Jamie Olivers Baked Fruit Recipes

BAKED BERRIES WITH BRANDY & MASCARPONE

Steps:

• Preheat the grill to full whack.
• In a bowl, gently mix the berries with the brandy and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
• Pour into a heatproof dish, then evenly dot with the mascarpone and sprinkle over the rest of the sugar.
• Place under the hot grill for 5 minutes, or until bubbling and caramelised.

JAMIE'S BAKED FIGS

Steps:

• You should have no problem getting nice figs at Christmas time and they're wonderful to make in so many ways so when you see them, buy them up! Here's one really gorgeous way to have them. I promise you won't get bored of these; there are so many lovely ways of using them up.
• Personally, I like to make a sort of bruschetta with them or put them out on a platter with some nice cheese. As it's Christmas and your kitchen is probably well-stocked, you'll hopefully have the ingredients for the bruschetta on hand already. If not, you can always improvise with whatever you've got in the fridge.
• Preheat your oven to 110ºC/225ºF/gas ¼. Lay your figs, cut-side up, in a baking tray. Using a fine grater, zest your clementines over the figs then dust the figs with a sprinkling of cinnamon and a teaspoon of sugar. My flavoured sugar is also great for this so if you've made a batch of that, feel free to use that instead.
• Pop the figs in the oven to bake for 4 hours, checking on them every hour or so. When they come out of the oven you'll have semi-dehydrated figs, which will be a bit like wine gums.
• Fig bruschetta Get yourself a few slices of nice warm bread, crumble over some lumps of cheese, and a few pieces of walnut then put a few fig halves and a drizzle of runny honey over the top to finish it off. I think the combination of salty goat's cheese with these figs and a bit of honey is absolute heaven.
• Figs in honey You'll be able to put any leftover figs to good use in all sorts of ways. A really nice way of using them at Christmas is to turn them into a bit of a gift by popping a stack of them in a sterilised jar, covering them completely with honey then sealing the jar with an airtight lid. They'll be beautiful as part of a cheese platter, baked in a tart, a sticky toffee pud, or even thrown into a roasting tray with some pork or other meat for a bit of added sweetness. Give them to your mates when you go round to theirs for dinner. They'll love getting something unique, especially when you explain all the different things they can do with them.

ROASTED STONE FRUIT

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.
• Halve the oranges and squeeze all the juice into a large roasting dish with the balsamic. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then add both pod and seeds to the dish.
• Grate in the strawberries, mix together, and pop into the oven to warm through while you prep your crumble and fruit.
• For the crumble, tear the stones out of the dates and place the flesh in a food processor with the oats, coconut flakes, 1 tablespoon of oil and 130ml of water, then blitz into a crumble.
• Pour into a roasting tray or dish (30cm x 40cm) and spread out into an even layer. Wash all the fruit, then halve or quarter, removing the stones as you go.
• Pull the dish of warm, delicious juices out of the oven and gently stir in all the fruit. Return to the top shelf of the oven, place the crumble on the shelf underneath, and cook for 45 minutes, or until the fruit is soft and sticky and the crumble is nicely golden.
• Stir the crumble occasionally as it cooks to break it up and give it a nice even colour.
• Serve up however many portions you want while it's all warm, adding 1 tablespoon of yoghurt to each one.
• Once cool, decant the rest of the crumble portions into an airtight jar to enjoy in the days that follow, and pop the fruit into the fridge, where it will keep happily for up to 5 days.

JAMIE OLIVER'S BAKED FRUIT

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425*F Using a food processor, combine vanilla pod and sugar.
• Wash fruit.
• Halve and remove pits from plums, nectarines, peaches and apricots, if using, and peel bananas and cut into chunks.
• Place fruit in a single layer on baking sheet (s).
• Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup of vanilla sugar.
• (Store leftover vanilla sugar in an airtight container.) Bake fruit 10-15 minutes, or until fruit is soft but still holds its shape.
• Serves 8-10.

FRUIT COBBLER

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C/gas 5). Put the fruit into a pan with the sugar and the balsamic vinegar. Put the pan over the heat, and cook gently, until the juices begin to run from the berries. Pour into an ovenproof dish.
• Meanwhile make the topping. Rub the cold butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add the sugar and salt, stir well, and then add the buttermilk to form a loose, scone-type mixture. Roll balls of the dough and place randomly over the hot fruit. Sprinkle with a little sugar, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

CUSTARD TART

Steps:

• The Case: Roll out the pastry into a rectangle and brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle on some icing sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Tightly roll the pastry, along the longest side, into a sausage roll and slice into discs (about 1-inch thick). With the palm of your hand press down into each disc, then roll out each one into a circle.
• Grease the bottom and sides of 6 oven-proof glasses with butter, then dip each into a bag of flour so that the flour sticks to the butter and shake off any excess. Put the center of the pastry circles on top of the floured oven-proof glass, and gently press the sides of the pastry onto the side of the glass (it should look a bit pleated). Place the glasses (rim side down) on a tray in a preheated 350 degree F.oven). When they are cooked, take them out of the oven and press the bottom of each pastry case, this will ensure that they have a flat bottom.
• The Custard: Break the eggs into a mixing bowl with the sugar and orange zest and whisk thoroughly. Scrape out the seeds inside of a vanilla pod and stir this into the egg mixture. Pour the cream into a saucepan and remove from the heat just before it boils. Pour the hot cream into the bowl of eggs, stirring all the time. Then transfer this mixture back to the saucepan, on medium heat and stir continuously until it has thickened.
• Pour the custard into the pastry cases and let sit to cool.
• Heat the sugar and water on a high heat until you have a golden caramel. As soon as this is ready, pour a thin layer on top of the custard.;

