Baked summer fruit parcels

By Antony Worrall Thompson

Heating fruit brings out its natural aromas and sweetness. Too often, many of our British shop-bought fruits are picked underripe and are pretty tasteless; this recipe addresses that problem and makes for a delicious pudding.
Baked fruit parcel. Phographed by Georgia Glynn Smith for <i>The Essential Low Fat Cookbook</i> by Antony Worrall ThompsonBaked fruit parcel. Phographed by Georgia Glynn Smith for The Essential Low Fat Cookbook by Antony Worrall Thompson

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 375ml orange Muscat dessert wine
  • 2 tablespoons runny honey
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
  • 1 vanilla pod, split and scraped to remove seeds (don’t discard!)
  • 4 thick slices of orange, seeds, peel and pith removed
  • 115g raspberries
  • 55g blueberries
  • 1 peach, cut into 4 wedges, stone removed
  • 1 nectarine, cut into 4 wedges, stone removed
  • 55g blackcurrants, stems removed
  • 4 dried apricots, diced

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

Put the wine, honey, bay leaf, orange zest and juice and vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan and heat until simmering, then turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 15 minutes.

Combine all the fruits in a bowl. Cut out four pieces of parchment paper, roughly 30 x 30cm. Wet one of the pieces and place in a small bowl, leaving enough overlapping to create a parcel.

Spoon a quarter of the fruit mixture into the parchment paper, making sure that some of each fruit is included. Cut the vanilla pod into four and place one piece in the parcel with the fruit. Pour in a quarter of the infused liquid. Gather in the overhanging parchment paper, creating a money purse, and tie tightly with string. Set aside and repeat with the other three parcels.

Arrange the parcels on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes.

Serve the parcels hot so that your fellow diners can unwrap their own, releasing a beautiful perfume.

Tip: You can play around with the fruit. In autumn, orchard fruits would work well, but allow a slightly longer cooking time in order to soften the apples and pears. If serving this pudding to children, replace the wine with orange or apple juice.

Per serving:  179 cals, 0.2g fat, 0g saturates, 27.2g sugar, 3.2g fibre, 0.1g salt, 0.1g fat per 100g.

The Essential Low Fat Cookbook by Antony Worrall Thompson with Juliette Kellow BSc RD (Kyle Books, £20) Photography by: Georgia Glynn Smith. Buy this book at a discount from Saga Books .

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