In a medium mixing-bowl, mix the sugar and butter with a fork.

Add the flour and mix with the fork until reaching a crumbly texture similar to ground almonds.

Add a bit of milk and knead the dough with your hands just enough to form a ball. If the dough does not come together after about a minute, add in a tad more milk and knead again. The idea is to add the milk little by little and stop at just the right dough consistency (if you’ve added too much and the dough gets impossibly sticky, compensate with flour).

Wrap in a tea towel and put in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

Prepare the caramel:

Butter the sides of a 25-cm (10-inch) cake tin.

Pour the brown sugar into a small saucepan and melt over medium-low heat, stirring regularly to even out the temperature. Now be careful, you will need to work quickly to avoid overcooking the caramel, which would otherwise become bitter. As soon as the sugar has melted, remove from the heat, add in the butter and stir to form a paste.

Pour the paste into the dish quickly – the caramel hardens as its temperature drops. Use the back of a spoon to spread it over the bottom. It’s okay if the bottom is not entirely covered, but try to make it as even as you can. Set aside.

Assemble and bake the tart:

Rinse, peel, core and cut the apples in eighths. Arrange the pieces prettily over the caramel in the tin.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Take the ball of dough out of the fridge, lightly flour a clean work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a disk slightly larger than the pan. Transfer the dough over the apples and tuck in the outer edges. Prick the dough in a few places with a fork.

Bake in the oven for 50 minutes to an hour, until the crust turns golden and your home is filled with a wonderful caramely apple scent.

Take the dish out of the oven, run a knife along the inside edges of the tin and flip it onto a serving dish. If one or two apple pieces have stuck to the bottom of the dish, just put them back where they belong on the tart.

If you feel the apple colour is a bit on the light side (it happened to me), roast the tart, apples side up, another 5 minutes under your oven grill.

Serve warm on its own or with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream or a dollop of crème fraîche or yogurt.

Prepare the pastry:

Cut the butter in small pieces and mix it with the icing sugar, salt, ground almonds and lemon zest until reaching a creamy consistency (you can use a mixer). Add the egg, mix again and finish with the flour, mixing just enough to incorporate it into the dough (if you work the dough too much, this will result in a heavy and tough pastry). Keep 300g for the tart and freeze the rest for other uses.

Roll the dough into a ball, place it on a large square of baking paper on a flat surface and flatten it with your hands into a one inch thick round. Add another sheet of baking paper on top and flatten the dough to 2.5 mm with a rolling pin. Peel the top paper sheet off and chill the pastry in the freezer for 30 minutes (or fridge for a couple of hours), then transfer it to a buttered tart tin (don’t forget to remove the second paper sheet). Trim it and reserve in the fridge until you are ready to bake it.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Make little crosses at the bottom of the pastry with a knife to prevent air bubbles from forming underneath, and bake for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is nicely golden. While baking, check it regularly to burst any air bubbles forming with a fork. Alternatively, you can cover the pastry with dried beans for the first half of baking – but this is too much trouble for me.

Allow to cool down in the tin before un-moulding. Melt gently a couple of dark chocolate square and brush the inside of the pastry with the chocolate. This quick trick will create a waterproof barrier between the pastry and the filling, preventing the pastry from turning soggy.

Prepare the lemon filling:

Mix in a heat proof bowl the sugar with the lemon zest. Add the lemon juice, eggs, and mix well.

Place the bowl over a small saucepan half filled with gently boiling water, and whisk continuously over low heat until the mixture thickens. Once the thickening process has started, keep cooking and whisking for another 2 minutes (about 8 minutes altogether)

Take off the heat and let cool to 36 degrees C. At this temperature, a finger dipped into the mixture should not feel any sensation of warmth or cold. Then, of course, enjoy the licking

Meanwhile, beat the butter into a nice, soft consistency and mix it to the cooled lemon mixture with a spatula (don’t use a whisk, this would incorporate air bubbles).

Pour the mixture into the tart and place in the fridge for 2 hours.

When ready to eat, sprinkle the centre with a cloud of icing sugar or dispose seasonal blueberries in the shape of small round at the center.

Bring another litre of water to the boil with the sugar, vanilla extract (or a vanilla bean slit lengthwise, grains scraped off into the water), star anise and mixed spice. Don’t be tempted to re-use the water in which you parboiled the peaches as it will have been contaminated with pesticides.

Plunge the peeled peach halves into the lightly bubbling syrup and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.

While the peaches are cooking, save the 12 best looking raspberries for garnish. mash the remaining raspberries with the back of a fork with the icing sugar and a squirt of lemon juice.

Using an electric mixer, whip the cream into a silky crème Chantilly. The top tips for achieving the perfect Chantilly are: 1. make sure the cream, bowl and whisk are all very cold. I place the whisk and cream in the freezer 20 min beforehand. 2. beat the cream at low speed first, moving in stages to high speed, and wait until the cream starts bubbling before adding the sugar (slowly) and vanilla extract. 3. stop once the whisk leaves well defined marks in the cream. Dip a spoon in it and turn it upside down. If the cream peak on the spoon stays up, it is ready. If not, give it another whisking. The Chantilly should only take 2-3 minutes to make. Don’t overbeat otherwise you will reach the consistency of butter.

