the crème fraîche out of the chicken over the potatoes in the tin, then turn the chicken upside down onto a board and leave it to sit for 10 minutes so that all the juices flow back into the breast. It will be done. Meanwhile, place the tin over a medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring the potatoes around the tin so all the lovely sticky bits come off the sides of the tin and make the sauce. Take it off the heat.

Lift the watercress out of the bowl and shake off the excess water. Put the chicken and potatoes onto a large platter, scatter over the watercress and pour yourself a congratulatory vat of wine.

Tip: Mix in root vegetables like turnips and parsnips. Add a spoonful of mustard for a bit of spice in the crème fraîche.

Berry and mascarpone tarts 

These simple little tarts are just a joy. Buttery, sweet, soft and comforting – what more could you want? The key to their success is the combination of sharp yet sweet fruit and a whipped cream filling, and not being too precious about how they look. The pastry can be a bit wonky but the soft fruit is so pretty it doesn’t matter.

Makes 12

For the pastry

500g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 
Pinch of salt 
250g softened butter, cubed 
150g icing sugar, sifted 
4 egg yolks 
50ml water 

For the filling

300g mascarpone 
120ml double cream 
50g caster sugar 
1 vanilla pod, slit lengthways and seeds scraped out 
2 small punnets of berries (raspberries and blackberries – or whatever is in season), washed 
1 tin of cherries in syrup, drained (200g)
You will need one 12-hole jam tart tin and a fluted cutter

Heat the oven to 200C. Sift the flour and salt onto a worktop. Make a well in the centre, add the butter and icing sugar and gently work them together with your fingertips. Add the egg yolks and gradually draw in the flour, adding drops of the water as you go, until a dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

On a lightly floured worktop, roll out the pastry and use a fluted cutter to cut out circles large enough to line the cups of the 12-hole jam tart tin (the cutter should be just a bit bigger than the size of a hole – normally about 6cm). Bake in the oven for 10–12 minutes – they’ll puff up in the centre. Take the tin out of the oven and push the centre down with a piece of baking paper, then put them back in the oven and bake for a further 5 minutes to cook the pastry completely. Turn the pastry cases out of their tins onto a wire rack and leave to cool.

Once the cooling process is complete, fill and top the tarts. Beat the mascarpone with the cream, sugar and vanilla seeds until fluffy. Spoon some of the filling into each tart and top with berries and cherries.

Ian Cumming’s Merry Berry Steam Pudding

150ml Belvoir Blackcurrant & Blueberry Cordial
150g cranberries (fresh or frozen but if frozen defrost first)
120g honey
120g unsalted butter
120g light brown sugar
Generous pinch of salt
2 large eggs
120g self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
75g blueberries
1 tbsp milk

Put the cranberries and cordial in a fairly large saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Simmer for a few minutes until the cranberries have softened and quite a bit of the liquid has boiled away. Add the honey and mix it in. Butter a 1.2 litre pudding basin. Pour the berry and honey mixture into the basin. Beat the butter, sugar and salt until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly between each one. Sieve in the flour and the mixed spice and gently fold it in. Carefully fold in the milk and then finally the blueberries. Pour this on top of the berry mixture in the basin.

Fill a large pan with enough water to come half way up the side of the pudding bowl. Bring to the boil. Meanwhile, take a large piece of baking parchment, put a pleat in it and put it over the pudding. Then take a piece of tin foil, put a pleat in that and put that over the parchment. Tie some string around the rim and then use some extra string to make a handle in order to lift the pudding into the pan of boiling water.

Boil for 2 hours, occasionally checking that there is sufficient water in the pan. Use the string handle to remove the pudding from the pan. Snip off the string and remove the foil and parchment. Place a plate on top and carefully invert it all. Serve immediately with custard, cream or ice cream.

Spuntino: New York Comfort Food From Eggplant Chips To Fennel Pizzetta

Restaurateur Russell Norman had fallen in love with new York before he even visited it. But what he found when he did first visit in 1999, was that most of the so-called American food was in fact Italian, from meatballs, to pizza and macaroni cheese.

