Nigella Lawson: Cheesecake in a glass
This is the perfect end to a midweek dinner party, the kind you didn't know you were giving until presented with a guest list mid-afternoon. Yousimply chop strawberries, crush digestive biscuits and whip cream cheese and cream, then layer up quickly in some waiting glasses. Likethis, they can stand for about anhour, so you can make them up just before you sit down for supper. If you want to make this in advance – and it's a versatile recipe that doesn't need to be made last minute – simply leave the glasses in the fridge, layered up with the digestive crumbs and cream cheese mixture and covered with clingfilm. Top with strawberries on serving. Serves four.
200g strawberries(or 1 big punnet)
1 tsp caster sugar
4 digestive biscuits
100g cream cheese, at room temperature
2 tbsp icing sugar
125ml double cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp vanilla extract
4 small glasses (of about 150mlcapacity; I find a small martini glass looks prettiest)
Quarter the strawberries, then cut in half again, to give pretty small dice. Put into a bowl, sprinkle with caster sugar, cover with clingfilm and shake the bowl once or twice.
Leave the berries to macerate while you put the biscuits into a freezer bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have a sandy bag of crumbs.
Measure the cream cheese and icing sugar into a bowl and whisk byhand. Add the cream, lemon juiceand vanilla, and whisk gently to combine.
Divide the biscuit crumbs equally between your four glasses, and arrange in the bottom of each one. Spoon the cream cheese mix on top, dividing it equally between the glasses and covering the biscuits.
Divide the sugar-shiny strawberries between the glasses, to give a glossy, red-berried layer on each glass.
To drink: There's so much sugar inhere that I think a dessert wine would be overkill – go instead for acleansing fresh mint tea made bydunking a few sprigs of mint inateapot full of hot water.
Nigella Quick Collection is available to download now from iTunes.
Delia Smith: Vanilla cream terrine with raspberries and blackcurrant coulis
This content has been removed as our copyright has expired.
Recipe adapted from Delia's Summer Collection (BBC Books, 1993, £12.99).
© Delia Smith 2010. For more Delia recipes go to deliaonline.com.
Delia's Complete How To Cook is published by Ebury at £30. To order a copy for £27 (inc free UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Antonio Carluccio: Mango con sciroppo di limo
Or mango with lime syrup. A very simple recipe with lots of fresh flavour. The best mango to use would be an Alfonso, but their season is all but over now. Never mind: this recipe will be a success whatever type you use. Serves four.
2 large, ripe mangoes
3 limes
100g caster sugar
4 small sprigs mint
To peel the mangoes, cut along the length of the fruit on each side, closeto the stone. You'll be left withtwo rounded bits and the stone. Cut the peel off the rounded bits, cut each half in two and place on a large plate.
To prepare the syrup, cut the rind off the limes, leaving behind any pith, and cut into thin strips. Squeeze the juice from the limes into a small pan and add the sugar. Simmer until the sugar has melted, then boil to reduce by half. Add the rind and simmer until caramelised. Set aside to cool. Pour the cooled lime syrup over the mango halves and decorate with the mint.
To drink: Concha Y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006 (£6.05, Tesco; 12% abv) is a fabulous sweet wine from Chile whose floral scent and vivid lime and lemon marmalade notes go especially wellwith mango.
Antonio Carluccio's latest book isAntonio Carluccio's Simple Cooking (Quadrille, £20). To order a copy for £13.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Anjum Anand: Strawberry and pomegranate shortcakes
Food generally evokes a memory or an emotion. This dessert reminds me of hazy-skied summer days in my parents' garden. We often had family and friends around for lunchat weekends and, weather permitting, it was always a barbecue – Indian-inspired, of course. Pudding was always outsourced to me and was normally berry-based, often with some element of cream. This unctuous cake takes me back toa now rather misty memory of contentment and summer. Makes one large cake or six to eight small individual ones.
70g cold butter, cut into cubes, plus extra for greasing
270g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tbsp baking powder
120g sugar
¼ tsp salt
1 egg, beaten
100ml cold milk, plus a little extra to brush over cake
¾ tsp vanilla essence
For the filling
60ml water
50g sugar
Juice of 1 orange
1 star anise
½ tsp vanilla essence
400g strawberries, hulled and quartered
The fruit of ½ sweet pomegranate (optional)
142g pot double cream
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Butter and flour an eight-inch, round cake tin (or, if making individual cakes, a baking sheet). Mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mix looks like fine sand. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg, milk and vanilla. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, pour in the milk and stir, drawing in the flour from the sides. Gather up the dough with your hands and give it the lightest knead, just to bring it together – it should need no more than four or five turns. Place in the cake tin and gently pat to even the surface. (Or, ifmaking individual cakes, pat into asquare, cut into eight and gently press each piece into a round, then place on the prepared baking sheet.) Brush with milk and bake for 20-25 minutes (or 15-17 for the smaller cakes), until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and set asideto cool. Once cool, cut in half horizontally with a serrated knife.
