There is nothing nicer than a good old apple tart – plenty of apples around this time of year and as per usual this is a very simple recipe with a minimum of ingredients but with a great result!

The main difference between apples in France and in Ireland and the UK is that cooking apples don’t exist – eating apples are used which I prefer anyway as you don’t need to add any (or very little) sugar that way.

Ingredients :

• 1 short-cut pastry
• 4-6 eating apples
• Vanilla Sugar
• Butter

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Chop 2 apples into small cubes and place in a saucepan with approximately 2 tablespoons of water
3. Leave to simmer until the apple softens and then mash or use a hand mixer to make a compote
4. Roll out pastry into your tart tin and prick the base with a fork
5. Spread the compote onto the tart base
6. Peel, core and cut your apples into quarters and then slice each quarter3 or 4 times
7. Place the apple slices on the compote, arranging them around in a circle – or anyway you like!
8. Sprinkle some vanilla sugar over the apples and add 3 or 4 small knobs of butter
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes
10. Enjoy on its own or with some freshly whipped cream or ice-cream

The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english.  I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry (pate brisée)
• 1 litre of milk
• 3 eggs
• 160g sugar
• 100g cornflour
• 2 sachets vanilla sugar
• 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla pod

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Roll out your pastry and press it into your tin , prick the base with a fork and place in the fridge while preparing the flan mixture
3. Beat the eggs with the cornflour, the vanilla extract and 125ml of milk (taken from the 1 litre of milk in the recipe) together in a large bowl using an electric mixer
4. Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan with the vanilla sugar, the sugar, the vanilla pod (cut the pod down the middle and scrape out the seeds, put the seeds and the empty pod halves into the milk).
5. Bring to the boil
6. Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture beating all the time with your electric whisk
7. Pour everything back into the saucepan, place on a low heat and stir continuously with a wooden spoon
8. Allow it to simmer for a few seconds so that the mixture will have thickened slightly
9. Pour the mixture into your pastry base (remember to remove the vanilla pod halves at this point) and bake in the oven for 40 minutes at 180°C
10. Allow to cool completely before cutting and store in the fridge

Yes you’ve guessed it right – a delicious, rich, chocolate-y chocolate cake. Perfect for dessert served with a crème anglaise or some ice-cream or even as a particularly yummy gouter (afternoon snack). This is my three kids favourite cake and it takes only 5 minutes to prepare and 13 minutes to cook!

Ingredients :

• 200g good dark chocolate (I use 70%)
• 100g butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 50g flour

Method :

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bain marie*
3. Beat the eggs with the sugar until it is light and fluffy
4. Add the melted chocolate and butter to the mixture
5. Add the flour
6. Grease a round tin and cook for 13-15 minutes at 200°C (I prefer nice and gooey in the middle so 13 minutes is enough, 15 mins is perfect if you want it cooked through but not dry)