Yes, it’s like summer pudding, just using autumnal fruit. There’s been a bumper crop of British plums this year, apparently — use them if you can.

Serves 6

200g purple plums, stoned and chopped

200g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and

 roughly chopped

250g blackberries

4 tbsp caster sugar

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

1 whole star anise

8-10 thin slices of white bread, preferably a day old, crusts removed (ready sliced is fine)

Put the plums, apples and blackberries in a saucepan. Add the sugar, cinnamon and 100ml water. Bring to a simmer, place the star anise on top, then cover and cook for 5-10 minutes until the apples have turned to pulp, the plums are soft and the whole lot is swimming in juice. Remove the star anise. Taste and add a bit more sugar if you want.

Strain off the juice into a shallow bowl. Cut the bread into enough rectangles and triangles to line the base and sides of a one-litre pudding basin. Keep a couple of bits to make a lid. One at a time, quickly dip both sides of each piece into the bowl of juice, so they are stained but not falling apart. Fit into the basin, overlapping the bread at the seams and leaving 1cm or so standing proud at the top. Dip the lid pieces, then keep back 50ml or so of the juice from the fruit. Tip the fruit and any remaining juices into the bread-lined mould. Cover the top with more dipped bread, then fold over the sides and press down to seal. Find a plate that fits into the top of the pudding basin and weight it down with a heavy tin. Allow to cool, then place in the fridge overnight.

To turn out, carefully run a palette knife around the outside and invert onto a serving plate. Pour over the extra juice, making sure you cover any bits that haven’t been stained a deep red. Serve in slices with lashings of cream.

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