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Ingredients For the Fruit
- 900g damsons
- 300g plums, halved and stoned
- 300g soft light-brown sugar
- 3 dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced
Ingredients for the sponge
- 200g butter
- 200g soft dark-brown sugar
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g self-raising flour, sifted
- 150g hazelnuts, roughly chopped (some just halved)
- chopped toasted hazelnuts and icing sugar, to serve
Preheat the oven to 180°C / gas mark 4.
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Directions
- Put the damsons in a pan with about 4 tbsp water. Heat until they start to exude their own juices then gently cook until the fruit is soft, stirring from time to time. Push the damsons through a sieve, pick out the stones then add the pulp from the sieve to the purée in the bowl. Put the damson mixture and the plums into a saucepan and add 250g of the sugar. Bring the mixture up to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer until the plums are tender. During this time the mixture will thicken as it reduces. Taste to see whether you need any more sugar – damsons are incredibly tart.
- Meanwhile, put the apples into a saucepan with the rest of the sugar and 4 tbsp water and cook gently until just tender. Leave all the fruit to cool completely.
- Put the plum and damson mix into a 2.5 litre pie dish, then spoon the apples on top. The fruit will mix together as you serve, but the sponge needs a firmish bed to lie on, hence the apple layer.
- To make the sponge beat the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Gradually add the egg, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Using a large metal spoon fold in the flour. Stir in the hazelnuts, then spoon the mixture over the fruit, gently spreading it out. Bake for 50 minutes. The top will start to get dark about halfway through, so cover with some foil. The sponge part is set when you insert a skewer and it comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for about 15 minutes – the fruit is very hot – then scatter with the extra hazelnuts and sift on a dusting of icing sugar.
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