Enjoying warm and tasty foods on a chilly autumnal day isn't just comforting emotionally, it can also have health benefits. Eating desserts provides a convenient opportunity to add more fruit to your diet.
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Do autumn foods have health benefits?
Fruit is essential to keep you healthy and to help your immune system cope with certain illnesses. We've all heard of the five-a-day campaign to encourage people to eat five pieces of fruit daily. Unfortunately, many people don't eat enough fresh fruit to keep them healthy. Adding fruit to a dessert can vastly improve your daily intake and turn an average meal into a healthy one. Don't be afraid to be creative when it comes to baking fruity desserts.
Eating any fruit is a positive step - even if it's coated in chocolate! While you may not think of desserts as a particularly healthy option, eating the right ones can fuel your body, as they can be a source of fibre, vitamins and antioxidants.
Read on to find out more about the top five delicious recipes for autumn that you can make at home...
- Brioche frangipane apple pudding
This is one of the simplest autumn recipes by Mary Berry and you don't need to be a culinary whizz to make it successfully. Preheat your oven to 200°C (gas mark 6) and grease a shallow 11-inch diameter ovenproof dish. Arrange half a brioche loaf, cut into quarter-inch slices, to cover the base of the dish.
Mix 6oz butter and 6oz of caster sugar in a food processor until light and creamy. Add 6oz ground almonds, 1 tsp almond extract, three beaten eggs and 1oz plain flour. Mix again until soft and smooth and then spoon the mixture over the brioche base.
Slice and core two red dessert apples, arrange them on top in circles and bake for around 40 minutes until lightly golden. The dessert should feel firm in the middle when pressed lightly.
Melt 2 tablespoons of apricot jam with 2 tbsp of water in a saucepan. Brush it over the pudding and sprinkle with 1 tbsp of toasted flaked almonds, then dust with icing sugar and serve warm. Add custard, cream, or eat on its own.
- Apple and pear crumble
This is another simple staple of autumn dishes that just about everyone likes. The special thing about this crumble is that the apples are puréed, in contrast to the chunks of cooked pear. Any kind of fruit can be used, even windfalls. Demerara sugar will add a good crunchy topping and extra flavour.
Preheat the oven to 190°C (gas mark 5). Make the crumble by putting 3.5oz of butter, cut into small pieces, in the mixing bowl and adding 4.5oz plain flour. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingers until it has the texture of breadcrumbs. Stir in 2.5oz of demerara sugar and 2.5oz of chopped nuts (optional).
To make the filling, peel and core the apples and cut them into half-inch pieces. Core the pears (no need to peel them) and cut into 1.25-inch chunks. Spread the apples and pears in a shallow 2-inch deep ovenproof dish, around 12ins x 8ins in size. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top and drizzle on 2 tbsp of runny honey.
Cover the fruit loosely with the crumble topping, but don't press it down. Bake it for 45 to 55 minutes until the top is lightly browned. Serve warm or hot with custard, yoghurt, cream or ice-cream.
- Paul Hollywood's toffee apple cake
Take a two-pint heatproof bowl, line with a little butter and dust it with flour. Preheat the oven to 180°C (gas mark 4). Mix 4oz white self-raising flour, 4oz wholemeal self-raising flour, 3.5oz soft brown sugar, 1 tsp baking powder and 2 tsp ground cinnamon together in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat together 5 tbsp sunflower oil, 5 tbsp milk and two free-range eggs. Stir this mix into the dry ingredients. Peel, core and chop two eating apples into quarter-inch cubes and break 2oz toffee into small pieces. Fold the apple and toffee pieces into the mixture and put it into the prepared heatproof bowl.
Bake it in the oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Check whether the cake is cooked properly by pushing a skewer into the centre. The skewer will come out clean if it's cooked through. Leave in the dish for around ten minutes before turning the cake out. Serve it when completely cool.
- Toffee apple muffins
Preheat the oven to 190°C (gas mark 5) and line a 12-space muffin tin with paper cases. Mix two lightly beaten free-range eggs, 2.75oz caster sugar, 8.5 fl. oz milk and 3.5oz melted butter in a large bowl. Sift 10.5oz plain flour, 2 tsp baking powder, half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of cinnamon into the bowl.
Stir all the ingredients well to combine them. Then, add two peeled, cored, finely-chopped eating apples and mix lightly. Quarter-fill each paper muffin case with the mixture. Then, add a few pieces of finely-broken toffee. Cover the toffee with the remaining mix to half-fill the cases.
Bake the muffins for 30 to 35 minutes until they are golden and well-risen. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool - you can serve them warm or cold.
- Fruit cobbler
Preheat the oven to 200°C (gas mark 6). Chop 1lb of fruit into chunks. The exact size of the chunks doesn't have to be perfect - in fact, it's better to have a variety. You can use just about any seasonal fruit including apples, peaches, pears, plums, blackberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, or a mixture of whatever you fancy.
Place the fruit into an ovenproof dish and pour the juice of one orange and 2 tbsp soft brown sugar over it. Put 6oz self-raising flour in a mixing bowl and chop 3.5oz of unsalted butter into small lumps. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingers.
Stir 1oz porridge oats, 1.75oz soft brown sugar and half-a-teaspoon of cinnamon or mixed spices into the cobbler mix using a spoon, or your hands. Add 4 tbsp of natural or flavoured yoghurt, one spoonful at a time. Mix further with your hands to form a rough dough.
Shape the cobbler mix into small balls, about the size of a table tennis ball. Arrange them on top of the fruit. Place the cobblers in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until golden-brown on top and the fruit is bubbling up around the edges.
Make sure it's cool before serving, as the fruit filling will be very hot and you could burn your mouth. Serve it warm with custard, cream, yoghurt or ice-cream.
Once you've baked your autumn goodies and eaten your fill, don't let the rest go to waste. Make sure you store your baking at the correct temperature to keep it fresh for as long as possible, or freeze some so you can bring it out at a later date.