Vanilla and thyme baked apricots recipe

Annie Rigg’s book is handy if you want to know how to cope with an unexpected glut of summer fruit. She has 120 recipes – roasted plum soufflé, pickled redcurrants – designed to use up orchard and stone fruits, berries and soft fruit, but she has also included fruit that will only be in glut form if you happen to be sitting in some tropical hideaway: loads of recipes for mango, pineapple, pomegranate, watermelon and banana. Vanilla and thyme baked apricots is a simple way to turn bland apricots into something delicious. Carolyn Hart

SERVES
3-4

INGREDIENTS

• 10-12 ripe apricots, washed and dried, halved and de-stoned
• 4 strips unwaxed lemon peel
• the juice of ½ a lemon
• 1 vanilla pod
• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 2-3 tbsp clear honey

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5. Arrange the apricots, cut-side up, in a single layer in a ceramic ovenproof dish.

Tuck the lemon peel in among the fruit and drizzle over the lemon juice. Slice the vanilla pod in half lengthways and nestle both halves and the thyme around the apricots. Drizzle over the honey and two tablespoons of cold water.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, basting the apricots halfway through cooking, until the fruit is soft but still holding its shape. Serve warm with cold double cream.

Buy the book:

Summer Berries & Autumn Fruits by Annie Rigg (Kyle Books, £19.99)