Autumn pudding with blackberries and bay

It is hard to describe just how intensely pure and fruity this variation on summer pudding is. It’s best made with sliced white bread, preferably slightly stale, and is as tasty on day three or four as it is on day one. You will need a 1.5-litre pudding bowl. Serves six to eight.

750g damsons or plums
125g caster sugar, plus extra to taste
Peel of 1 orange
1 vanilla pod, split in half
2 bay leaves
500g blackberries
250g raspberries
60g softened butter
About 12 slices of sliced white bread, ideally stale, crusts removed
Creme fraiche or thick cream, to serve

Stone the damsons or plums and cut into blackberry-sized chunks. Put the sugar, orange peel, vanilla pod, bay and 100ml water in a large, deep pan and bring to a boil. Add the damsons, turn down the heat and simmer gently for six to eight minutes, until the fruit is soft. Add the blackberries and raspberries, and taste the syrup: add a little more sugar if you think it could do with extra sweetness. Bring back up to a simmer and, as soon as a few of the berries have burst, take off the heat, discard the vanilla, bay and orange peel, and leave to cool.

Butter the pudding bowl and generously butter the bread slices. Line the bowl with two-thirds of the bread slices, laying them in butter side up. Tear a slice or two of bread into the required shapes to patch up any gaps, then pour the fruit into the bread-lined basin, gently pressing it down with a spoon. Top with the remaining slices of bread, trimming them as necessary, then cover tightly with clingfilm and put a saucer or small plate on top (ideally, one that fits neatly inside the bowl). Weigh down the plate and refrigerate the pudding overnight.

The next day, remove the weights and saucer. Run a thin blade all around the edge of the pudding, gently to loosen it from the sides, then put a large plate on top and flip it out. Serve with lots of sharp creme fraiche or rich, thick cream.

The good-looking dessert: Plum and salted almond ripple ice-cream

This is a really easy way to achieve a delicious “iced cream” without a machine or eggs. Its texture is almost identical to ice-cream and you save yourself a lot of fuss. Use regular snacking almonds in this, or forgo them altogether if you wish – we think they add a lovely crunch and their saltiness offsets the sweet plums beautifully.

Plum and salted almond ripple ice-cream. Photograph: Yuki Sugiura for The Guardian

Makes a small tub
300g roasted plums
1 litre double cream
1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk
200g roasted salted almonds, crushed
A squeeze of lemon juice

1 Put the plums in a sieve to strain out any excess juices (keeping any juices for a cocktail later).

2 In a large clean bowl with an electric whisk, whip the cream until you have soft peaks. Pour the condensed milk into a separate bowl and stir in 2 tbsp whipped cream (to lighten it) before folding it into the rest of the cream. Transfer to your freezer container and freeze. After an hour, remove this from the freezer and whisk up the mixture using a fork. Return it to the freezer, repeating this whisking after another hour.

3 Meanwhile, roughly chop the plums. Once the cream has thickened, scatter the chopped plums and almonds on top of the cream, then swirl the handle of the spoon through the mix – try not to over-mix as you want to achieve distinct ripples. Cover and return to the freezer until set (about another hour).