Bakes and Brunch Classics

Raspberry Flatbread

Flatbread is one of the friendliest things you can bake, because it forgives almost everything. A raspberry flatbread can swing sweet or savoury depending on what you pair with the fruit, and that flexibility is the whole appeal.

Start with a simple yeasted dough: strong flour, a little olive oil, salt, water and a teaspoon of yeast. Knead until smooth, let it prove for an hour, then stretch it thin onto an oiled tray so it bakes crisp rather than bready. For the sweet version, dot fresh or frozen raspberries over the top, scatter a little sugar and finish with soft goat's cheese or a drizzle of honey once it comes out of a hot oven. For the savoury version, keep the sugar out, add crushed garlic and thyme to the dough, and let the raspberries play against something salty like feta or a shaving of hard cheese.

The trick is not to drown the base. Raspberries release a lot of juice, so a scattered handful gives you bright pockets of fruit without turning the crust soggy. Bake hot, around 220C, until the edges blister.

Strawberry and Date Malted Loaf

This one was baked for TwelveLoaves, a monthly baking group that ran through the early 2010s and set a seasonal ingredient or theme each month for bakers to riff on. A malted loaf fits that spirit nicely: old-fashioned, a little sticky, and better on day two.

Malt extract is the star. It gives the loaf its dark colour, its faint treacle sweetness and that dense, moist crumb you get in a classic British malt loaf. Warm the malt extract gently with a splash of tea so it loosens, then fold it through a batter of flour, a little brown sugar and raising agents. Chopped dates bring caramel depth and keep the loaf moist for days, while diced strawberries add tart little bursts that cut through all that sweetness.

Homemade Ricotta and Mascarpone

Making fresh cheese at home sounds like a stunt until you do it once, then it becomes a habit. Both ricotta and mascarpone are acid-set cheeses, which means you warm dairy and add an acid to make it curdle, no rennet or cultures required. They are two of the gentlest introductions to cheesemaking there are.

Ricotta

Heat whole milk (a splash of cream makes it richer) to just below the boil, around 90C. Stir in lemon juice or white vinegar and take it off the heat. Within a minute or two the milk separates into soft white curds and thin, watery whey. Ladle the curds into a muslin-lined sieve and let them drain: a short drain gives you a loose, spoonable ricotta for toast, a longer drain gives you something firm enough to slice.

Mascarpone

Mascarpone uses cream rather than milk, and a milder acid. Warm double cream to about 85C, stir in a little lemon juice, and hold it there for a few minutes until it thickens noticeably. Cool it, then drain it in muslin in the fridge overnight. The result is thick, silky and faintly sweet, ready for tiramisu or simply spread on a warm scone.

Save the whey from the ricotta. It is mild and slightly sweet, and it works well in bread doughs or a smoothie instead of going down the sink.

Cornmeal Waffles and Waffle Brownies

Two ideas from one iron. Cornmeal waffles are the sensible half of this pair, and waffle brownies are the mischief.

Cornmeal waffles

Swapping a portion of the flour for fine cornmeal gives waffles a golden colour, a nutty flavour and, most importantly, a proper crunch that plain batter never quite reaches. The cornmeal crisps hard against the hot plates. Keep the batter slightly loose, fold in whisked egg whites if you want them lighter, and serve savoury with a fried egg or sweet with maple syrup and berries.

Waffle brownies

Here is the fun bit: brownie batter cooked in a waffle iron. Mix a standard fudgy brownie batter, spoon it into a well-greased hot iron, and close the lid for a couple of minutes. You get brownies with crisp waffled ridges and a soft, molten middle, ready far faster than the oven. Watch them closely, since the sugar-heavy batter catches quickly, and let them firm up for a minute before lifting them out or they tear.

Huevos Rancheros with Roasted Tomato Salsa

The definitive Mexican brunch plate, and a lesson in how a few humble ingredients turn into something you plan a morning around. At its heart it is fried eggs on warm tortillas with a bold tomato salsa, but the roasting is what lifts it.

Roast tomatoes, a couple of chillies, half an onion and unpeeled garlic cloves under a hot grill until charred and blistered. Blitz them into a smoky, loose salsa and season with lime and salt. Warm your corn tortillas, spread over some soft refried beans, top each with a fried egg and spoon the warm salsa around the whites so the yolk stays proud.

