I stumbled across this recipe on the web somewhere as I was looking at a large punnet of nectarines that needed using. Perfect. It’s very substantial, bread and butter pudding like at the bottom, fruity in the middle, with a creamy top layer that’s slightly crispy on top. I used nectarines but it would work with almost any type of fruit — plums, apricots, peaches, maybe apples or pears too.
800 g – 1 kg fruit of your choice
4-5 slices of brioche
50g ground almonds
75 g soft brown sugar, or demerara
1 tsp vanilla extract
50 g caster sugar
40 g melted butter
200 ml cream
3 eggs
Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter a large gratin dish and lay the slices of brioche in the bottom. Stone and halve or quarter the fruit, depending on size (if using peaches you might want to peel them). Arrange on top of the brioche, packing tightly. Mix together the brown sugar and ground almonds and sprinkle over the top. Now whisk together all the other ingredients and pour over the top.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, till the top is golden and bubbling. You can serve it with pouring cream if you want.