Serves: 4-6 - Time:
This is an extremely easy and rather boozy pudding -both Good Things in my book-loosely inspired by an Ottolenghi recipe. If you are really short of time you could ditch the crumble and crush a few ginger nuts over the syllabub, although the crumble can be made a couple of days in advance without any harm. Bonne Maman does a brilliant range of jarred fruit compotes- really useful for all sorts of things (see my No Churn Apricot and Cardamom Ice Cream). They are a larder essential in my house. I hadn’t realised quite how intoxicating cherry brandy is until I checked the volume of alcohol on the bottle after coming over slightly woozy after taste testing. I hadn’t had much lunch so I don’t recommend sampling this on an empty stomach but, even after a big meal, I would check if anyone is driving home-just to warn them. Cherry brandy has a whiff of cough mixture about it so restraint is key and if you want something less potent swap the cherry brandy for a sweet white wine.
Ingredients
- For the crumble
- 50g plain flour
- 25g ground almonds
- 55g unsalted butter, cold from the fridge and cut into small squares
- 30g demerara sugar
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- for the syllabub
- 150ml cherry brandy
- Juice of one lemon
- 75g icing sugar
- 400ml double cream
- 180g cherry compote (Bonne Maman make a good one)
Method
- For the crumble, heat the oven to fan 180°c , mark 6. Mix the flour and ground almonds together. Rub in the butter until no large lumps remain. Stir in the sugar, poppy seeds and ginger. Line a small baking tray with non-stick parchment and spread the crumble out in an even layer. Bake for 12-15 minutes until deep golden brown. Leave to cool then break up into large and small crumbs.
- Put the cherry brandy in a large mixing bowl and add the lemon juice and icing sugar. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. You can do this well in advance and leave in the fridge.
- Pour the double cream into the cherry brandy mix and whisk to floppy peaks.
- Drop a heaped tablespoon of the cherry compote into the base of a glass and top with a quarter or a sixth (depending on how many people you are serving). Scatter over some crumble and serve immediately.
