Chestnuts in Cognac & vanilla syrup

Recipe & Food styling: Mary Cadogan
Prop styling: Stuart Ovenden

Find the recipe here

Still life of Walnuts in French potting shed

Plum cobbler

I've been raiding the Christmas nut bowl again, like some kind of new year squirrel. The fridge rattles with "Class of Xmas '11" alumni - sprouts, cranberries, parsnips; the challenge is using them up and not letting anything go to waste. This cobbler went down a treat as part of our New Year's Eve supper; a few chopped dried figs would be great stirred into the fruit if you have any knocking around. Happy New Year you lot!

200g Self raising flour
150g Golden caster sugar
75g Unsalted butter
125ml Whole milk
About a dozen plums, cut in half and stoned
The zest of half a clementine
A good squeeze of honey
1/2Tsp Ground cinnamon
A handful of roughly chopped mixed nuts (I used brazil, hazel, almond and walnuts)

1 Heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Tip the plums into an ovenproof dish, then cover with with the honey, zest, cinnamon and 50g sugar. Give it all a quick stir, then pop in the oven.
2 In a large bowl, mix together the flour and the remaining 100g of the sugar. Grate in the butter, then use your fingertips to gently rub everything together into a fine, breadcrumb-like mix. Stir in the milk to form a thick, doughy batter.
3 Take the fruit out of the oven. Spoon large blobs of the cobbler mix on top, scatter with nuts and bake for 30-40 minutes (or until browned and a skewer comes out of the topping clean).

Spicy toffee nut pears

220g Granulated sugar

110ml Water

25g Butter

1/2tsp Cider vinegar

1/2tsp Cayenne pepper

1 Star anise

A handful of chopped mixed nuts

It's a good idea to use slightly under ripe pears. Heat the water in a pan, add sugar as it warms to dissolve. Stir in butter, vinegar, pepper and star anise and bring to the boil. You need to heat the toffee to hard-crack stage; this takes about 10 minutes, after which a small drop spooned into cold water will go rock hard and sink to the bottom. Stir in nuts, poke a stick into the top of each pear and coat in nutty toffee. Consume with youthful abandon.