Inspired by what he found in New York, across the pond back home, he opened a restaurant named Spuntino – Italian for snack – in London’s Soho area serving up his beloved American dishes in a similarly seedy area to New York’s East Village.

The book is made up of 120 recipes of those snack type dishes made up of luscious meats and the vibrant salads he found and recreated in his small restaurant.

Mozzarella & Cavolo Nero Crostini

When it is in season, cavolo nero is one of my hero ingredients. Its deep, dark green colour and its long crinkled leaves are incredibly glamorous, and it is surprisingly versatile. Florence Knight, one of my favourite chefs, picks the smallest, most delicate raw leaves and tosses them in a delightful anchovy dressing with bread fried in butter. Delicious. This recipe specifies a swift blanch; you really mustn’t overcook the cavolo nero, otherwise it loses much of its flavour and many of its nutrients too.

Makes 4

1 bunch of cavolo nero, about 200g, stems removed
3 garlic cloves
Good handful of grated Parmesan, about 20g
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
8 slices of ciabatta
2 x 125g balls of buffalo mozzarella, at room temperature

Place a pan of salted water over a high heat. Cut the cavolo nero into 2cm strips. Once the water has come to the boil, add the cavolo nero and, when the water comes back to the boil, blanch for 2 minutes. Drain and, when cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess liquid. Transfer the cavolo nero to the small bowl of a food processor. Add two of the garlic cloves, the Parmesan and some salt and pepper, and whizz to a purée. With the motor still going slowly add 100ml of the olive oil, then transfer to a mixing bowl and fold in the lemon juice.

Now place a heavy-based griddle pan over a medium heat. Lightly coat the sliced bread with a few brushes of olive oil and grill on both sides until lightly charred. Halve the remaining garlic clove and rub over the hot grilled bread. Top with broken-up pieces of mozzarella and a generous amount of the cavolo nero purée. Serve immediately.

Fennel Salami, Caper & Chilli Pizzetta

Fennel salami (or finocchiona) is one of my favourite sausages and one that is much celebrated in Tuscany, from where it comes. Dry-cured lean pork shoulder and fatty pork cheek, spiced with fennel, then aged for up to a year, are the secrets to this fantastically flavoursome salami. Cooking it makes it even tastier. I find the best capers for this pizzetta are the very dainty Sicilian variety.

For one pizzetta:

1 pizzetta base
1 tablespoon basic tomato sauce or tomato passata
25g grated block mozzarella – the hard, cheap kind
4 slices of fennel salami (finocchiona)
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon capers
½ teaspoon chilli flakes

Preheat your oven on its highest setting. If you are using a pizza stone (which I highly recommend), allow 15 minutes for it to get really hot. (An alternative is a good metal baking sheet.) The temperature should be at least 240-250ºC, which is Gas 9 or over, but get it higher if you can.

Onto your pizzetta base, gently spoon a thin layer of tomato sauce (or passata), then sprinkle over the grated mozzarella. Place the slices of finocchiona on top. Scatter over the grated Parmesan, capers and chilli. Cook on the pizza stone in your preheated oven for about 6-10 minutes (depending on how hot your oven can go) or until the edges start to bubble and burn.

Eggplant Chips with Fennel Yoghurt

This has been on the menu at Spuntino since day one and is a much-requested recipe. For me, it’s a dish about contrasts. The hot eggplant chips versus the cool yoghurt. The crunchy sesame coating versus the soft centre. The smoky flavour of the eggplant versus the aniseed tang of the fennel. You can have fun with the presentation of this dish too, by using a shot glass for the fennel yoghurt and then stacking the chips around or to the side.