Just before serving:

Pour some raspberry coulis in martini or wide glasses, place a good sized ice cream scoop on top and a peach half. Top with the Chantilly and a few fresh raspberries. Serve right away.

Use preferably a loose-based cake tin (I used a 20 cm square tin, a 22 cm round one will work as well). If you don’t have one, place parchment paper cut to size at the bottom of your mould to facilitate the de-moulding of the cake after it has been baked.

Butter the cake tin (and parchment paper if using) and sprinkle a bit of flour on all sides. The flour will form a barrier between the cake batter and the butter on the tin when baking, not only preventing the batter from sticking but allowing it to rise more easily.

Mix the flour with the baking powder, then add the ground almonds, granulated sugar and 75g of the icing sugar, and mix well.

Melt the butter and mix with the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt into firm peaks. This is how you do it: start by beating them on medium-low speed for a minute or so, until they form a grey foam.  Then increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the foam becomes smooth, moist and shiny. Stop and lift the whisk – you have achieved firm peaks when straight, upward-looking peaks form.

Gently fold the egg whites into the almond mix using a large spatula, until reaching a homogenous batter.

Pour the batter into the pan. Press delicately the raspberries one by one inside the batter until half sunk. Space them evenly, keeping a handful on the side for decorating.

Bake in the oven for 30 mins.

When ready, leave to cool. Once the cake has fully cooled down, separate its edges from the pan by running a knife’s blade carefully between the cake and the tin. De-mould the cake and place on a serving platter. Sprinkle the remaining icing sugar on top using a thieve to prevent it from lumping (with a sieve, the sugar will fall on the cake like light dust).

Place the remaining raspberries in a pretty heap or in the shape of a flower at the centre of the cake. Enjoy!!!

Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured work surface into a 1-2 mm thick round. Cut out pastry circles slightly larger than the size of the cavities of your tartlet tray, using as a cut out a suitably sized bowl placed up side down on the pastry. Press the trimming together into a ball and roll it out again for more cut outs.

Butter the cavities of the tray (this step is not needed if using a silicon tray) and place the pastry circles inside each cavity. Pierce holes into the pastry with the help of small fork and bake for about 10-12 minutes, until the pastry is lightly browned. Take out of the oven and let cool.

Place the cream and mascarpone in the freezer 15 minutes before using. Very cold cream is a key to a successful Chantilly – check out my tips here, which also apply for this mascarpone version. Mix both creams together into a bowl and whisk until the cream starts to thicken. Add the vanilla extract and sugar in small batches and stop as soon as the whisk leaves defined marks into the cream.

Unmould the pastry shells and fill them with whipped cream. Cover them with berries and reserve on a serving tray. Store in the fridge until time of serving.

Pierre Hermés shortcrust pastry recipe (2 hours before using)

Crack the egg into a small bowl; slice open the half vanilla pod and scrape the beans into a teaspoon. Reserve.

Chop the butter into small chunks, toss them into a large mixing bow and beat them with a spatula to soften. Add in succession the icing sugar, almonds, salt, vanilla beans, egg and flour, stirring well after adding each ingredient.

Shape the dough into a ball with your hands, wrap it in cling film and chill for 2 hours in the fridge before using.

Prepare the tart crust:

Pre-heat your oven at 200 degree C.

Carefully unroll the shortcrust pastry. If you have a loose base tart dish, place the pastry directly onto the dish. If your dish is basic, like mine, line it with baking paper before covering it with the shortcrust pastry (don’t worry about the paper folding on the edges, it will give a nice rustic look to the tart, see my pic above). The baking paper will make it easy to take the baked crust out of the dish without breaking it.

With a fork, pierce a few holes across the pastry. This will reduce the risk of hot air bubbles forming under the crust while it is baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 mins or until golden on the edges. Check regularly your oven for air bubbles forming under the pastry. If you see one forming, pierce it with a fork. More traditionally, you can fill your pastry with dried beans before baking it to avoid bubbles from forming, but I can’t be bothered with the hassle. A bit of care during baking is all it takes, really.

When ready, take out of the oven and reserve. Unmould carefully once it has cooled down

Prepare the crème patissière (while the crust is baking):

Heat the milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan until boiling point. if you are using the 1/2 vanilla pod instead, slit the pod lengthwise and scrape the tiny seeds. Heat the milk with the seeds and pod, and remove the latter before pouring.

Beat the egg with the sugar in a bowl until the mixture looks really smooth and falls into ribbons (this basically means that a ribbon-like strip will rest on top of the egg mixture when you drop a dollop of it from your whisk or fork)

Add the flour and whisk until smooth.

