Recipes

Yotam Ottolenghi

Cooked slowly in the chicken juices, the butter beans are creamy and rich on the bottom and satisfyingly crispy on top. You can easily swap them with chickpeas or other legumes

Helen Goh

Box up these sweet treats for an edible Christmas gift to loved ones

Helen Goh

Box up these sweet treats for an edible Christmas gift to loved ones

Helen Goh

Box up these sweet treats for an edible Christmas gift to loved ones

Helen Goh

Box up these sweet treats for an edible Christmas gift to loved ones

Helen Goh

This beautiful cake for strawberry lovers is made using a standard creaming method, where butter and sugar are beaten together until light and creamy before adding eggs and flour

Helen Goh

The addition of chocolate and cocoa powder adds wonderful depth and complexity to this sweet, fruity Christmas pudding. Serve warm with custard or cream

Helen Goh

With apologies to traditionalists, I’ve reimagined the treasured Aussie biscuit the Iced Vovo with a light and crisp biscuit base, flavoured the soft chewy marshmallow and showered it with snowy desiccated coconut, then finished it with a drop of tart, sweet ruby redcurrant jelly for a colourful treat

Helen Goh

A no-churn semifreddo that comes together in about 10 minutes with some store-cupboard ingredients is a good thing at this time of the year. Once prepared and moulded, the semifreddo will sit happily in the freezer for about a week until ready to serve. Make the quick and delicious sauce on the day of serving

Helen Goh

This pavlova is easier to make than it looks – starting off as a flat-baked meringue, it’s filled with mascarpone cream and rolled up with a deliciously tart cranberry and pear compote. The compote can be made up to three days ahead and kept refrigerated, while the meringue can be made up to a day ahead, then covered with a tea towel at room temperature until ready to roll

Helen Goh

A lovely cake to have on the kitchen counter, to slice and eat with a cup of tea on the days after Christmas when something simpler is called for. Yuzu juice adds a beautiful fragrance and complements the grapefruit so well. The fresh juice is difficult to come by, but the bottled variety is available in large supermarkets and online, and tastes just as good in this cake

Helen Goh

Light in texture (all the better to absorb the delicious butterscotch sauce) and with a hint of spice, I love to bake these puddings in individual moulds so each person gets their very own. But if you prefer a less fussy, family-style presentation, bake the pudding in a large, buttered ovenproof dish (about 30cm x 20cm x 6cm) – just lower the temperature to 165C fan/gas mark 4½ and bake for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

Helen Goh

The crustless Basque cheesecake is given a festive twist here with a subtle orange flavour and a mulled wine cherry compote. The cherries are frozen, but bolstered by the more intensely flavoured dried variety and the mulled wine, it makes a delicious accompaniment to the creamy cheesecake. The cheesecake and the compote can both be prepared up to three days ahead and kept refrigerated

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A version of the retro classic arctic roll, this never fails to raise a smile. It combines a chocolate sponge with shop-bought vanilla ice-cream and candied chestnuts. Don’t be put off by the long method, it’s there to guide you for success. Prepare the ice-cream log a day before assembling.

Helen Goh

Here, I’ve infused the pudding with the warm spices of hot cross buns and paired it with an alcohol-spiked cream for an indulgent finish to an Easter feast. The ingredients list looks long, I know, but rest assured it is simple to make

Helen Goh

The apple filling should be made in advance (up to two days), giving it plenty of time to cool before being spooned over the base. Serve these bars on their own with tea, or warm with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream for a sweet finish to a feast

Helen Goh

Thanks to milk, cool coconut and a luxuriant glaze, these little green tea-laced cakes are a bit moister than your average madeleine

Helen Goh

When strawberries aren’t in season, chopped pineapple also works beautifully here. Once baked, the cake will keep, wrapped, for up to two days, but don’t top it with the coconut icing until just before you want to serve

Helen Goh

Fruit and floral flavours with marshmallowy meringue make for a sensational melt-in-the-mouth dessert

Helen Goh

These buttery oat shortcakes are crisp on the outside, tender within and just rustic enough to feel inviting. Filled with honey-roasted apricots and a fragrant almond cream, they make a fabulous pudding; berries macerated with sugar and a splash of orange juice or Cointreau would also be delicious

Helen Goh

You can make the jam up to five days in advance. Store, covered, in the fridge

Helen Goh

This is best served when barely warm, with vanilla ice-cream

Helen Goh

Here’s my version of Portuguese napkin cakes, with homemade blackberry and lime jam and a white chocolate cream. If you want to make it easier, fill the sponge napkins with a simple vanilla-whipped cream and store-bought jam of your choice

Helen Goh

Tamarind concentrate comes in different forms, from thick and dense to thin and watery. For this cake, choose a Thai liquid tamarind concentrate – it is milder, sweeter and smoother in texture than the Indian style, which tends to be strongly tangy, earthy and chunkier, and more suitable for curries and chutneys