Fruit Brulée

What do you do when you have a houseful of hungry men, and no time to make a proper pudding?  Why, a fruit Brulée....  Nearly instant, this delicious fresh fruit mixture topped with caramel, toasted almonds and cream is always an absolute hit.  My sister (the one who actually did a proper cookery course!) used to make this when she was working for Justin de Blank at GTC years ago, and the recipe has been very useful ever since.  This recipe is infinitely variable, but always involves fresh fruit, three different varieties, in different colours.   In the winter I tend to use pineapple, grapes and melon (in this case banana), and in the summer it looks fabulous with strawberries and raspberries.

 Fruit Brulée

Fruit Brulée

Choose 3 from:

1 pineapple

1 melon

bunch of grapes

3 bananas

2 oranges peeled and cut into chunks

raspberries/strawberries

2 nectarines

1oz/25g  toasted almonds

½ pint double cream (scale up as necessary)

small dollop of milk

3oz/35g caster sugar

2tbsps water

Chop the fruit into attractive sized pieces, heap in a serving dish so the fruits are nicely mixed.  Whip the cream and milk until it is nearly stiff, but not quite.  Arrange in large spoonfuls on top of the fruit, adding the toasted almonds.   Boil the sugar and water together until it forms a caramel, watching it until you just catch a whiff of that lovely caramel smell before it burns.   Pour over the top of the cream and nuts, and make sure it goes down into the fruit as well.  It will bubble and form a solid layer. 

Leave until the caramel has cooled. It is now ready to eat, and is best not put into a fridge.    This is not a pudding that can be made long in advance as the caramel will melt again.   If you are in a tearing hurry, you can make the caramel while you are cutting up the fruit and whipping the cream!   

This serves 6 or so.