using up: four plums and a wrinkly cooking apple

Peel and core the apple, and cut into chunks.  Set in an ovenproof dish.

Cut the plums in half, and remove the stones.  Set cut side down in a shallow pan, and add about 1/2″ of water, two star anise, and half a cinnamon stick, and some honey (how big a spoon is up to you – we don’t like things sweet, so it was probably a teaspoon or so for us). Poach for about 5 minutes.

Remove the plums and pile them on top of the apple.  Turn up the heat under the cooking liquor and boil ferociously until it reduces to a syrup, then remove the star anise and cinnamon and decant the liquid onto the fruit.

Bung 4oz each of ground almonds, butter and caster sugar, together with two eggs, into the food processor and blitz until combined. Spoon on to the fruit mix, and bake for 50 minutes to an hour at gas 4.  We didn’t have any cream, so we had to slum it with vanilla ice cream.  It still worked 🙂