Heat the water, sugar, orange juice, star anise and vanilla essence in amedium saucepan, simmer until thesugar has melted, then boil for another few minutes until slightly syrupy. Add the strawberries and cook for two minutes. Turn off the heat, add the pomegranate and leave to cool.
Lightly whip the cream until it forms soft billowing peaks. Remove and discard the star anise, and spoon the strawberries and juices evenly over the base of the cake. Spread thecream over the fruit, top with the upper layer and serve.
To drink: Wine does not come more easy-drinking than Moscato Freisa Vino Spumante NV (£7.99, Marks & Spencer; 6.5% abv), a sweet, sparkling and entirely frivolous warm-weather rosé from Piedmont.
Anjum Anand's new book, ILoveCurry, is published in October byQuadrille.
Raymond Blanc: Peaches poached in white wine and citrus fruits
The perfect dessert when peaches are in season; July and August are the best months. The finest peaches come from France and Italy. White peaches have the very best flavour, and for that there's a small extra price to pay. Preparation: 20 minutes, plus six hours' chilling. Cooking time: 25 minutes. Serves four.
8 ripe but firm peaches (white, if possible)
1 orange
½ lemon
175g caster sugar
500ml water
500ml dry white wine
1 vanilla pod, split open lengthways and seeds removed
8 sprigs fresh spearmint
Remove the stalks from the peaches. Cut the orange and lemon into fine, 3mm slices, leaving the rind on.
Put the peaches in a large saucepan in a single layer. Add the caster sugar, water, wine, vanilla pod and seeds. Top with the orange and lemon slices. Cut out a round of greaseproof paper the same size as the saucepan and cut a hole in the centre to allow excess steam to escape. Place this directly on top of the peaches.
On a high heat, bring to a boil, then immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for about 20 minutes (the flesh of the peaches is very delicate; if subjected to high heat, their texture will be ruined, so cook them very gently). There is an easy way to see if the peaches are cooked: you will notice some tiny bubbles escaping from the point where you removed the stalk; when these bubbles stop coming out, the peach is ready. Turn off the heat and leave to cool in the liquid.
Chop four sprigs of mint, mix into the syrup, and refrigerate for at least six hours and up to 24, to allow an exchange of flavours between the citrus, mint and peaches.
With a slotted spoon, transfer thepeaches to a plate and carefully peel off the skins. Place the peaches,orange and lemon slices and vanilla pod in a glass serving bowl and pourover the wine and citrus syrup (if you have too much syrup, freeze it and scrape beautiful frozen flakes of it into glasses to serve as a pre-dessert for a future meal). Arrange the remaining four sprigs of spearmint on top.
To drink: What better than a sip of the upbeat, peachy, blissfully low inalcohol sparkle of Moscato d'Asti Gemma 2009 (£6.99, or £5.99 by themixed case, Oddbins; 5.5% abv).
Raymond Blanc is chef/patron ofLeManoir Aux Quat' Saisons inGreat Milton, Oxfordshire. Hismost recent book is ATaste OfMy Life (Corgi, £8.99). To order a copy for £7.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Dan Lepard: Saffron clotted creamcake
A magnificent tower of light saffron buttercake, rich with clotted cream, layered with lemon curd and topped with clotted cream frosting and more swirls of lemon. The perfect summer party cake.
For the cake
75ml lemon juice
1 large pinch saffron
100g unsalted butter, softened
50ml corn or sunflower oil
250g caster sugar
50g cornflour
4 large eggs, separated
150g clotted cream
275g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
For the icing
50g clotted cream
225g icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
Lemon curd (either a good brand or make your own; see below for my recipe)
Line the base and sides of two 20cm, round, deep cake tins with nonstick baking paper. Heat the lemon juice in a pan, add the saffron and leave off the heat to infuse for 10 minutes. Beat the butter, oil, sugar and cornflour until light and fluffy, then beatin the egg yolks one at a time, followed by the saffron liquid and clotted cream.
Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until stiff, then fold half of them through the butter mix. Sift the flour and baking powder, and gently fold half of this through, too. Repeat with the remaining egg whites and flour, then divide the mixture between the tins and bake at 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gasmark 4 for 35 minutes.
For the icing, beat the clotted cream, icing sugar and vanilla with two to three tablespoons of boiling water until thick and smooth. Slice each cake in two horizontally, then fill and stack with lemon curd. Alternately swirl spoonfuls of the icing over the top of the cake with small teaspoonfuls of lemon curd.
