RECIPE / RALPH SCHELLING

Baked plum with orange and mascarpone ginger crunch

Our favourite Swiss chef and recipe writer shares a plum recipe (literally) for those looking to indulge this weekend. You can keep the dish seasonal by replacing the eight plums with half the amount of apples or pears, depending on what’s fresh and available.

• Ingredients
• 8 plums
• Juice of 3 oranges
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 star anise
• 1 vanilla pod (seeds removed)
• ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
• 100g ginger biscuits
• 180g mascarpone

• Method
• 1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Halve the plums (and remove pits). Put them in a pan with orange juice, cinnamon, star anise, vanilla and cardamom. Cover and bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. Turn the plums in the liquid and bake for another 25 minutes until the pulp is soft and the skin shrivels.
• 2. Crumble the biscuits by hand, or for more fun place them in a plastic bag and thump them repeatedly with a rolling pin until they form large, uneven crumbs. Mix biscuit with the mascarpone.
• 3. Arrange plums on plates and serve with the spiced orange juice and the ginger mascarpone crunch.