Makes 6-8

2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 eggplants (aka aubergines)
100g plain flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
3-4 medium eggs
150g panko breadcrumbs
2 teaspoons sesame seeds
1 litre vegetable oil, for deep frying

For the fennel yoghurt

1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
125g mayonnaise
200g plain Greek-style yoghurt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Large pinch of flaky sea salt
Pinch of black pepper

First of all, toast the coriander and fennel seeds for both the aubergine and the yoghurt. Put them all – 3 teaspoons of each – in a non-stick frying pan and dry fry over a medium heat for a few minutes, until you can smell their spiciness. Do keep an eye on them, as they can easily burn. Remove from the heat, then grind in a pestle and mortar.

Now make the fennel yoghurt. Take 2 teaspoons of the ground seeds and combine with the rest of the fennel yoghurt ingredients. Put it in the fridge. Cut the eggplant into thick 10cm-long chips.

Now take three bowls. Mix the flour, salt and pepper in the first. In the second bowl, beat the eggs. Mix together the breadcrumbs, the remaining ground coriander and fennel seeds and the sesame seeds in the third bowl. Dip the eggplant chips in the flour, coating well, shake off any excess and then place in the egg wash, shaking off any drips, and then coat well with the breadcrumbs. Set aside at room temperature, not in the fridge, if not cooking straightaway.

Heat the vegetable oil in a medium pan to 190ºC (or until a cube of bread dropped in the oil turns golden brown in less than a minute). Now fry the coated eggplant chips, in batches, for 2–3 minutes or until golden brown. Lift out, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with a little salt. Serve hot with the chilled fennel yoghurt.

Caribbean Rum Cocktail Recipes

Mai Tai

35ml Appleton Estate Signature Blend rum
12.5ml orange curacao
12.5ml orgeat almond syrup
25ml fresh lime juice

Shake and strain



Cool Running

50ml Appleton Estate Signature Blend rum
25ml tamarind & ginger syrup 
25ml fresh lime Juice
2 spoons of creamed coconut 
fresh mint

Build over crushed ice

Dr No

50ml East London gin
12.5ml sorrel
50ml apple juice
Fresh cucumber

Shake and double strain

Jamaican Nice

25ml Appleton Estate Signature Blend rum
25ml Koko Kanu coconut rum
12.5ml fresh lime juice
12.5ml orgeat almond syrup
Fresh pineapple, strawberry, or any fresh seasonal fruit

Mix all the ingredient with ice cubes in a blender

Kurrito Korean Recipes: From Arancini Balls To Lettuce Beef Wraps

South Korean born Joo Lee has grown up with Korean food, long before it started becoming one of the fastest growing food trends in the UK. Lamenting the lack of Korean food options in the capital, Joo took a sabbatical from her city job and launched the street food venture KORRITO with her brother, which has seen her share her passion for the seductive flavours and ingredients of Korean street food.

Street food is synonymous with summer days and evenings and as the weather changes, so does our appetite. KORRITO offers a modern take on authentic Korean BBQ served in vibrant salad boxes, hearty rice bowls and decadent wraps – perfect for trying something new as the weather gets warmer. This summer Joo Lee has created three recipes for Hellmann’s and Maille that can be easily prepared and eaten at lunch time.

Korean Honey Mustard Salad Bowl

Serving meals in a bowl is the latest trend to hit Instagram and this colourful healthy summer salad won’t let your Insta followers down. Working with Maille, Korean BBQ street food experts Korrito has created a crisp, sweet and refreshing dish that screams to be shared.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: None
Salad ingredients

1 cucumber, julienned
1 Korean/regular pear, cut into matchsticks
2 medium carrots, julienned
2 radishes, thinly sliced
Handful of toasted pine nuts
1 pack of firm tofu (approx. 350g)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil for frying the tofu

Dressing ingredients

1 tablespoon Maille honey mustard
1 tablespoon runny honey
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon mirin or sweet rice wine
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Start off by preparing your vegetables. Use a julienne peeler to shred the cucumber and carrots into thin strips. Peel the Korean pear and cut into matchsticks, thinly slice the radishes. Mix Maille honey mustard, mirin, rice vinegar, water and honey together until combined. Drizzle the sesame oil in last and mix. Remove tofu from the packaging and pat dry. Slice the tofu into bite size pieces. Heat two tablespoons of oil, add the tofu and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes until golden brown all over. Toss the vegetables in a large bowl with the dressing. Top with the tofu and scatter over the pine nuts.  Serve with a additional honey mustard dressing.

