Cinnamon ice cream

300ml milk
300ml double cream
four egg yolks
120g caster sugar
1tsp cornflour
2tsp ground cinnamon
1tsp vanilla bean paste
1 cinnamon stick

1. Heat the milk and cream together in a saucepan until hot but not boiling (small bubbles should be forming at the edge of the pan).
2. Meanwhile, beat the egg yolks with the caster sugar, cornflour, cinnamon and vanilla bean paste in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. 
3. Carefully pour the milk and cream mixture over the eggs, whisking all the while, until they are incorporated. Pour this mixture back into the pan, add the cinnamon stick, set the pan back on a medium heat and cook for a few minutes, gently stirring, until the mixture has thickened slightly. 
4. Pour the custard mixture back into the mixing bowl, cover and leave to cool. Resist the urge to eat it at this point and chill in the fridge overnight.
5. Remove the cinnamon stick, then churn in your ice cream maker for about 25 minutes. Transfer to the freezer until you're ready to serve.

This is lovely with... Apple Tarte Tatin

You need a heavy, oven-proof frying pan for this. No plastic handles and none of your flimsy rubbish from Ikea. Something lovely from Le Creuset would be ideal. If yours is small (20-24cm) you might need only six apples. Ours is 28cm, so you get a bigger tarte. Result.

8 apples (coxes are nice for this but whatever you've got)

100g caster sugar

50ml amaretto

50g butter

Pinch of sea salt

500g block puff pastry (thawed if frozen)

1. Peel, halve and core your apples. There's no need to beggar about with lemon juice to stop them oxidising as you're about to turn them brown with caramel.

2. In your frying pan, heat the sugar with the amaretto over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Cook for a few minutes until it turns golden and caramelly. 

3. Take the pan off the heat and add the butter and salt. Stir gently to incorporate the butter as it melts.

4. Arrange the apples in a lovely pattern, cut side up (so they'll be round side up when you turn it out). If you're like me, you'll practice this before you start making the caramel so you can achieve an optimal apple arrangement.

5. Leave the pan to cool; you can then put it in the fridge overnight. 

6. When you're ready to cook your tarte, preheat your oven to 200C (180 fan assisted). Roll out your pastry on a well-floured work surface to about the size of your frying pan. Carefully lift the pastry onto your pan and tuck the edges in around your apples. Bake for 30 minutes.

7. Using your oven gloves (don't make the same mistake I did), remove the tarte from the oven. Very carefully, turn it out onto your serving dish (perhaps something lovely with a stem). Boiling hot caramel is liable to fly everywhere at this point, so wear oven gloves on both hands, long sleeved garments and possibly protective goggles. Do not do it in front of dinner guests. Leave it half an hour or so before eating to allow the caramel to return to an appropriate temperature.

If you'd like to make this the day before, add the pastry to the cooled apples and chill in the fridge overnight. The puff will be better if you put chilled pastry straight in the over.