Dan Lepard's easy lemon curd
5 large egg yolks
1 large egg
Finely grated zest of 3 lemons
125ml lemon juice
150g caster sugar
225g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
Have ready a large sieve placed over a clean mixing bowl. In a saucepan, whisk the yolks, whole egg, lemon zest and juice with the sugar until evenly combined, then add the butter. Bring to the first plop of a boil, stirring all the time across the base of the pan to check it isn't sticking, then quickly spoon the mixture into the sieve and press through with the wooden spoon to remove the zest. Cover and leave until cold before using.
To drink: Château la Tomaze Côteaux du Layon Rablay 2008/9 (£13.50, Yapp Brothers; 12.5% abv) from the Loire isn't cloyingly sweet, and it smells of orange blossom and orange zest.
Dan Lepard's Baking With Passion(Quadrille, £12.99) is published nextmonth. To pre-order a copy for £9.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
This recipe was amended on 2 August 2010. The original referred to 125g icing sugar. This has been corrected.
Angela Hartnett: Raspberry trifle
Simple, maybe, but oh so delicious – and a British summer wouldn't be the same without trifle, would it?
1 packet trifle sponges
2 measures Disaronno (aka amaretto)
2 punnets fresh raspberries or strawberries
250ml vanilla-flavoured custard
200ml double cream, whipped
50g amaretti biscuits, crushed
Lay the sponge fingers flat in a bowl. Pour over the liqueur so the sponges soak it up, but not so much that they're over-saturated.
Cover the soaked sponge with raspberries, pour over the vanilla custard, top with the whipped double cream and refrigerate for a couple of hours. Just before serving, sprinkle with the crushed amaretti.
To drink: Perhaps a cheeky slug of Disaronno while the bottle isopen, but otherwise nothing else needed.
Angela Hartnett is head chef at Murano and York& Albany, both inLondon, and author of Cucina: Three Generations Of Italian FamilyCooking (Ebury, £25). To order a copy for £18.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Tom Kitchin: Summer berries with cottage cheese cream and almond tuiles
This dish looks great and is simple to make because everything can beprepared in advance. Use any combination of summer berries you can get your hands on. Serves four.
100g redcurrants
100g blueberries
100g blackberries
100g strawberries
100g raspberries
Fresh mint leaves
Icing sugar, for dusting
For the cottage cheese cream
200ml whipping cream
200g cottage cheese
1 lime, zest and juice
For the almond tuiles
200g icing sugar
50g flour
70g flaked almonds
Juice and zest of 1 orange
70g butter, melted
To make the cottage cheese cream, whip the cream to firm peaks, fold in the cottage cheese, lime zest and juice, and mix. Leave in the fridge until ready to serve.
Make the tuiles a day or two ahead, so they can set. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Sift together the icing sugar and flour, and mix with the flaked almonds, orange juice and zest, and the melted butter. Line a large baking sheet with parchment. Drop rounded teaspoons of the mixture on to the baking sheet and spread them out with the back of aspoon (wet the spoon with water to prevent the mix sticking) to make circles about 5cm in diameter. Leave some space between each tuile, because they will expand during cooking. You need 16 tuiles in all.
Bake the biscuits for six to eight minutes, until nicely golden. Time them carefully: if overcooked, the tuiles will be bitter and brittle; if undercooked, they will be too soft and pliable. While they are still warm, trim the discs to the desired shape. Leave them to rest and cool.
To assemble the dish, wash the berries well. Hull the strawberries and, if they are on the large side, cut them in half. Spoon a small amount of cottage cheese cream on to each plate, top with one tuile biscuit and arrange a selection of berries on the inside edge of the tuile, leaving room in the middle for more cream. Top with another tuile and repeat. Finish with a tuile on top with ateaspoon of cream in the middle.
To serve, place a few fruits on top as a garnish, add some fresh mint and dust with icing sugar.
To drink: The grapey, floral and sweet Sainsbury's Muscat De St Jean De Minervois (£4.48 for 37.5cl; 15% abv) is a steal.
Tom Kitchin is chef/patron of Kitchin in Edinburgh and author ofFrom Nature To Plate (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £30). To order a copy for £22.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Michael Caines: Cherry parfait, poached cherries and cherry mousse with cherry jelly
Chocolate and cherries is a classic match. Ideally, use cherries from Kent, but their season isvery short, only about eight weeks, peaking in July. This dish is a great way to showcase the fruit, not least because it has more than one texture going on, so there's always something to keep you interested. It is a bit complicated, yes, but each element of the dish works well in its own right, too. Serves eight.
