Nigel discovers that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides, but that doesn’t really help when what he wants is a decent Pi r-squared recipe.

Using the formula Pi r-squared, reveals that the total area of the nine inch circular pie dish I’m going to use for my next recipe is the same an eight inch square pie dish. If that’s what you’ve got, it’s good to know.

I’m not really a dessert cook. I have a friend and neighbour who makes astonishingly good pies and cookies. She puts my efforts to shame. I never make cookies either, but I’ve tried to emulate her skill with pies.

My friend Tessa Bramley, who was England’s first Michelin starred lady chef, owner and executive chef at the fabulous Old Vicarage restaurant in the Derbyshire countryside and author of the useful little book Traditional Puddings has created more incredible desserts than I can imagine. I look to both these ladies for inspiration.

However, I do have a number of go-to desserts.

These include crème brûlée, peach crisp and rice pudding, all amazingly easy once you’ve got the hang of the recipe. Then there’s sherry trifle and tarte Tatin, a bit more of a palaver to put together. And finally, chocolate soufflé and Pavlova, which are difficult but worth the extra effort. You can find most of these on my blog. Just click on the link or go to the very good search engine (the little spy glass) at the top right-hand corner and enter the name and it will take you right there.

Some of these recipes date back to 2012, when this weekly post started, over 400 articles ago. Some of them even date back to 1974, when How to Eat Well and Stay Single was published. It sold the entire print run of 6,000 copies before the publisher went bust. Royalties there were none. Diane learned the same lesson with Epicure magazine in the 90s. Unfortunately, we hadn’t met at that time, so I couldn’t warn her that the way to make a small fortune in publishing was to start with a large fortune.

I will include them all one day in a book which I plan to call Just Desserts.

When I’m dining out, I always pick dishes that I’d like to make at home. If the chef won’t share their recipes, then I try to deconstruct the dish and guess at the proportions. Then it’s just a question of trying several times until I’m satisfied with the result. That’s the way it was with sticky toffee pudding which I described recently In a Secret Garden. I’d quite forgotten about this delicious treat, created in the 70s at a Lake District inn, and not centuries ago as people imagine. I’d never had it served as individual portions baked in a muffin tin. I thought it was such a good idea that I checked Gordon Ramsay for ingredients. I changed a few details. The first effort I thought too spongy, the guest victims thought the next version too dry and the final version was deemed perfect by most. But one guest asked for more toffee caramel sauce and another for more cream, so suspecting something wasn’t quite right, I had another go. I tried that version out on my grandchildren recently, and they gave me an honest endorsement, judging by the way their plates were scraped clean. Perhaps success was due to the fact that my five-year-old granddaughter helped with making the puddings. I’ve updated the recipe on the blog.

Today, I’ve begged recipes from my neighbour. Honestly, I’m a lousy pastry cook, so as her pie crust recipe doesn’t use any, I was immediately taken with it. About once a month her husband will show up at the door and bring me a generous slice. “Please eat this,” he says, “Or I’ll be forced to put on more weight!” Simply as a kindness to his waistline, I gladly comply.  She willingy came over to my kitchen to help and together we pulled off a great treat.

BUMBLE CRUMBLE PIE WITH HAZELNUT CRUST

• Servings: 4
• Print

Shopping list

Crust

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups ground hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 9 TBSP cold butter, cubed

Filling

• 5 cups mixed fresh blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and/or strawberries
• 3 TBSP cornstarch
• 1/3 cup white sugar

Preparation and cooking

1. In a large bowl, combine the flour, hazelnuts and sugar. Cut in butter. Mix well with fingers until crumbly. Set aside 3/4 cup of crumble for topping.
2. Press remaining mixture into the bottom and up the sides of an ungreased 9 in round pie dish (or an 8 in square dish).
3. Preheat the oven to 400°F / 205°C.
4. Press aluminum foil into the crust, poke some holes with a fork to let the steam escape and ‘blind’ bake for 15 mins. Remove and cool.
5. Place mixed berries in a large bowl, mix cornstarch and sugar, sprinkle over the mix and stir until well blended. Spoon into the cooled crust. Loosely scatter reserved crumble mixture on top.
6. Reduce the oven heat to 350°F / 175°C. Bake for 55-60 mins or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Remove and set aside to cool a bit on a rack before serving.

Until the new trade paperback revised edition titled Simpifood Too is available in the Fall, the complete compendium of all Nigel’s recipes from the past decade, Simplifood: Amazing food, simply prepared is available as an eBook well priced at 9.99 in any currency. Click on Amazon for Kindle devices, Barnes and Noble for Nook devices, Kobo for Kobo eReaders, and Lulu Publishing for any other formats, including Apple iPad.

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This is Nigel’s 415th blog on Gentleman’s Portion. The SEARCH function at the top works really well if you want to look back and see some of his previous stories, or check under CATEGORIES.