Slowly pour the boiling milk onto the egg mixture, whisking constantly

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once the liquid starts boiling, remove from the heat. Keep stirring for one minute, the crème will keep thickening in the saucepan.

Pour the crème into the baked tart crust.

…and for the ultra-sexy finish:

Wash and cut the stem off the strawberries, and cut them in half lengthways, keeping one strawberry whole to place at the center of the tart.

Wipe the strawberries dry with a paper towel and place in concentric circles on the tart, starting with the edge, cut side down, each strawberry half slightly overlapping its neighbour.

In a small bowl, mix the jam with a teaspoon of water and heat for 20 seconds in your microwave. I indicated raspberry jam here but any jam that is smooth and not too dark will do. Smooth apricot jam, for instance, works very well.

Gently brush the mixture over the strawberries to give the tart that lovely, glossy finish.

C’est prêt!

Wash the cherries and remove the stems.

Traditional clafoutis are made with unpitted cherries but I find this not really child-friendly and a real pleasure dampener. So follow my lead and pitt the cherries, using a small sharp knife. Because the cherries are cut in the process they will release some of their juices into the batter when baking, softening it to perfection.

Mix the eggs in a bowl with the sugar until well blended.

Melt 60g butter and allow to cool for a few minutes

Meanwhile, stir the flour into the egg mixture until reaching a smooth batter. Slowly pour the butter, vanilla extract and milk into it while stirring constantly.

Butter a round tart dish, dust it with flour and place the cherries into the dish. Pour the batter on top and scatter pieces of shaved butter for a nice shiny crust.

Place in the oven and bake for about 35-40 mins, until the top looks nice and golden.

Now let me share with you a family secret: halfway through the baking, sprinkle one teaspoon of sugar on top of the clafoutis. This will add a delicious caramelized taste tout à fait exquis!

Serve warm or cold. Keep it in the fridge overnight if, for some strange reason, you have not finished it on the day.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks.

Beat two of the egg yolks with the cream, until reaching the consistency of thick stirred yogurt (best to use an electric whisk if you have one). Be patient, this can take a good 5 minutes.

Pick the mint leaves from the stalks and chop finely.

Beat the egg whites into soft peaks. You know you have reached this stage when peaks with a top that curls over are formed.

Add a ¼ of the cream mixture to the melted chocolate and mix with a spoon, then pour the remaining  mixture and stir in gently with a spatula.

Fold the egg whites into the mixture and about 2 tablespoons of the chopped mint.

Pour into individual serving glasses.

Serve immediately with fresh raspberries and a mint leaf on top (on the picture I used the tips of the sprigs), or store in the fridge for serving later. Enjoy!

Kids friendly version

If you are worried your children may find the mint off-putting, you can save some of the mousse before adding the mint for the adults.

To balance out the sweetness of the white chocolate, crush a few raspberries into a coulis with a sprinkle of sugar.

Then fill individual glasses by alternating dollops of mousse and a bit of the raspberry coulis.

Finish off each glass by making a couple of eight-shaped swirls in the mousse with the back of a teaspoon to make beautiful pink ribbons.

Serve with fresh raspberries on top. This dessert will not only be a visual feast for your highly discerning little customers, but will also be a guaranteed success! By the way, this can also be a lovely variation for grown ups.

Pour the olive oil slowly into the orange purée while whizzing constantly, until obtaining a thick and creamy texture.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs into an omelette, then add the sugar little by little while beating continuously. Beat until the mixture thickens and becomes cream-coloured. Add the almond and vanilla extracts and give it a last whipping.

Using a spatula, stir the flour mixture into the egg mixture in three stages, alternating with the orange purée. You should obtain a thick, homogenous batter with fine grains of orange skin.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.

Butter (or oil, for a completely dairy-free version) the inside of a cake tin.  Sprinkle it with flour, turn it over and shake it so as to release the excess flour.

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for about 45 minutes (a skewer dipped into the center of the cake should come out clean).

Wait 5 minutes before unmoulding. Once the cake is warm or cold, sprinkle with icing sugar. Serve it with a thick chocolate sauce (melt in the microwave 100 g good quality 70% cocoa dark chocolate, 30 g lightly salted butter and 5 tablespoons water), if you enjoy the taste of chocolate and orange together.

Peel and chop the mangoes, and whiz their flesh with the sugar in a large bowl until obtaining a smooth purée. Transfer 1/4 of the mixture into a small container and reserve it  in the fridge for use at time of serving. You should be left with about 350 g mango mixture.

In another bowl, beat the eggs into an omelette with a fork and mix with the cream.

Stir the cream mixture into the mango purée until obtaining a homogenous batter. Pour it into individual ramequins.

Place the ramequins into a large gratin dish and fill it with boiling water up to about half the height of the ramequins.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until the flans feel cooked in the middle (when gently touched, their center should feel set and springy). If their top starts to colour, reduce the heat to 160 degrees C.

Let the flans cool and store them in the fridge preferrably overnight, or at least 6-7 hours.

Serve chilled with a dollop of mango purée and a strawberry on top.