For the poached cherries
600g fresh cherries, stoned
30ml kirsch
½ lemon, juiced
80g caster sugar
1 tsp arrowroot
For the marinated cherries
125g poached cherries (see above), finely chopped
25ml kirsch
For the cherry parfait
100g sugar
30ml water
6 egg yolks
200g poached cherries (see above)
125g marinated cherries (see above)
½ lemon, juiced
200ml double cream, whipped
8 tempered dark chocolate tubes
For the cherry chocolate mousse
3 egg yolks
75ml stock syrup (see parfait
method, right)
100g griotte cherries, finely chopped (you can buy preserved griotte cherries in a jar – strain, and use the liquor in the mousse)
50ml griotte cherry liquor
160g dark chocolate (72% cocoa solids), melted
300ml double cream
For the cherry jelly
1-2 leaves gelatine
150ml cherry juice (from the poached cherries)
For the poached cherries, put the cherries, kirsch, lemon juice and sugar in a stainless-steel saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Cook at a gentle simmer for five minutes, until the cherries are soft. Add a drop of water to the arrowroot, then whisk into the pan. Bring back to a boil, remove from the heat, strain off 150ml of juice through a fine sieve (you'll use this for the jelly) and leave the rest to cool down.
Once cooled, separate 125g of thecherries, chop finely and place ina bowl with the kirsch to steep for12 hours (you'll use these in the parfait). Weigh out another 200g of the poached cherries, place in aliquidiser and blitz to a purée (you'll use this in the parfait, too).
To make the parfait, put the sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat and cook until it reaches 120C – this is your stock syrup. Put the egg yolks in a bowl, pour on the hot syrup, whipping allthe time, until the eggs are cold. Add the cherry purée and mix to blend, then add the marinated cherries and lemon juice. Carefully fold in the whipped cream and pour the mixture into the chocolate tubes until they are three-quarters full. Place in the freezer.
To make the mousse, make up some more stock syrup as for the parfait. Put the egg yolks, 25ml of syrup and 15ml of griottes liquor in abowl, place over a pan of gently simmering water (make sure the water doesn't touch the base or sides of the bowl) and whisk continuously until the mixture thickens, turns frothy and forms asabayon. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 50ml of stock syrup in asaucepan over a medium heat until it reaches 120C. Place the sabayon in a food mixer and quicklywhisk in the warm stock syrup until the mixture is cold. Mixin the chopped griottes and the remaining 50ml of their liquor. Fold in the melted chocolate and double cream, and mix until smooth. Transfer the mousse into moulds and put in the fridge to set for two hours.
Finally, on to the jelly. Soften the gelatine in cold water. Meanwhile, heat the cherry juice in a saucepan over a medium heat. Once the gelatine is soft, squeeze out the excess water and add the gelatine leaves to the juice to dissolve, stirring to help the process. Once dissolved, spoon the mixture on top of the mousse, then put the moulds back in the fridge to set the jelly.
To serve, top up the frozen parfait-filled chocolate tubes with the remaining poached cherries and serve with the mousse alongside.
To drink: They use fresh cherriestomake Bacchus Kriek (£2.61, Morrisons, Tesco; 5.8% abv), asweetish, dirty ruby coloured beer that looks beautiful in champagne flutes or small tumblers.
Michael Caines is executive chef atGidleigh Park in Chagford, Devon, and ABode nationwide.
Marcus Wareing: Gin and tonic granite
The perfect summer treat – ice-cold, refreshing and mind-numbingly good (quite literally, if you eat too much of it). Makes around a litre.
100ml water
200g caster or granulated sugar
250ml good gin (Bombay Sapphire or Beefeater)
Juice of 2 lemons
500ml tonic water
Heat the water with the sugar until the latter dissolves. Add all the remaining ingredients to the pan, stir, then pour into a freezer container and freeze. After anhour, take it out, give it a quick whisk and return to the freezer. Repeat after the second hour.
Before serving, scrape the graniteall over with a fork to break itup – this willgive it a softer texture. Serve as a pre-dessert (a few crystallised violet petals scattered on top are a nice touch) or as a grown-up's slushy for a hot day.
Marcus Wareing is head chef of Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley. His latest book is Nutmeg And Custard (Bantam Press, £25). To order a copy for £19.99 (including UK mainland p&p), go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.
Lorraine Pascale: Watermelon and stem ginger juice
A very, very refreshing alternative totraditional lemonade.
¼ watermelon, rind and
seeds removed
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 pieces stem ginger
Stem ginger syrup, to taste
Vodka (optional)
Ice cubes
Fresh mint, to finish
4 ice-cold glasses
Blend the watermelon, limes and ginger to a liquid, then press through a sieve. Add the syrup from the stem ginger jar to taste (I have a sweet tooth, so used almost all of it). Divide the juice between the glasses, add a splash of vodka, if using, and finish with ice cubes and mint.
Lorraine Pascal runs cake shop Ella's Bakehouse. Her first book, Lorraine Bakes, is out next year (HarperCollins, £20).