TRAY-BAKED MERINGUE WITH PEARS, CREAM, TOASTED HAZELNUTS AND CHOCOLATE SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees F and line a baking sheet with a sheet of waxed paper.
• Put your egg whites into a squeaky clean bowl, making sure there are absolutely no little pieces of egg shell or egg yolk in them. Whisk on medium until the whites form firm peaks. With your mixer still running, gradually add the sugar and the pinch of salt. Turn the mixer up to the highest setting and whisk for about 7 or 8 minutes, until the meringue mixture is white and glossy. To test whether it's done you can pinch some between your fingers - if it feels completely smooth it's ready; if it's slightly granular it needs a little more whisking.
• Dot each corner of the waxed paper with a blob of meringue, then turn it over and stick it to the baking sheet. Spoon the meringue out onto the paper. Using the back of a spoon, shape and swirl it into a rectangle. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour or until crisp on the outside and a little soft and sticky inside. At the same time, bake the hazelnuts on a separate sheet in the oven for 1 hour or until golden brown.
• Drain the cans of pears, reserving the syrup from 1 can. Cut each pear half into 3 slices. Pour the pear syrup into a saucepan with the ginger, if using, and warm gently over a medium heat until it starts to simmer. Take off the heat and snap the chocolate into the saucepan, stirring with a spoon until it's all melted.
• Take the meringue and hazelnuts out of the oven and leave to cool. Place the meringue on a nice rustic board or platter. Whip the cream with the sifted icing sugar and the vanilla seeds until it forms smooth, soft peaks. Smash the toasted hazelnuts (in a kitchen towel) and sprinkle half of them over the top of the meringue. Spoon half the whipped cream over the top and drizzle with some of the chocolate sauce (if the sauce has firmed up, melt it slightly by holding the saucepan over a large pan of boiling water). Divide most of the pear pieces evenly over the top. Pile over the rest of the whipped cream and pears. Drizzle with some more chocolate sauce, then sprinkle over the remaining toasted hazelnuts with some grated orange zest. Serve straightaway. If you're making this in advance, get everything ready and assemble at the last minute.

FANTASTIC ROASTED CHICKEN

Steps:

• Preheat the oven and an appropriately sized roasting tray to 425 degrees F. Wash your chicken inside and out and pat dry with kitchen paper. Using your fingers, part the breast skin from the breast meat. It's important to try to push your hand gently down the breast, being careful not to rip the skin. With a peeler, remove and chop the fragrant yellow skin of the lemon, keeping the peeled lemon to one side. Chop prosciutto and add to the bowl with the lemon skin, garlic and thyme. Season, with salt and pepper and then mix it all into the butter. Push this into the space you have made between the meat and the skin -- rub and massage any that's left over in and around the bird. It's all tasty stuff. I could tell you to tie the chicken up but I've decided it's a palaver and not worth it in this case. Slash the thigh meat to allow the heat to penetrate a little more, which makes it taste better. Cut the peeled lemon in half and push it into the cavity. Then put chicken in the hot roasting tray and roast in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
• While the chicken is cooking, parboil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes and drain. Cut the celeriac into irregular chunks around the same size as the potatoes. Remove the chicken from the oven, by which time the tasty butter will have melted, flavored and cooked out of the chicken into the bottom of the tray, awaiting your potatoes and celeriac. Normally I put a fork into the cavity of the chicken and lift it off of the tray for 20 seconds while I toss and coat the vegetables in the butter. Put the chicken back on top of the vegetables and cook for around 40 minutes. Leave to stand for 10 minutes. Once the meat and vegetables have been removed, a little light gravy can be made in the tray with a splash of wine and stock, a little simmering and scraping.

JAMIE OLIVER'S WORLD'S BEST BAKED ONIONS

Steps:

• Boil the onions in plenty of water for 15 minutes or until slightly tender.
• Remove the onions from the pan and allow to cool.
• With a sharp knife, remove the top inch of each onion, finely chop and place to one side.
• Slightly trim the stalk end of the onions so that the onions will sit flat on a roasting tray.
• Taking care to keep the outside of each onion intact, cut about a heaped tablespoon of onion out from the inside of each onion.
• Finely chop these removed sections of the onion and add to the rest of the chopped onion.
• Preheat the oven to 400°F.
• Heat a saute pan and add a little olive oil, the garlic, the chopped onions, and just a little of the chopped rosemary.
• Saute for a couple of minutes until the garlic and onion have softened, then turn the heat down, add the cream and remove the onions and garlic from the heat.
• Stir in the Parmesan and season.
• Wrap a slice of pancetta around the middle of each onion and spike it in place with a sharpened twig of rosemary or a wooden toothpick.
• Place the onions on a roasting tray and spoon some of the chopped onion mixture inside each one.
• Bake in the preheated oven for around 25 minutes until the onions are soft and tender.
• How long this takes is, of course, dependent on the size of the onions. "It's cool to experiment with different cheeses, so give it a bash," says Jamie.
• I presume he is suggesting topping the baked onions with cheese.
• When the onions are cooked right through, remove and serve.

JAMIE'S BAKED BRIE

Steps:

• Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Stir the shallot, garlic, white pepper, and vermouth together in a small bowl; set aside. Cut the rind off the top of the brie cheese, leaving a 1/4-inch lip around the edge. Place the brie cheese onto a baking sheet, and spoon the shallot mixture over top. Fold the phyllo sheets in half to make square pieces. Wrap the brie with the phyllo squares, tucking the edges underneath of the brie cheese. Trim the corners if needed to avoid tucking too much pastry underneath. You want complete enclosure, but without too much overlap. Brush the top with melted butter to make the pastry brown in the oven.
• Bake in the preheated oven until the phyllo has turned golden brown and the brie cheese is very soft, about 20 minutes. Serve warm.