It is filling, it is bright, and it handles a runny yolk and a good hangover with equal grace.

Crab Poutine with Oka Cheese

A luxe take on Quebec's most famous export, made for the 5 Star Makeover group, where cooks reworked a chosen dish or theme into something more ambitious each month. Poutine is the perfect candidate: chips, cheese curds and gravy is comfort food at its most honest, so dressing it up is pure indulgence.

This version keeps the crisp chips but swaps the usual curds for Oka, a washed-rind cheese from the Quebec village of the same name that melts into something nutty and gently pungent. Instead of a heavy beef gravy, you make a light, creamy sauce and fold through sweet white crab meat. Spoon it over hot, twice-cooked chips so they stay crunch under the sauce, and add the Oka in cubes so it half-melts into warm, stretchy pockets.

Balance is everything with a dish this rich. A squeeze of lemon and a scatter of chives cuts through the cream and lets the crab come forward. Serve it the moment it is assembled, before the chips soften.

Tomato, Basil and Roasted Garlic Bread

This loaf came from the Secret Recipe Club, known as SRC, a blogging swap that ran for years: each month you were secretly assigned another blog and cooked something from it, then everyone revealed their picks on the same day. It made for a lovely web of borrowed recipes, and a savoury bread like this was a generous thing to pass along.

Roasting the garlic first is non-negotiable. Raw garlic in a dough turns harsh and hot, but a whole head roasted until soft and golden goes sweet, mellow and spreadable. Squeeze the soft cloves straight into the dough. Fold in chopped sun-dried or oven-roasted tomatoes for concentrated bursts of savoury sweetness, and add plenty of fresh basil near the end of kneading so it keeps its perfume.

Prove, shape into a round or a tin loaf, and bake until it sounds hollow when tapped underneath. The kitchen will smell like a good Italian bakery. It makes exceptional toast, and better still it turns any brunch spread into something worth sitting down for.

Slow-Cooker Chunky Applesauce

Few things reward so little effort so well. Applesauce made in a slow cooker asks you to chop apples, add a little spice, and then walk away for a few hours while the house fills with the smell of autumn.

Use a mix of apples: some sweet, some sharp, so the finished sauce has depth rather than one flat note. Peel and roughly chop them, tip them into the slow cooker with a cinnamon stick, a strip of lemon peel and a small splash of water. Cook on low for four to six hours until the apples collapse.

• Leave it as it is for a chunky, rustic sauce.
• Give it a quick mash for something in between.
• Blitz it smooth if you prefer, though the chunks are the charm here.

Sweeten only at the end, and only if it needs it, since ripe apples often carry enough of their own sugar. It keeps for a week in the fridge, freezes well, and is as good spooned over morning porridge as it is alongside a roast.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke and Walnut Salad with Ricotta

Jerusalem artichokes are one of those knobbly winter vegetables that put people off at the till and then win them over completely at the table. They are not related to globe artichokes at all; they are the tuber of a sunflower, with a sweet, faintly smoky, nutty flavour that roasting brings right out.

Scrub them well (peeling is optional and honestly a faff given their shape), halve any large ones, and roast in olive oil with salt until the edges caramelise and the insides turn creamy. Toss the warm tubers with toasted walnuts for crunch, peppery leaves such as rocket or watercress, and spoonfuls of soft ricotta, which is where a batch of the homemade cheese above earns its keep. A dressing of good oil, lemon and a touch of honey ties it together.

It is warm, earthy and a little bit special, and it sits comfortably as a light lunch or a side to something roasted.

Beet and Blue Grilled-Cheese Bites

A small plate built on one very good pairing: earthy, sweet beetroot against salty, funky blue cheese. Those two flavours are made for each other, and folding them into a crisp little grilled cheese turns them into the kind of thing that vanishes off a board in minutes.

Roast or use cooked beetroot, sliced thin or grated. Layer it with a crumbly blue cheese between good bread, cut small so each bite is a two-mouthful morsel. Butter the outsides generously and griddle over a medium heat until the bread is deep golden and the blue cheese has gone soft and molten. Cut the sandwiches into fingers or squares while hot.

The beetroot stains everything a glorious pink, which is half the fun. A little honey or a few thyme leaves inside sharpens the whole thing up, and a green salad on the side keeps them from feeling too rich. They make a brilliant snack for a lazy brunch grazing table.