Lightly but thoroughly butter a shallow baking dish about 25cm in diameter. Sprinkle it with caster sugar. Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6.
Halve and stone 400g of ripe apricots. Top and tail 200g of blackcurrants and add them to the apricots. Finely grate a small lemon over the fruit and toss gently to mix. Break 4 eggs into a jug blender or food processor, then add 75g of plain flour, 85g of caster sugar, 250ml of double cream and 225ml of full-cream milk. Process briefly, just enough to mix the ingredients together.
Put the apricots and blackcurrants into the baking dish, then pour the batter over them. Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until lightly risen and just set. Serves 6
When you have buttered the dish, scatter the sugar evenly over the surface, tipping the dish from side to side to ensure it is evenly covered, then tip off any excess sugar. This is not so much to stop the pudding sticking as to give a light sugary crust.
Apricots are just the start. You can use the same recipe with ripe figs and blackberries; cherries and blueberries or slices of ripe peach. In a couple of weeks the new season’s apples will start to filter through; peel and slice them, then cook them with a little butter and sugar in a shallow pan until they start to soften, then use them in place of the apricots.
A few flaked almonds, scattered over the surface before baking, lend a pleasing crunch to the soft pudding and its fruit. A little chilled cream served from a jug is somewhat gilding the lily, but rather wonderful nevertheless.
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