It can be hard to embrace the colder months. There's a biting chill that carves right through you and even woollen socks struggle to warm your toes. The sun shuts up shop at a ridiculously early hour and after dark, everything feels annoyingly damp.
The only thing that can beat that soggy, icy feeling is a warm dessert. Cobblers, strudels, puddings and pies. Tarts and hot fudge and pastries, oh my!
You know it's true. It's not called comfort food for nothing. A sweet ending to a meal brings cosy warmth to your woollen sock-clad toes. It fires up the happy hormones and life feels better with every spoonful.
It's best not to fight it. If we can't embrace the colder months, we can definitely embrace warmer desserts.
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Dunking warm, sugary sticks into thick, hot dark chocolate is surely the remedy for life itself?
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Dig into sweet, citrusy custard-like Balearic pudding and the night is suddenly toasty.
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This is a quirky take on a classic sticky date pudding. Portobello mushrooms are blended into the dates to create a richer pudding that's moister than the winter night air.
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Swap your dates for figs and prunes to really make sticky toffee sing. A garam masala hit further spices this pudding up for winter.
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Could there be a finer winter dessert than berry and rhubarb crumble? So easy, so complex, so everything.
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Okay, the only thing to rival the rhubarb crumble is this apple version. Serve it steaming hot out of the oven and with a bit of luck you'll burn your tongue. Strange comfort on a freezing night.
If a golden syrup pudding drowning in hot vanilla custard doesn't warm you from hands to heart, nothing will.
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Why wait for the evening chill when you could be eating warm apple and rhubarb pie in the AM? Get a jump on the cold!
This little chocolate self-saucing pud practically makes itself. Take it next level by adding a pinch of chilli into the mix.
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Technically you're supposed to serve strudel cooled, but please don't let that stop you from smashing into it straight out of the oven and floating it in a custard pond.
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Basically, all you need to know about this pear cobbler is that it has an extremely high pastry-to-filling ratio. Which is just the way we like it.
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These toffee apple fritters are served warm, but dunked quickly into iced water to set the caramel before eating. Which means you get a crunchy caramel outer and a cosy apple centre.
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Warm your cockles with a liberal sloshing of hot fudge sauce over espresso profiteroles. Ah, that's better.
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