Great British Food Christmas 2024

Recipes extracted from Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom by Prue Leith, published by Carnival. Photography by Ant Duncan freeze the “pudding” for at least 6 hours. 3. When it’s time to serve, unwrap the ice-cream pudding or loaf and either turn it out to serve in slices or scoop it from the tin. Croissant, Pear& ChocolateHazelnut Pudding This is a seriously good, luxury version of bread-and butter pudding, and it’s a great way to use up uneaten croissants. You canmake it with any leftover bread, but the richer ones, like brioche, panettone and croissant, get the best results. Serves: 4 Prepare: 15minutes Cook: 20minutes 15g/ 1/2oz butter, softened for greasing 4 large croissants, preferably a few days old 100g/31/2oz Nutella or other chocolate spread 1 x 400g/14oz can of pears, drained and sliced 60g/21/4oz/ 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted and chopped For the custard 3 large eggs 360ml/121/2fl oz/generous 11/2 cups double (heavy) cream 1 tsp vanilla extract 125g/41/2oz/scant 3/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar Apinch of sea salt 1. Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4 and lightly grease an approximately 20x28cm/8x111/4in baking dish with the butter. 2. Cut the croissants in half horizontally and spread one cut side each with Nutella or other chocolate spread. Use the remaining halves to create a sandwich. 3. Slice each croissant sandwich into 3 pieces and arrange the pieces in the baking dish. Tuck the sliced pears between the pieces. 4. In a bowl, whisk the custard ingredients together, then pour the mixture over the croissants and pears, ensuring they are fully immersed. Cover the dish with foil. 5. Bake the pudding for 20 minutes, then uncover and continue baking for an additional 10 minutes, until the top is golden and the custard is set. 6. Scatter over the hazelnuts and serve with cream or ice cream. Or both! “Few children like Christmas pudding, but I’ve nevermet one who didn’t like ice cream” Tips forsuccess: • Before you start, chill the cake or pud that you want to incorporate, and chill the big bowl you are going to mix it in and the small container you are going to freeze it in. • Line the smaller bowl or tin with cling film to help you unmould the ice cream later. • Use soft-scoop ice cream, so you can mix without having to melt the ice cream first. It’s better to have patches of plain ice cream than to beat all the air out of the mixture and end up with a rock-hard frozen dessert. • You want the result to be two-thirds plain vanilla ice cream and one third added pudding/cake/mince pies. RECI PES | PRUE LE I TH 59 greatbr i t i shfoodawards.com