Tip: Add crab meat or shredded roast chicken for an alternative option.

Korean Lettuce Beef Wraps with Kimchi Slaw

Take inspiration from Korean traditions when you fire up the barbecue this year with barbecue beef wraps. Korean BBQ street food expert Korrito has worked with Hellmann’s to recreate a delicious dish that is central to Korean summer time celebrations.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 25 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

Bulgogi beef ingredients

500g thinly-sliced beef steak
½ Korean/ regular pea
r½ medium white onion
2 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon black pepper

Kimchi slaw

½ green cabbage, shredded
2 medium carrots, julienned
3 bunches of spring onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup chili flakes
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced root ginger
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2/3 cup (70ml) Hellman’s with Olive Oil
Lettuce wraps
Round butter lettuce

Garnish

Watercress
Sliced radish
Spring onion
Sesame seeds

Combine the pear, white onion, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil garlic, black pepper and whiz up the Bulgogi marinade in a blender. Pour over the beef and make sure all the meat is covered evenly. If you can, try to make this the night before and store in the fridge until you are ready to light that BBQ.

In a large bowl combine the chili flakes, garlic, ginger, fish sauce and sugar. Then fold in Hellman’s with Olive Oil to create the creamy kimchi flavoured dressing for your slaw. Combine the cabbage, carrot and spring onion with the kimchi flavoured mayonnaise dressing and place in a serving bowl.

Preheat the BBQ grill and lightly oil, cook the beef on the hot grill for about 1 minute each side. Top each lettuce leaf with the kimchi slaw, beef and garnish with watercress, thinly sliced radish, spring onion and sesame seeds. The challenge is to devour the whole leaf and contents in one mouthful.

Kimchi Arancini Balls with Korean Style Aioli

Street food is synonymous with summer days and evenings and Korean continues to be big this year. Korean BBQ street food expert, Korrito, has created a summer dish with Hellmann’s that is Korean fusion at its best. A great recipe for trying something new as the weather gets warmer.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins

2 cups Asian style sticky rice (300g)
2 cups ripe kimchi finely chopped (OR mix finely chopped blanched chinese cabbage with kimchi paste and salt)
1 tablespoon soy sauce2 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoon grated Parmesan
2 eggs beaten
1 cup panko breadcrumbs (75g)
4 cups vegetable oil for frying

Korean-style aioli

¼ cup Hellmann’s with Olive Oil (55g)
1 tablespoon Gochujang paste (OR mix miso paste, chilli flakes, mirin and sugar)
Juice of 1/4 lime
½ teaspoon minced garlic

Cook 2 cups of sticky rice in a pot or rice cooker, the ratio of water to rice should be 1:1. Remove the kimchi from the packaging and finely chop. Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in a large pan, sauté the kimchi until fragrant. Add the cooked rice, soy sauce, remaining sesame oil and a tablespoon of the beaten egg mixture. Mix in the Parmesan.

Remove from heat and let the rice cool. While the rice cools, combine the mayonnaise, Gochujang paste, lime juice and garlic to make the aioli. Once the rice is cool enough to handle, roll a handful of rice into bite sized balls. Dip the balls into the egg mix and cover with panko bread crumbs. Heat the oil to 180 °C. Fry the balls until golden brown about 2 mins.

Cookbook Confidential: Be brave, chilli and spice make all things nice

Cyrus Todiwala has an actual spice box – a large wooden case that is packed with glass jars and plastic containers of more spices than most of us knew existed. When he talks about a spice he beams like a proud father, clearly besotted with his child. So how did Cyrus – chef, restaurateur and spice expert – manage to choose only a few for his new book Mr Todiwala’s Spice Box: 120 recipes from just 10 spices?

