The Modern Cook’s Year. Anna Jones

tablespoon coconut oil

      FOR THE PUMPKIN AND MAPLE PRALINE

      50g pumpkin seeds

      a pinch of flaky sea salt

      1 tablespoon maple syrup

      FOR THE CHOCOLATE COATING

      3 tablespoons coconut oil

      2 tablespoons raw cacao or cocoa powder

      1 teaspoon maple syrup

      In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the pecans and cashews until you have a rough powder. Add the cacao, vanilla, sea salt and cinnamon. Pulse to mix evenly. Add the dates and coconut oil and blitz, scraping down the sides of the bowl here and there. The mixture should ball up, appear glossy and come together in your fingers; if it’s still a little powdery, add a teaspoon of water and blitz again until it comes together, but is not too sticky and wet.

      Scoop out the mixture in heaped teaspoon-sized bites and roughly roll into balls. Put on a tray lined with baking paper and chill in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. Make the praline by toasting the seeds in a frying pan until they start to pop, then add the salt and maple syrup and toss well. Allow to cook for 1 minute, then tip on to a plate. Once cool, roughly chop.

      Make the chocolate coating. In a small saucepan, combine all the ingredients and whisk over a low heat until it thickens slightly, taking care it doesn’t catch on the bottom. Set aside to cool. Dip the bites into the coating, turning with two forks to cover. Put on a baking tray, top with a little praline and leave to set. Store in the fridge until you’re ready to eat them – they will keep for a week or so.

      Chocolate and blood orange freezer cake

      This is a no-cook cake, raw in fact if you are into that kind of thing; I use the freezer to set the cake instead of the oven. These cakes are sometimes called ice-box cakes, which I think sounds quite magical. It’s the kind of dessert I like to eat in January.

      I use a raw cashew butter here, which I buy from the supermarket, though if I have time I make it at home, as the flavour is gentler than the toasted nut butters you can buy and it has notes of white chocolate. Any more subtly flavoured nut butter would work here.

      SERVES 6–8

      FOR THE CRUST

      25g cashew nuts

      coconut oil, for greasing

      120g pitted Medjool dates

      1 teaspoon vanilla extract

      1 tablespoon raw cacao or cocoa powder

      a generous pinch of flaky sea salt

      120g nut butter (I use a raw cashew butter, see note above)

      125g whole buckwheat

      FOR THE FILLING

      70g cashew nuts

      50g pitted Medjool dates

      a good pinch of salt

      450g ripe peeled bananas

      the seeds from 1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

      70g coconut oil, melted

      the zest and juice of 1 unwaxed blood orange

      3 passion fruits, cut in half

      TO FINISH

      3 blood oranges

      40g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

      First, soak both the cashews for the filling and for the crust in separate bowls of cold water for 3–4 hours if you have time, if not then soak them in warm water for 30 minutes. Grease the bottom of a 22cm loose-bottomed tart tin with coconut oil and put to one side.

      Next make the crust. In a food processor, blitz the 25g of soaked, drained cashews and the dates until they have broken down into tiny pieces and start to come together in a ball. Add the vanilla, cacao, salt and nut butter and blitz until combined. Then add the buckwheat and blitz until the buckwheat has broken down a bit and the crust dough comes together in your fingers when pinched. Put the crust mixture into the middle of the greased tin and use your fingers to push it out to the edges and up the sides of the tin, then put it into the freezer to set for at least 3 hours.

      Next make the filling. Put the soaked, drained cashews into a jug blender with the dates, salt, bananas and vanilla and blitz until completely smooth. Pour in the melted coconut oil, then add the orange zest and blitz again. Pour two-thirds into the chilled crust.

      Scrape the seeds from the passion fruits into a sieve resting over a bowl. Use the back of a spoon to push the juice through, add this to the remaining banana mixture in the blender and add the juice of the blood orange, then pour this layer over the banana one. Smooth everything over with a spatula and put the crust back in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up, though it can happily sit there for much longer.

      To finish, take the tart out of the freezer about an hour before you want to eat. Cut the peel off the blood oranges and slice the flesh into thin rounds. Break the chocolate into shards.

      Once the cake is thawed enough that the filling is beginning to soften, arrange the blood oranges and chocolate on top prettily and pat yourself on the back. Any leftovers can be stored in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.

Grapefruit and honey curd

      I feel sorry for grapefruit. I think it’s been pushed to the sidelines in favour of more its more approachable (clementines) or glamorous (blood orange) cousins. I love it – not just the pink ones, I love the straight-up yellow ones I ate as a kid. You could use either here. This curd is exactly what I want to spread on a piece of toast or to top a bowl of yoghurt year round, but, especially when it’s still dark, it sings of the sunshine where these sunny fruits were grown, and the ginger and honey add even more cheer.

      Making curd is not for anyone impatient, it’s a slow meditative stir that makes the best, smoothest curd. You’ll feel like it’s never going to thicken, but have faith, it will – it always does. If you get overexcited and turn the heat up too much it will become grainy. If it does, you can press it through a sieve to resurrect it, but the joy comes from the slow stirring. Any citrus can be swapped in for the grapefruit here, just adjust the level of honey a little depending on whether the fruits are sweeter or more acidic.

      MAKES A DECENT JARFUL

      250ml freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

      a small thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated

      75g unsalted butter, at room temperature

      60ml runny honey

      2 large organic egg yolks

      2 large organic eggs

      a good pinch of flaky sea salt

      the juice of ½ a lemon

      Put the grapefruit juice and ginger into a small saucepan, bring it to a simmer and leave it to reduce to about 150ml. Let it cool a bit, then strain through a sieve.

      Cream the butter in a medium heatproof mixing bowl. Add the honey and beat until fluffy and light. Add the egg yolks, and then the eggs, one at a time, beating well to incorporate each one before you add the next. Stir in the salt, then gradually add the reduced grapefruit and lemon juice.

      Rinse out the small saucepan you used earlier and fill it one-third full with water. Bring to a simmer and place your bowl of curd on top of it. Stir constantly and heat the curd slowly. This step usually takes me about 20 minutes. Pull the curd from the heat when it is just thick enough to coat your spoon; it will thicken as it cools.

      There’s no need to strain the curd, unless it has some lumps. And you can keep it refrigerated for up to 2 weeks, or up to a month in the freezer.