Hot blackcurrant and apple charlottes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Peel, core and quarter the apples, then cut them into small, chunky pieces. Melt 25g of the butter in a wide-based pan, add the apples and sugar, then cook over a medium- high heat for 5 minutes until almost tender. There will be quite a lot of juice, but don’t worry about it. Stir in the blackcurrants and cook for 2 minutes more. Remove from the heat and leave to cool and thicken.
2. Meanwhile, cut the loaf of bread into 1cm-thick slices – you’ll need about 15 slices. Using a plain pastry cutter, cut 8 x 8.5cm discs of bread from 8 of the bread slices (the discs need to fit snugly inside the base of your ramekins – see step 4). Remove and discard the crusts from the remaining slices of bread, then cut them in half lengthways.
3. Put the remaining butter into a small pan over a low heat and leave to melt. Spoon off the white froth, then pour the clarified butter into a bowl and discard the milky-looking solids that will have collected in the bottom of the pan.
4. Brush one side of 4 discs of bread with the clarified butter and place, butter-side down, into the base of 4 large, deep ramekins (mine were 5.5cm deep, 9cm across and 250ml in capacity). Brush one side of each rectangle of bread with butter and use to line the sides of each dish, overlapping the ends by about 1cm (trim the ends if they’re longer). Press the pieces together well at the joins and trim off the top with a sharp knife if necessary.
5. Fill the lined ramekins to the top with the fruit mixture (you’ll have some left over), then cover with the remaining discs of bread, tucking the edges inside the upright slices so they make a seal. Brush the tops generously with the remaining clarified butter.
6. Put the dishes onto a baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes until the charlottes are crisp and richly golden. Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 5 minutes. Gently reheat the remaining fruit mixture.
7. Meanwhile make the lemon cream. Whip the double cream with the icing sugar and lemon zest into soft peaks.
8. Carefully turn the charlottes out onto plates and dust them with plenty of caster sugar. Serve hot with the leftover blackcurrant and apple mixture and the lemon cream.