Perhaps the real question is why. Cyrus says he wants to show that you don’t need a cupboard stacked to the rafters with hundreds of different spices in order to create fantastic food. So he’s chosen 10 spices that are versatile and readily available. I think he also sneakily knows that the more spice we use, the more we’ll fall under its spell.

Of course, this begs the question of why we’re not spicing up our cooking already. One reason he says, is that we tend to think of spice and spicy as the same thing. Red chilli is one of his 10 chosen spices but it’s joined by other more aromatic spices such as cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and cumin that aren’t hot at all.

The second reason he says is fear – fear that we won’t get the marriage right between different spices, that we’ll use too much (or little) or simply get it wrong. So in Spice Box, he’s distilled years of experience in the kitchen and at the table to guide even the most spice shy.

It helps that the recipes are supremely "doable" with techniques that are well-laid out and explained. And in a dish like his deep-fried squid with coriander, mint and basil dip, he includes optional extras like his chilli seasoning which you can include or leave out as time and inclination permits.

It’s not just traditional savoury dishes that get the Cyrus spice treatment either. There is a stunning spiced pecan pie with the addition of ground cinnamon to the pecan mix as well as cloves to the pastry that is revelatory. When the recipe note says “serves 8 people or 6 greedy people” I put myself squarely in the latter camp.

As you’d expect, there are many recipes with echoes of Cyrus’ native India such as grilled saffron prawns with a carrot and coconut salad or the ultimate one-pot dish, Chicken biryani. But others like Oriental fish parcels or Brined belly of pork with cashew nuts & spinach stray further afield and demonstrate how spice can transform almost any recipe.

Along the way, Cyrus includes stories about the spices, revealing an encyclopaedic knowledge that he is eager to share. For example, I learned that turmeric kills bacteria, is an excellent coagulant, and can even be used as an emergency repair on a ruptured car radiator. Who knew? As I tuck into his shinanio mussels and clams with coconut with its brilliant turmeric-infused broth I can’t help but feel a bit smug and definitely a lot more spice savvy.

Shinanio Ani Tisreo Naarl Ghalun - Shinanio mussels and clams with coconut

Being plentiful and relatively cheap, mussels and clams are very popular around the world, not least in Goa. Here we have cooked them whole, to be scooped out at the table, but you could half-shell them if you wish. In Goa during the mango season, the empty half-shells are dumped under ready-to-pick mango trees, where they attract all the large red bully ants, leaving the pickers to do their work unhampered. The marinade below contains turmeric because it kills bacteria, and is an excellent coagulant, preventing the seafood from releasing too much liquid. In fact, turmeric is miraculous stuff. Serve this dish on its own or with some plain rice and plain curry (by which I mean a simple curry containing no meat or vegetables).

Serves four as a starter

16 large mussels, whole or on the half-shell
32 large clams, whole or on the half-shell
Juice from half a lime
 ½tsp ground turmeric
2tbsps extra virgin rapeseed oil
12-15 curry leaves, preferably fresh, shredded; if using dried, soak in water for 10–12 minutes, and dry thoroughly before shredding
2 dried red chillies broken into small pieces
½tsp cumin seeds
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 onions, finely chopped
Freshly grated coconut from half coconut, or 250g (9oz) frozen, defrosted before use
2tbsps chopped fresh coriander
Salt

Wash and scrub the mussels and clams, pulling away any beards from the mussels. Drain. Tip into a bowl, add the lime juice, turmeric and some salt and toss well. Pour 1 tablespoon of the oil into a frying pan and heat until hazy. Add the curry leaves, red chillies and cumin seeds and stir until their fragrance is released. Add the garlic and fry for one minute, then add the onions and cook until soft and pale.

