My sister-in-law Riette once made us a delicious South African dessert, which was very much like a steamed pudding even though it was baked in the oven. I then discovered this recipe in my Green & Black’s cookbook – another South African dish with that wonderful steamed pud texture to it, made ‘tipsy’ by the boozy syrup. I made it at Christmas as an alternative to the conventional pudding and in honour of Riette and her homeland! It’s best served with custard we think. The G&B book has its own twist (mainly just have got it into the book if you ask me – you could easily leave out the chocolate). I would never have though this kind of dish would come out of South Africa as I imagine it to be roasting hot all the time (obviously not true), but apparently they’re very into their hot dinners!

Batter:
1 tsp bicarbonate soda
240g dates, stoned (or 250g with stones), chopped
125ml/ 4fl oz boiling water
40g unsalted butter
200g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
25g preserved ginger, chopped
100g glace (yuk) or dried cherries – definitely dried!
40g walnuts, chopped (last time I used pecans)
50g dark chocolate, minimum 60 percent cocoa solids

Syrup:
75g granulated sugar
200ml water
salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
25g unsalted butter
60ml brandy or dark rum

Oven and 180 degrees, grease a 23cm flan or pie dish well with butter (needs to be quite deep).

Pat the bicarb over the dates and pour over the boiling water, stir and leave to cool. Cream the butter, sugar together and add the eggs, beat thoroughly. Sift together the flour, bp and salt and stir into the creamed mixture.
Add the date mixture, cherries and nuts. Spoon the mixture into the pie dish and bake for 35 minutes. Place the chocolate in the freezer. Prepare the syrup – you need to pour this over the tart as soon as you get it out of the oven. Boil all the ingredients for the syrup together for about 6 minutes until they form a syrup.
Remove the tart from the oven and prick the surface all over with a fork. Immediately pour over the syrup then grate the chocolate over the top. Delicious! Great with custard on a winter evening, or any time really.

This is another recipe from the Green & Blacks book. I’m always a little nervous about pastry and blind baking but this is a great recipe and it turned out well. The only issue was the oven temperature I think it needed to be higher than they recommend (of course all ovens vary) and so it baked for a little too long which dried the pears out a bit. I’ll know for next time though, it’s definitely one I’d make again, it looks impressive and tastes great but is less tricky than it appears.

Pastry:
250g plain flour
1 tsp salt
110g Unsalted b utter
2 large egg yolks
4-5 tbsp water

Filling:
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 large eggs
100g dark chocolate (minimum 60 % cocoa solids)
1 dsp finely chopped preserved ginger in syrup
25g plain flour
125g ground almonds
4 just ripe pears
apricot jam to glaze

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Make the pastry – sift the flour and salt in a large bowl, cut in the butter and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. In a small bowl whisk together the yolks and the cold water briefly then add to the mixture. Mix until they come together as a ball, wrap the dough in greaseproof paper and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes before rolling out to line you tin. Bake the pastry blind by covering it with greaseproof baber and filling with baking beans (dried kidney beans in my case) for about 15-20 minutes or until it’s a light golden colour. Remove the pastry and lower the heat to 160 (I may have only lowered it marginally at the stage, on reflection).

Make the filling – cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, beat the eggs and slowly add to the mix. Melt the chocolate over simmering water, allow to cool for a few minutes before adding to the mix with the ginger. Mix in the flour and almonds and leave to cool before spreading over the pastry base.

Halve, peel and core the pears. Slice into wedges and arrange in a fan shape on top of the chocolate mix, pressing lightly. Bake for around 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Brush with apricot jam while still hot.

I served it as they suggest with simple chocolate sauce – evil!
100g dark choc (as above)
125ml double or whipping cream
10g unsalted butter
Melt the chocolate with the cream in a heat-proof bowl over simmering water, stirring frequently. Once the chocolate has melted add the butter and serve warm… With everything!

aka White chocolate and strawberry tart
aka White chocolate and strawberry tart with a few strawberries for good measure.

This one was from a Good Housekeeping magazine. Fran loves white chocolate so it was a must for her birthday.

The case called for ground hazelnuts, but I used almonds. Made for a crumbly pastry that was hard to handle (hence slightly raggedly edge. Really must work on my pastry skills), but nice to eat.

The filling was white chocolate melted together with mascarpone, plus a bit of whipped cream. Yum. Seriously yum, if rich. But hey, rich + a bit of fruit is good right?

It was rather nice, but I stupidly forget to take the recipe.