Of Gregg Wallace and His Puddings

As you know, a family celebration in our house has to have two desserts; one sinful and the other heavenly - no dairy or sugar can grace the second plate and sometimes it is a bit of a challenge to think of ways to sweeten a pudding. Thankfully, the vegan issue is easily taken care of (it helps that eggs are still allowed) and I've enjoyed trying to cook with various oils and soya/rice/oat milk products.
Incidentally,if anyone knows of a really good vegan (and maybe even sugar free) plain sponge cake, I'd love to see the recipe.

This was my contribution to the latest W family gathering to go alongside the Crostata. A cherry cobbler with a coconut scone; a tasty and healthy pudding that we ate whilst pretending to be Greg Wallace, shovelling our food in to our mouths at silly angles. I got some photos of people imitating him - but they are less than flattering, clearly, Greg is the only person who can get away with it.
Someone should make a montage of him just eating for youtube.

How much did you laugh by the way, when in the last professionals series, Gregg enjoyed a pudding so much that he said 'Oh mate, I would literally dip my head in that'? Cue a thousand images of his head with whipped cream, rainbow sprinkles and a cherry on the top!



Cherry Cobbler with a Coconut Scone

Ingredients
For the cherry filling
480g bag frozen cherries
150ml water
1tsp cinnamon
zest and juice one orange
2tbsp Xylitol (or sugar if you must!)
For the scone
250g white spelt flour, plus more for rolling out
60g coconut oil
50g dessicated coconut
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
2tsp baking powder
pinch salt
handful flaked almonds to decorate

Method
Place all of the ingredients for the carry filling into a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to the boil.
Turn the heat down and stirring occasionally, simmer for a further 15 minutes until the sauce is just a little syrupy.
Pour into an oven dish and set aside while you make the scone.
Preheat the oven to gas mark 5.
Sift the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to this the dessicated coconut and stir briefly to combine.
If the coconut oil is solid, heat to a liquid before rubbing it into the flour and eventually bringing it all together to make a dough.
On a well floured surface, roll out the scone to 11/2 inches thick and cut out circles (or any other shape you like).
Cover your cherry filling with overlapping scone circles to cover the cherries. Leave some gaps so that the cherry mixture can bubble up through a little.
Scatter over a handful of flaked almonds and place in the centre of the oven for 25 - 30 minutes until the scone has become golden and is cooked through.