The best summer desserts: mixed berry pudding, ice-cream sandwich and lemon drizzle cake

Summer may be coming to an end but that shouldn't stop you from indulging in some warm weather desserts.

Here are three sweet recipes from Gail's Bakery to help beat those 'back to school' blues.

Summer Pudding

Ingredients (serves 10-12)

6 day-old croissants

1.1kg mixed berries (roughly 300g blackcurrants, 300g redcurrants, 300g raspberries and 200g strawberries)

150g caster sugar

100ml water

1⁄2 vanilla pod

100ml crème de cassis

1 lemon ( juice only)

Method

Wash the blackcurrants, redcurrants and raspberries and pick them over to remove any stems or leaves. Place in a large mixing bowl. Add the sugar to the berries and toss well. Cover, and leave to macerate for 5– 6 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge. When you take them out, you’ll have rather sad-looking, collapsed berries, and plenty of rich, purple sauce.

Tip them into a large pan and add the water, then taste for sweetness. If the mixture is very tangy, you can add a little more sugar. Split open the vanilla pod with a sharp knife, scrape out the seeds, then add these to the pan along with the pod. Gently bring the berries to a boil, then increase the heat and boil for 4–5 minutes until thickened and syrupy. Remove from the heat and stir in the crème de cassis. Taste and if too sweet, add a little lemon juice, until the balance of flavours is just right. Strain everything through a sieve over a bowl to separate the berries from the liquid.

Hull the strawberries, cutting the larger ones into quarters and halving the smaller ones, then cover them and chill until ready to use.

With a sharp, serrated knife, slice the croissants horizontally into thirds. Use a rolling pin to briefly flatten each slice then set aside. To assemble the pudding, line the base and sides of a dish roughly 30cm x 25cm and at least 7cm deep with the pieces of croissant. They should overlap slightly but not too much. Be sure to leave enough croissant pieces to create a ‘lid’ on the top of the pudding. Use a pastry brush to generously coat the croissant lining with some of the berry juice, letting them soak it up thirstily.

Spoon some of berries into the dish, then scatter over some of the strawberries, continuing until all the fruits are used up. Pour the remaining juice evenly over the entire pudding, then use the remaining croissant slices to cover it with a ‘lid’. Push down on this top layer so that it, too, soaks up plenty of juice. Sit a baking sheet or platter on top of the pudding and put two weights on top – tins of baked beans or heavy bowls will do – to press it all down. Chill overnight. When you’re ready to serve, remove the weights and scoop the pudding out into shallow bowls, and serve with plenty of thick cream.

Strawberries and clotted cream ice cream on honey butter toast

Ingredients (serves: 4)

For the ice cream:

250ml milk

150g caster sugar

pinch of flaked sea salt

6 egg yolks

480g clotted cream

For the strawberries:

400g strawberries

90g golden syrup

2 tbsp lemon juice

For the honey butter toast:

40g clear honey

20g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for frying

4 slices of brioche, 2cm thick, 1–2 days old

Method

Put the milk and half the sugar in a saucepan with a pinch of salt and heat slowly until the sugar has dissolved, then bring gently to the boil. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until well combined. Slowly pour the boiling milk mixture onto the yolks and sugar, whisking all the time until completely combined, then return the mixture to the saucepan. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon over a low heat until the custard has thickened, but do not let it boil or it will catch on the bottom of the pan and curdle.

If it’s thick enough, it should coat the back of the wooden spoon and leave a line briefly if a finger is drawn through it. When the custard is ready, pour it into a clean bowl and sit this bowl inside a larger container full of iced water. Leave to come to room temperature, then chill overnight. The next day, whisk the clotted cream into the chilled custard and churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Wash and hull the strawberries, then divide them into two equal portions. Cut one portion into bite-sized pieces and set aside. Blitz the other half in a food processor with the syrup and lemon juice, pulsing only just as much as is necessary in order to liquidise them. Don’t over-blitz, or you’ll introduce too much air, which will turn the mixture from a deep red to a less striking pink. Pass through a fine sieve then cover and chill.

To make the honey butter, warm the honey gently in a small saucepan until runny, then whisk in the butter a lump at a time. Set aside to cool slightly.

Use a pastry brush to coat each piece of brioche on both sides with the honey butter. Heat a generous knob of butter in a frying pan until it foams, then fry the brioche for 3 minutes on each side until golden and crisp. Build your sandwiches: sit a slice of fried brioche on each plate and top with two scoops of clotted cream ice cream. Toss the chopped strawberries with the chilled strawberry sauce and spoon generously over the ice cream, using up all the berry mixture.

Lemon drizzle cake

You’ll need a fair few lemons to make this cake. How many depends on the quality of your lemons, and the time of year (they’re generally juicier in winter). You’ll need at least three, possibly five, to get enough juice. If you do use more than three lemons, don’t waste the zest of the extra fruit, even though the cake only calls for the zest of three. The lemon syrup will only benefit from a little extra zest if you have it to hand.

Ingredients (makes: 1 large or 2 small loaf cakes)

For the cake(s):

5 eggs

300g caster sugar

170g sour cream

50ml lemon juice

3 lemons (finely grated zest)

230g plain flour

1 tsp fine sea salt

2 tsp baking powder

50g ground almonds

150g butter, melted but not hot

For the lemon syrup:

65ml lemon juice

75g caster sugar

For the lemon icing:

200g icing sugar, sifted

40ml lemon juice

Method

Butter two loaf tins about 19cm x 8cm, or one large loaf tin measuring 24cm x 10cm, then line with non-stick baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

For the cake, in a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs and the sugar together with a balloon whisk until just combined, then add the sour cream, lemon juice and lemon zest. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the ground almonds to the sifted flour, then add this to the eggs and sugar and whisk to combine. Pour in the melted butter and whisk one final time.

Pour the batter evenly into the two cake tins or one large tin. Place in the oven, then immediately. Reduce the temperature to 170°C/gas mark 3. Bake for 30–40 minutes (for two small cakes) or 35–45 minutes (for one large cake) until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean, and the cake(s) are golden and springy to the touch.

While the cakes are baking, prepare the lemon syrup: put the sugar and lemon juice into a saucepan over a medium heat, gently simmer until all the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.

As soon as the cake(s) are ready and the instant you take them out of the oven, spike them all over using a skewer – at least 8–10 times per cake. Spoon the syrup generously all over them to soak them in their tins – you might need to do this in stages, to give the cakes time to absorb the liquid. Leave them to sit and cool in their tins, so they soak up all the syrup.

While the cake(s) cool, make the lemon icing: mix the sifted icing sugar with the lemon juice in a small bowl, using a fork or a wooden spoon, until smooth. The consistency should be liquid enough to drip elegantly down the sides of the cake, but not to run straight off. Add a little more icing sugar or water if necessary.

Turn the cool cake(s) out of their tins and remove the baking paper. Drizzle over the icing, allowing it to trickle down the sides of the cakes. A little tip to save your wire rack from getting covered in sticky icing and to save you some washing up: just turn the loaf tin(s) upside down, sit the cake(s) on top of those, and ice them there.

Allow the icing to set slightly before you slice and serve – this is brilliant with fresh raspberries.

These recipes are extracted from Gail's Artisan Bakery Cookbook; buy it here.