Stir in the coconut and cook for about five minutes, scraping the pan often, as it sticks easily. Heat the remaining oil in a separate large frying pan. When smoking hot, add the mussels and clams, reserving the juices. Fry briskly for three to four minutes, or until all the shells have opened if using whole shellfish (discard anythat remain closed), stirring or tossing occasionally so that all the shellfish come into contact with the heat, but do not overcook. (For a lovely variation, fry some black mustard seeds in the oil before cooking the seafood.)

Stir the reserved juices into the coconut mixture, then add the cooked shellfish and coriander and stir again. Taste and adjust the salt if necessary. Serve the dish straight away. It’s easiest to eat the shellfish with your fingers, which is messy but quite an experience.

Desserts To Die For: Vacherin And White Chocolate Cheesecake Recipes

Hello to all my lovely readers! Today’s book is all about desserts, so I thought I would take you on a tour of Italian sweets. Aside from tiramisu and gelato, three of my favourites are cannoli, sfogliatelle and strufolli. Cannoli are little fried rolls of dough filled with creamy sweet ricotta and the ends can be dipped in chocolate chips, pistachios or candied fruit.

Sfogliatelle are baked pastries made up of lots of thin layers and shaped a bit like a sea shell, also filled with a sweet ricotta cream. Strufolli are very small balls of dough which are deep fried, rolled in honey and topped with sugar sprinkles.

And now on to this week’s book, 100 Desserts To Die For by Trish Deseine. Former BBC TV cooking show host Trish has created a collection of desserts for all occasions. The vacherin and cheesecake are sure to impress any dinner party guest. Enjoy!

VACHERIN

3 egg whites
200g caster sugar
500g vanilla ice cream
500g raspberry or strawberry sorbet
250ml thin cream, well chilled
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese
50g icing sugar
1 tsp natural vanilla extract

SERVES: 8

PREPARATION: 30 MINUTES (plus 2 hours resting and 1 night freezing)

COOKING TIME: 1 HOUR 

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Beat the egg whites and 50g of the sugar to soft peaks in a mixing bowl using an electric beater, then add the rest of the sugar, little by little, until the meringue is firm and glossy.

On a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silicone mat, spread out the meringue to make 2 discs about 20cm in diameter. You can make the discs out of spirals of meringue using a piping bag.

Immediately lower the temperature of the oven to 100°C/200°F/Gas Mark ½) and bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and let the meringues cool for 2 hours with the oven door ajar.

Place one of the meringue discs in a high-sided 20cm round spring-form cake tin. Trim the edges if you need to so the disc fits inside the tin.

Spread a layer of vanilla ice cream on the first meringue disc, then a layer of raspberry or strawberry sorbet. Smooth the surface before placing the second disc of meringue on top, pressing down very lightly.

Using an electric beater, whip the cream with the mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla extract until light. Top the vacherin with the whipped cream. Place the vacherin in the freezer until the cream has set.

To unmould the vacherin, take it out of the freezer 20 minutes before serving and warm the surface of the tin with your hands. Serve the vacherin with fresh fruit, whipped cream and a raspberry or strawberry coulis on the side.

WHITE CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE

For the white chocolate cheesecake: 

350g digestive biscuits 
70g unsalted butter, melted
150ml thin cream
500g good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped
300g cream cheese
250g mascarpone  

For the syrup:

120g maple syrup
2-3 tbsp bourbon

SERVES: 8-10

PREPARATION: 30 MINUTES (plus 3 hours refrigeration time)

Make the cheesecake. Crush the biscuits in a small mixing bowl. Add the melted butter and combine, then cover the base of a tall round spring-form tin, about 25cm in diameter, with this mixture. Place it in the fridge.

Heat the cream in a saucepan, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it stand for 1 minute before gently stirring to melt the chocolate and make a smooth ganache. Place the ganache in a cool place and let it cool completely.

Once the ganache is quite cool, whip it with an electric beater until light, adding the cream cheese, then the mascarpone, once the cream has started to hold its shape. Beat together well.

Spread this mixture over the biscuit base and smooth the surface of the cheesecake.

Place in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Before serving, combine the maple syrup with the bourbon and serve this syrup alongside the cheesecake.